Die Besessenen (‘The Possessed’) is based on a 1930s novel by Witold Gombrowicz whose bizarre and lurid plot suggests affiliations with the decadent surrealism found in operas by Schreker and Berg. Johannes Kalitzke’s fourth opera dates from 200809 and is stylistically closer to post-war German mainstream than to extravagant experimentalism.

Born in 1959, Kalitzke is an experienced, expert composer-conductor; he also has the benefit of a well-made libretto by Christoph Klimke. The music veers between bold, brash vitality and broader, quieter lyricism, a quality the composer describes as ‘driven by unrestrained restlessness but interrupted by a looming emptiness’. The fact that the music also ‘plays with generic clichés’ fits with the drama’s emphasis on extravagance and fantasy. It’s as if the characters know that this is opera, not real life; nor is it the first post-1900 stage work to compensate for unappealing personalities and improbable situations with a coherent yet well-varied sonic landscape.

The performance on the first night at the Theater an der Wien goes with a suitably hectic swing and the recording captures the full weight of the brightly edged instrumental sound without overwhelming the characterful team of singers. The booklet includes enough photographs of the production to give a reasonable flavour of the work’s dramatic environment. But the decision to keep the German text separate from the French and English translations sets up barriers to effort-free comprehension. More tracks – there are just four – and a clearer indication of when passages of text overlap or are repeated would also have been a good idea.