After 18 months and eight albums, Opera Rara’s mighty Donizetti song project finally comes to an end with a final volume from bass-baritone Nicola Alaimo – picking up where he left off six albums ago.

By this stage listeners know the drill: first-hand, lightly-worn scholarship from Roger Parker (whose “Lockdown project” turned into years of rummaging through digital archives and physical libraries across Europe and North America); exemplary accompaniments from Opera Rara’s artistic director Carlo Rizzi; collaborations with a crack team of Italian-repertoire specialist singers; a vivid sleeve note from Jonathan Keates, who has a Donizetti biography in the works. And, to cap it all, the chance for the songs to have an ongoing performing life thanks to Parker’s new critical edition.

So what do we get to unpack in this last box of delights? In a collection dominated by songs of a few minutes’ duration it’s hard to look past Il conte Ugolino – a 20-minute scena from the 1820s that shows a young composer experimenting boldly. The scenario from no less than Dante’s