Sopranos in Italian repertoire suddenly seem to have been reading Philip Gossett’s Divas and Scholars book. Here, following the work of Cecilia Bartoli, comes a carefully researched (and hugely ambitious) recital programme which bursts beyond its Donizetti/Bellini/early Verdi boundaries to ‘claim’ Mimì’s Act 3 Bohème farewell and Nedda’s Pagliacci bird fantasy as successors to that earlier tradition.

This is a hell of a sing for a soprano. Yet, as with Damrau’s recent Lucia recording (1/15), listening rapture is modified not by lack of range – the notes in alt are all there – or even of technique but by a lack of distinctive vocal colour in characterisation. Under pressure high up Damrau sounds white. So the lesser-known Verdi items sound rather samey: have this Amalia and this Luisa really just been compelled to abandon their life’s loves? Their emotions don’t – to quote Bellini’s memo to Pepoli about Puritani – ‘draw tears, terrify people, make them die through singing’. Be gramophonically cruel and play Callas in as much of this repertoire as we are able (six of the operas, I think) and there’s no doubt that you are listening to the dramas of totally different people. Here I’m not so sure.

The two later verismo items actually sound rather grand and careful – like a Verdi singer suddenly made to slum it in repertoire they deem less precise – not quite the ‘concise and powerful human volcanic eruption’ as which Damrau is translated as describing the Leoncavallo. But earlier is better. The first two items of Elvira’s Act 2 Puritani breakdown are quite sad and moving, and Damrau seems able to evoke (and colour) Maria Stuarda’s nostalgia for her French childhood more easily than Nedda’s escape from the road. Turin’s accompaniments under Noseda are spot-on stylish and the recording is true. Listen before you buy.