Vivaldi composed Catone in Utica, to a libretto by Metastasio, for Verona in 1737. It seems, at least according to his own report, to have been one of the most successful of his operas. Unfortunately only Acts 2 and 3 survive. For this recording Frédéric Delaméa, with Jean-Claude Malgoire, has assembled an Act 1, using the existing libretto and setting it to arias carefully selected from other Vivaldi operas of around the same time; in some cases Delaméa thinks these may in fact have been the original settings, for Vivaldi himself often transferred arias from one context to another. Malgoire supplied the missing recitatives, which seem to me a lot less convincing: his harmonies and lines are much more adventurous than those of Vivaldi and his contemporaries.

But the exercise was well worth while. Catone, a treatment of the historical conflict between Caesar and Cato in North Africa, enlivened by love interest, has some vivid and colourful music among the 11 arias in Acts 2 and 3. They include Caesar’s ‘Se mai senti’, a love song exquisitely set with recorders, muted upper and pizzicato lower strings; a raging military aria; and two powerful arias for Emilia, Pompey’s vengeful widow – one a simile aria with orchestra representing the angry ocean, the other a brilliant (if rather instrumentally conceived) piece with big vocal leaps and arpeggio figures. And there are two appealing arias for Marzia, Cato’s daughter and Caesar’s lover, a quietly heartfelt G minor one, and a spirited later piece whose music seems to be curiously at odds with the text. The seven arias in Act 1, too, have some notable things, but it would of course be inappropriate to cite them in any consideration of the opera as such. As usual in Vivaldi, there are rather a lot of unison arias (or parts of arias).

Only Cato, sturdily sung by the tenor Simon Edwards, is for a conventional male voice: the other male roles are castrato parts. Caesar is sung at soprano pitch by Jacek Laszczkowski, whose clear voice and focused top register serve well; he phrases with delicacy in the last aria of Act 1 and especially in ‘Se mai senti’. Veronica Cangemi makes a vigorous Emilia, capable too of attractive soft singing in her Act 1 aria. Diana Bertini dispatches Fulvio’s big florid numbers forthrightly; Liliana Faraon is particularly effective in her lively ‘Se parto, se resto’ in the last act, and Philippe Jaroussky sings Arbace’s music in a clear, even countertenor.Malgoire directs with plenty of vitality, but I can’t think why he decided to include timpani flourishes (lasting 80") by Jacques Philidor during Act 2 (unless it was due to some staging exigency – in which case it could surely have been cut from the recording). The vocal decoration is sensibly and neatly done.