Obscure baroque operas are fairly common nowadays, but this first ever recording of Provenzale’s tragicomedy La Stellidaura vendicante, still wins points for novelty. Premiered in 1674 in Naples, it’s an opera in the Venetian style – lovers of Cavalli will instantly recognise the musical language – but also peppered with Neapolitan folk music and dances.

The plot is typical: a hopelessly tangled knot of misdirected letters and wayward hearts, multiple

near-deaths and a knife-wielding heroine. As that heroine, the titular Stellidaura, mezzo Jennifer Rivera sings with limpid clarity; she easily sustains the long lines of her aria Ferma, arresta, and is unfazed by the frills of Dormi, o perfido tiranno. Carlo Allemano’s dark, heavyish tenor takes time to warm up but is a good fit for the ruthless Prince Orismondo, and he’s well contrasted with the higher-lying, slightly reedy voice of Adrian Strooper as his rival, Stellidaura’s true love Armidoro. 

Countertenor Hagen Matzeit is in fine voice as the page Armillo, and bass Enzo Capuano, as the servant Giampetro, has...