The 28-year-old Russian mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina is certainly one to watch. Anointed as the Carmen du jour after appearing in the role at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and the Vienna State Opera in relatively quick succession, Akhmetshina follows up her stage success with this very fine album.

It’s no surprise that excerpts from Carmen kick things off, and one understands quickly just why she’s so in demand as Bizet’s fierce heroine. The full, wine-dark quality of her instrument is immediately appealing; there’s an evenness and comfort across the voice’s entire range; and a self-assurance and poise that underpins every phrase.

Akhmetshina is a calculating, restrained Carmen, appealing with undercurrents of danger. Her Habanera is vivid, full of subtle ironic gestures which are carried into the superbly voiced, insinuating Seguidilla. Most impressive of all is her incisive Card Scene, the tough exterior giving way to an unsettling vulnerability and fatalism.

This interpretative acuity is carried over to Massenet’s