The sheer orchestral seductiveness – or (according to taste) wearying-ness – of Korngold’s opera must be hard to match on stage. To go with this orgy of post-Straussian/Mahlerian sound might be de trop – but wherein lies a remedy? Kasper Holten’s 2010 production for Finnish National Opera – why the delay in release date? – is fairly ‘straight’ apart from the omnipresence of an actress playing Marie (the ‘hero’ Paul’s dead beloved). Es Devlin’s perspective set stays with Paul’s room, a living tomb to Marie’s memory, and is backed by an aerial overview of Bruges (the ‘dead city’ of the title) which appears, logically, to approach or recede according to Paul’s mental state. That said, the ground production is pretty much stand-and-deliver; even Marietta’s Pierrot interlude in Act 2 (officially ‘outside’) stays on the room’s centrally placed bed.

As recorded and balanced at least there is no audible sign that this not-so-mini Tristan of a role is too heavy for Klaus Florian Vogt’s tenor, while Camilla Nylund’s Marietta/Marie – greeted with surprisingly moderate rapture at the curtain call – is in dream form, untiring, concentrated, rapturous of tone. A huge achievement. The orchestra encompass this far from easy (and, surely, unfamiliar) score with great panache for their chief. Occasionally I would have liked to have heard more of them – the balance is very stage-favoured, deliberate but frustrating. There are three DVD rivals of which the Inga Levant production (Strasbourg, ArtHaus Musik) takes the most risks with the opera’s narrative flow. This new release is undoubtedly a musical triumph.