It is often said of the UK that her composers have to die before achieving their due attention but it is not purely a British problem. Xavier Montsalvatge died aged 90 in May 2002 with only a smattering of recordings of his works available on CD, since when Columna Música’s fine series of recordings have steadily been issued. Those wondering why his elegantly composed and witty output took so long to reach the wider, disc-collecting public will find few answers here in this charming work, well-produced.

El gato con Botas (‘Puss in Boots’) was Montsalvatge’s first opera, completed in 1947 and premièred in Barcelona the following January at the Teatre del Liceu, whose company are responsible for this first recording. The plot is the familiar children’s story of the wily cat who, in return for a hat, a bone sword and a pair of boots, secures for its otherwise hapless master wealth, a royal marriage and a realm to govern.

Antonio Comas is suitably mournful and bewildered as the Miller, increasingly anxious at the Cat’s scheming, as if expecting the house of cards to come crashing to the ground any moment. But of course it never does and from the outset Marisa Martins’ Cat (who in places sounds familiar with both Rossini’s famous Duet and Canteloube’s Auvergne Bailero) sounds as though she could charm whole flocks of birds down from the trees, so money, a princess and tricking a slow-witted ogre out of a castle – a nice turn from Estefano Palatchi – are child’s play! The music is light and charming, formally almost a pastiche on late 18th- and early 19th-century opera, with arias, recitatives and a Spanish dance for good measure.

Antoni Ros Marbà conducts with panache and Barcelona’s well-drilled Grand Theatre Symphony Orchestra accompany as if they had been playing this music all their lives. Recorded in the Liceu, the sound is warm and spacious. All in all, a joy to hear.