Royal Opera House Chorus, Covent Garden; Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden/Thomas Adès
EMI New CD M 2 695234-2 ( DDD)

After a number of decent attempts in recent years, the Royal Opera House finally hit gold with a new opera – one that will surely stand the test of time, that deepens with every hearing and which gets a worthy first recording here. The performances, which derive from the (somewhat) revised 2007 revival, are in all ways stronger than the premiere.

The casting assembles some of the finest performers around today. Simon Keenlyside is a rock as Prospero, eaten up with fury at his unfair treatment and taking it out in turn on Ian Bostridge’s devious Caliban. Kate Royal is radiant as Miranda, Stephen Richardson a knockabout Stefano, Philip Langridge a dignified, sad King of Naples. Cyndia Sieden finds Shakespearean depth in a role that starts so stratospherically high as to be unintelligible. As the tessitura gradually comes back to earth, so her Ariel becomes ever more human, a flesh and blood creature to be pitied and loved.

Ades’s own conducting drives inexorably the groundswell of lyricism that motivates this piece and unifies all the vocal acrobatics. And if the opera is above all theatrical, there is everywhere the satisfying feeling of a show that has been well played in. Orchestra and singers are no longer, one feels, preoccupied with getting through it – but with creating living, moving drama.