Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996) was German-Jewish, his early successes swept away by the Nazis forcing him to flee to England. After the war, his late-lyrical style was out of fashion. When his opera Beatrice Cenci, based on Shelley’s play, won first prize in the 1951 Festival of Britain opera competition, Covent Garden refused to mount a production.

First recorded with a cast of wobblers by Sony in 1994, the opera comes up far better in this Bregenz Festival. The story concerns the 1599...