South African soprano Pretty Yende’s Cinderella story of a career is like catnip to Sony’s marketing department, who have now ensured that the singer’s first two recital discs are part of an autobiographical narrative, and packaged in pastelly, pre-teen shades under wafty, abstractly aspirational titles. But both last year’s A Journey and this year’s Dreams deserve better. Yende and her recordings are each capable of standing on their own merits, as this collection of bel canto makes abundantly clear.

The rose-tinted title translates to a theme of heroines who are yearning to escape their situations, to find freedom and love. This allows Yende scope to include Gounod’s Juliette alongside Donizetti’s Lucia and Bellini’s Amina, as well as the less well-known heroines of Linda di Chamounix, La...