Viennese operetta lovers have seldom had it so good. While various companies reissue 1950s radio broadcasts of operettas that in many cases have never been recorded commercially, CPO is building up a catalogue of new recordings of rarities.

In the case of Suppé one-acters, Das Pensionat, Leichte Kavallerie and Zehn Mädchen und kein Mann are variously available in Vienna Radio recordings, while Die schöne Galathée has been recorded several times. To these CPO now adds this real rarity, which is widely known through its rousing overture but achieved little as a stage work either in Vienna (as Die Kartenschlägerin) or when revised for Graz under the familiar title in 1864. Though doubtless owing some slight indebtedness to Pushkin, its story bears no relationship to that of Tchaikovsky’s opera. Rather it tells of rival suitors for a young lady’s hand and their efforts to turn in their favour a fortune-telling session held by the hero’s mother. Emil, who finally ends up with the young lady, is a young composer, and in the first number we hear him working on a very Schubertian song with his piano used as a orchestral instrument. The whole operetta is immensely tuneful, with the wonderfully racy melodies already familiar from the overture cropping up throughout.

The cast is admirably led by Anjara Ingrid Bartz as the fortune-telling mother and Tom Erik Lie as her son, and the performance is a full-blooded one both orchestrally and vocally. What it rather lacks – in common with many modern recordings – is the real operetta feel to be found in those old radio productions. Too often these days one senses performers coming to operetta from outside the tradition rather than within. Also, only the musical numbers are here, and the lack of a libretto limits the ability of non-German speakers to follow the action. But it’s a gorgeously worked score from someone who was a man of the musical theatre through and through. We should hear more of Suppé’s output.