Mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova’s recital of a dozen famous dramatic arias and one bloody obscurity gives full range to the Belarusian’s powerful voice and sultry temperament. Her voice can thicken with its inherent richness and she tends to swallow non-Slavic syllables; but when it becomes more focused it can be special, even if it lacks the last ounce of passionate urgency. With a superb sense of pace, Volkova rolls out each aria so perfectly, with the flexible conducting support of Constantine Orbelian, that when she hits that aria’s sweet spot her voice is at its relaxed best, as in a luxurious, expansive Seguidilla or in ‘Voi lo sapete’, where she sounds in particularly splendid voice.

Volkova may shine best with the shimmering beauty of ‘Remember how we once plucked marigolds in the meadows’ from Dmitry Smolski’s The Grey Legend, in which the peasant Irina begs her noble lover Raman to impregnate her with a son so that his line won’t die out. The opera, composed in 1978 and first staged in 2012 to celebrate the composer’s 75th birthday, ends with Irina blinded and Raman’s hands chopped off, martyrs in the eternal fight against tyranny, and yet singing nonetheless.

Volkova is supported throughout by the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra with sensitivity and beautiful playing, including a very cool clarinettist in ‘Pleurez! pleurez mes yeux’ and exquisite woodwind wisps in ‘Printemps qui commence’. The otherwise excellent sound unfortunately allows the orchestra to cover Volkova’s final high note in ‘O ma lyre immortelle’ as she hurls herself into the sea.