More than 20 composers have written operas on the Scottish play‚ almost all of them (Verdi being the great exception) in the 20th century. Bloch was 30 when his only opera was produced‚ in Paris in 1910. It belongs to the world of post­Wagnerian French opera composers‚ among them Chausson‚ Magnard and d’Indy‚ a world of which the Dortmund Opera has been making something of a speciality. If Wagner – at any rate‚ as he was understood by the French – was an influence on them‚ it is as Bloch perceived him through ears filled with Strauss’s Salome (can he also have known Elektra? Improbable‚ though it sounds possible). The music is wholly continuous‚ with dialogue replacing formal duet and the nearest to an aria coming when the music withdraws a little to allow for Lady Macbeth’s eerily atmospheric sleepwalking scene (a solo‚ without Shakespeare’s observers). The witches are mildly sinister rather than truly alarming‚ though the sisters’ second appearance amid the apparitions is suitably weird. For the rest‚ the level of tension is high but intelligently varied‚ making use of motive in a fashion that claustrophobically deepens and darkens the music in response to the play’s appalling atmosphere. It seems strange that a young composer with such an obvious dramatic flair should never have written another opera‚ though sketches apparently exist for a second‚ Jézabel. The recording is taken from the first German performance on December 5‚ 1998. It is strong and vivid‚ negligibly marked by audience noise (though there is a certain amount of clumping to and fro)‚ and the ghostly voice of the prompter haunts from time to time. Alexander Rumpf has drawn a vehement‚ powerfully atmospheric performance from his cast‚ with a ferocious Lady Macbeth from Sonja Borowski­Tudor and a despairing‚ deteriorating Macbeth from Hannu Niemelä. As Macduff‚ Karl­Heinz Lehner rises to the great occasion at the end‚ as the Birnam Wood soldiers close in‚ and Thomas Mehnert does his best to enliven the dark proceedings with such lighter music as Bloch manages to give the Porter. There is some slightly dubious French here and there‚ but it really hardly matters. What does matter is the presentation. Edmond Fleg’s libretto follows Shakespeare fairly closely‚ with some inevitable omissions‚ but that is no excuse for the failure to provide listeners with a text and translation. The only hope is to try to follow the sung French with the original Shakespeare‚ which requires a certain amount of nimbleness. This omission is the more regrettable as the work is of real interest‚ and the company’s cheese­paring attitude must inevitably limit the record’s appeal to a few keen collectors rather than make it available to the wider audience Bloch and his opera deserve.