The trend towards casting Berlioz with lighter voices, often with singers more seasoned in chronologically earlier repertoire, takes a fruitful if limited turn as Baroque-repertoire soprano Lisa Larsson steps into music associated with Dame Janet Baker and Jessye Norman. Next to them, Larsson’s personality and strength of conception stand up to any comparsion – as long as listeners can shift some fundamental ideas about the sound and nature of these characters.

Far from the wounded goddess that would eventually lead to Dido in Les Troyens, Larsson’s characterisations of these early-period works have a more fragile humanity, with pockets of psychological detail missed by others, often conveyed with a confiding intimacy that might only be possible in the recording studio. Even the studio setting, though, doesn’t protect her from being covered by the orchestra, particularly in sections of La mort de Cléopâtre that lie in the weaker, lower areas of her voice. In moments when her voice starts to show its mileage, the two different voices used for Herminie and Cléopâtre (Michèle Lagrange and Béatrice Uria-Monzon) on the Naxos disc ‘Berlioz Cantatas’ seem preferable.

Then the Larsson disc re insinuates itself. Of all the spacious SACD productions that have come out of Challenge Classics, none I’ve heard is this luminous. Antonello Manacorda never overshadows Larsson heedlessly, but with interpretative purpose. His orchestra may not be ready to record Symphonie fantastique but his advocacy of these works makes them sound like major Berlioz (as opposed to dry runs for later, better works). In fact, his treatment of the Cléopâtre orchestral writing makes the piece sound downright dangerous. Another drawing card is La captive, Berlioz’s Op 12 song from which the disc takes its title, with Larsson making the somewhat discursive Victor Hugo verse sound more cogent, with special sensitivity to the nocturnal imagery. Flaws and all, this is a fine addition to the Berlioz discography.