The twin verismo peaks of ‘Cav’ and ‘Pag’ have oft appeared on the same programme since they were first shackled together by the Met in 1893 (bizarrely, they’d previously coupled ‘Pag’ with Gluck’s Orfeo in a staging where Melba sang Nedda). Less frequent has been the same tenor singing both Turiddù and Canio on the same evening (Domingo and Vickers pull it off on DVD), while a double role debut is even less common. Now you can add Jonas Kaufmann to that list (at the 2015 Salzburg Easter Festival), and here he is on film to prove it.

Philipp Stölzl’s compartmentalised staging works well, solving problems inherent in the Salzburg stage – one of the widest on the circuit – and his mix of dramatic snapshots and live video pulls the action together in intriguing and illuminating ways. Take for instance the opening of Cavalleria Rusticana. Instead of an offstage serenade, Kaufmann’s Turridù is discovered in the attic garret he shares with Santuzza and their young child (spot the backstory) singing dreamily over the rooftops to Lola who lives across the street. Projected large on the opposite side of the divided stage, what might be hard for an audience to...