Still little-known in Britain (though her imminent Covent Garden Zerbinetta may change that), Canadian soprano Jane Archibald has been winning plaudits in roles including Olympia, Sophie, Queen of the Night and, in her Met debut, Ophélie in Thomas’s Hamlet. Her agile coloratura technique and ease in the stratosphere are on show in this disc of mainly flamboyant Haydn arias, including the most spectacular of all, sung by the Genio in the Orpheus opera L’anima del filosofo. Archibald can soften her naturally diamantine tone, too, as in the beautiful central section of Flaminia’s “Ragion nell’alma siede” from Il mondo della luna. She catches the flustered charm of the ingénue Silvia in L’isola disabitata, thrown into a “sweet madness” when she encounters a man for the first time on her desert island. And without compromising classical elegance of style, Archibald brings a passionate urgency to the elegiac and aggrieved scenas for Angelica, heroine of Orlando paladino. She reveals a fullness in the middle and lower registers not often found in a lyric-coloratura soprano.

Provisos? Well, “Se la mia stella”, the lyrical jewel of Il mondo della luna, rather lacks in tenderness, though Archibald is hardly encouraged here by the unsubtle jog-trot of an accompaniment. Elsewhere the Swiss orchestra, using modern instruments with a nod to period style, plays with gusto in the extrovert numbers but can sound prosaic in reflective music like the opening of Angelica’s “Non partir”. The three overtures, including the swashbuckling alla turca preamble to L’incontro improvviso, make lively interludes, though I would have willingly traded these for more of Archibald, a soprano of dramatic flair and dazzling technical accomplishment.