It seems EMI are unafraid of inviting comparisons. Not only is the title of this disc ‘Homage to Maria Callas’ but the handsome booklet also includes mirror-image photos of the two sopranos side by side. In reality, though, the similarities are less important than the differences: Callas’s repertoire was more challenging – no Norma or Turandot here – and where each of her recital discs was a portrait gallery of different characters, Gheorghiu is always recognisably herself. There are arias in which she sounds vocally fresher than Callas, notably her bright-eyed Marguerite’s Jewel Song from Faust and Chimène’s ‘Pleurez mes yeux’ from Le Cid without Callas’s flapping high notes (though also without her darkly veiled sense of tragedy and emotional power). But clearly that is not all that matters.

The value of this disc lies rather in focusing on Gheorghiu herself, who must now be at the peak of her career. There are return visits to some of her signature roles, such as Mimì, Nedda and Adriana Lecouvreur, all of them sung with an urgency that has not always been evident in the opera house. Then, more intriguing, are sightings of possible new roles: Wally, wholehearted and gleaming; an inwardly sensitive Imogene in Il pirata; Saint‑Saëns’s Dalila, not an obvious choice as she is short on luscious mezzo richness of tone; and, most adventurous, Cherubini’s Medea, sung in Italian, with high concentration but also passing signs of strain, as though the role is not yet ‘in the voice’. Marco Armiliato’s lively accompaniments second his soprano when she is at her most urgent. Together, they cap the recital with a riveting account of Violetta’s Act 1 scene, where she really shines – not Callas back from the dead but Gheorghiu plain and simple, and full of life.