Born in St Petersburg to Swedish parents in 1840, Ingeborg Lena Starck studied piano and composition, completing her studies with Franz Liszt, no less, in Weimar, where she met pianist-composer Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff, whom she married in 1861. Her husband became general manager of the Royal Theatre in Hanover; but although this stemmed Ingeborg’s concert appearances, her compositional activities continued, including a piano concerto and many songs. She composed four operas, of which the Singspiel Jery und Bätely was the second (1873).

It sets a libretto by Goethe, a bucolic farce about a Swiss milkmaid and an eligible bachelor (and cheesemaker), a plot set by some 27 composers between 1780 and 1909. The 19th century wasn’t an auspicious time for female composers to be taken seriously as opera composers and Bronsart’s own husband threatened her with divorce over her attempts to have Jery und Bätely staged.

Bronsart’s score has echoes of early Weber or Mendelssohn – unsurprising given that the Singspiel form was already old hat by the early 19th century. The single act is split into 24 scenes with 15 musical numbers, none of them especially memorable. This Naxos disc features the forces of Malmö Opera under Dario Salvi, who play the score tidily. Light soprano Caroline Bruker is an attractive Bätely but Dutch tenor Harrie van der Plas is an undistinguished Jery, strained at the top of his range. Laurence Kalaidjian sings a robust Thomas, soldier friend of Jery.

The miserly Naxos booklet only offers a brief synopsis of the opera. For an eight-page libretto you need to head to their website, where you’ll discover that it’s in German only. You get the feeling Naxos isn’t exactly breaking much sweat persuading audiences to invest in exploring Bronsart’s music, but given the opera is pretty thin gruel, I can’t say I blame them.