Spyridon Samaras (1861-1917) is a hugely important figure in the history of Greek music. He was born in Corfu, and was a representative of what has come to be called the ‘Second Ionian School of Music’. If you are looking for Byzantinisms and Greek folk influence, you will not find them here – Samaras is a full-blown Romantic in the Italian style, though the language here is French. The plot of Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (1903) is one of intrigues and love affairs, consequences of the actions of the Duke of Richelieu, derived from a play by Dumas.

The opera had to be in great part reconstructed by the conductor Byron Fidetzis, who has devoted a large part of his life to restoring Samaras’s reputation (indeed, he has recorded other operas by Samaras, though they are not particularly easy to find outside Greece), and it is a testament to his intimate knowledge of the composer’s style that it is so successful. Samaras’s fluid melodic style is very naturally operatic, and he knows how to get the best out of the soloists (all Greek except the Romanian Krilovici). Naxos has helpfully published the libretto with translations online, which is useful since some of the French pronunciation is a little difficult to penetrate, highly idiomatic though the soloists are in stylistic terms.

Some of the most memorable moments are the trio ‘Madame, ah!’ and d’Aubigny’s ‘Si, je l’aime’ in Act 1, the exquisite finale of Act 2 and ‘Un homme enveloppé dans un manteau’, the rather odd ‘Te Deum’ and ‘Vous! Le ciel exauce mes voeux!’ in Act 4. There are two versions of the finale, and Fidetzis has recorded them both; it is difficult to say which is the most effective. While the orchestral playing is perhaps not always the most refined, it certainly transmits the music’s dramatic flow. It should be pointed out that the recording was actually made in 1995, and one can imagine that the recorded sound would be a little smoother had it been more recent, but again, this should put nobody off who has an interest in lesser-known Romantic opera.

While they could have done with some more rigorous English-language editing, there are two substantial essays in the booklet by the greatly respected musicologist George Leotsakos and by Fidetzis himself, and there is an extended analytical essay on Naxos’s website – certainly no less than this fascinating work deserves.