The self-conscious 1970s and ’80s, afraid of excess or sentiment, were no golden age for performances of Leoncavallo’s deceptively rich little gem. This new/old release’s greatest calling card is its capture of a “live” Canio from a mature Domingo, necessary and worthwhile but hopefully not shutting the door to a release of his last Covent Garden assumption under Pappano. Domingo is everywhere stylish, never crude (no huge sobs put on with his motley), and never hysterical – even when confronting the similarly well mannered adultery of Cotrubas’s Nedda. If this voice does it for you, don’t hesitate; the support is utterly assured, and well recorded.

The “but” you’ve seen coming is that none of these performances comes off the blocks with the life-or-death fire of the great pre-war Bellezza Metropolitan opera set (Walhall) with its harrowing war between Lawrence Tibbett’s Tonio and Giovanni Martinelli’s Canio. In this Viennese performance the opera is recited and quoted, rarely acted or lived. The late and much-loved Manuguerra never digs into the dirtier corners of his character, while this Nedda sounds like she’s in totally the wrong social stratum; her beau, Schöne, is unseductively heavy and Germanic. Fischer conducts with attention to the score’s tricky little rhythmic corners and concern that nothing becomes too emotional. For a decently recorded modern recording with style and balls, hunt down the elusive Chailly (Decca, A/00 – nla).