‘The Neapolitan Mercadante is hardly a top name on anyone's lips, though Opera Rara has worked hard to restore his reputation. Virginia is a tale of courage and injustice as patricians and plebs slug it out, murdering as they go, the work calls for big voices, a sturdy chorus and a bravura orchestra.

‘Maurizio Benini draws a strong and stylish performance from the London Philharmonic, and the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir makes vivid contributions. Susan Patterson... delivers her opening cabaletta with bravura and generally discloses a soprano of impressive amplitude.

The tenors Paul Charles Clarke (Appio) and Charles Castronovo (Icilia) are nicely contrasted, and the smaller parts are all well filled. In sum, another classy Opera Rara release that puts us - and the long-neglected Mercadante - in its debt.’

These are amply provided here, with the bonus of the Royal Opera's chorus director Renato Balsadonna directing the versatile Geoffrey Mitchell Choir who convince variously as priests, revellers, grandees, lictors, populace and slaves. American soprano Susan Patterson sounds characterful and robust as the beautiful, low-born heroine, with Paul Charles Clarke as the bullying, ignoble Appio and Stefano Antonucci as the troubled father. Encouraged by Rossini but more influenced by the fashionable grand opera styles of Meyerbeer and Halévy, Mercadante's music has shades of Verdi, without the same powers of invention. Yet the energy and passion are infectious, from menacing, brass-heavy overture to urgent cabalettas and stirring ensembles.'