Expansion of the recorded Viennese operetta repertory in recent years has generally been of the early 20th-century operettas of Lehár and Kálmán. Here, by comparison, is a first recording of a work in 19th-century comic opera form by one of the masters of that earlier era. First produced less than two years after Fledermaus, it is heard here in a recording from the 2006 Bad Ischl festival with a fidelity to the original score not always found in revivals of 19th-century Viennese operettas.

Where Strauss favoured the waltz, Suppé was influenced more by Italian lyricism and French sparkle, topped off with the ebullience and dash that are so familiar from his overtures. The Fatinitza overture itself is a concert work that is not to be found heading this recording; but its wonderfully racy themes, along with those of the rumbustious Fatinitza march, crop up at frequent intervals throughout.

With a libretto by Zell and Genée, the leading Viennese librettists of the time, Fatinitza was one of Suppé’s major successes, and the John Lewis Music Society produced it in English in London as recently as 1986. The setting is Odessa during the Crimean War, the hero a young Russian cadet, Wladimir. Happening to dress up as a young lady (“Fatinitza”), he finds himself wooed by a Russian general, with whose niece Lydia he is also in love. When Lydia appears in the camp, the Turks invade and carry off the two “girls” to the harem of the Turkish governor. This prompts Suppé to some engaging Turkish touches in Act 2.

Wladimir/Fatinitza is a breeches role, and female voices predominate. Stephanie Houtzeel and Zora Antonic make much of their Act 2 duet, whose love theme has distinct pre-echoes of Strauss’s Zigeunerbaron. A performance cast for home listening might have offered a General Kantschukoff sounding more of a fire-eater than Steven Scheschareg, and in the absence of libretto and translation a more detailed synopsis would have been helpful. This is, though, a splendid performance of a wonderfully robust and tuneful score, and CPO’s initiative in capturing it is greatly to be commended.