'... the score is striking, much of it in minor keys and often darkly chromatic. Conductor Marco Benini certainly makes the most of its expressive opportunities and the cast is very good indeed; Elizabeth Futral is wonderfully edgy and precise in the title role;Bruce Ford as the scheming Antenore still copes with Rossini's fearsome tenor writing better than anyone else.'

'Zelmira might not be the most riveting of dramas, but it contains some of his finest music in the seria genre. The lovely duet for Zelmira and her confidante, Emma, accompanied only by harp and cor anglais, is one of Rossini's most exquisite compositions of this kind.


As usual in his Neapolitan operas, there are also splendid opportunities for rival tenors - the dark baritonal Antenore, the light, florid tenore di grazio Ilo - to pit their vocal skills against each other.

Bruce Ford and Antonino Siragusa are ideally contrasted in timbre, and technically formidable, in the live recording from last year's Edinburgh Festival. With Elizabeth Futral's sweetly sung heroine and Benini's immaculately stylish conducting, I wish I'd been there.'