I mention Sills in this context as Elina Garanca cites her in the booklet interview as the singer who most inspired her. Of course Garanca’s velvet mezzo is nothing like Sills’s sometimes silvery, sometimes quavery soprano, and her embellishments are never quite as extravagant as Sills’s could become. The selection of arias by Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini is refreshingly unhackneyed. Garanca begins with the best-known item, the Brindisi from the last act of Lucrezia Borgia, and if her voice is a little soft-grained for the reckless Maffio Orsini, she sings the song well. Strangely she sounds more masculine as Donizetti’s Queen Elizabeth I in the entrance aria from Maria Stuarda. The gentle songs from Adelson e Salvini and Dom Sébastien make a nice contrast with the fireworks of “Di tanti palpiti” from Tancredi. Garanca is joined by Ekaterina Siurina in the spectacular duet from L’assedio di Calais – it’s worth hearing the disc just for this – and they are aided here by Matthew Polenzani as well as in the trio from Maometto Secondo. Roberto Abbado and the Bologna orchestra provide the always sympathetic accompaniment (several of the items are performed “from the original manuscript”). What of that long bel canto line? It is never allowed to overwhelm the dramatic situation of each scene but Garanca seems to find no difficulty in any of this music.