If you had Aleksandra Kurzak neatly filed away as a bel canto, light lyric singer, then you might want to revisit. The Polish soprano has built a career on Rosinas, Adinas and Norinas, give or take some Mozart and, more recently, Verdi and Puccini heroines. But while she’s still singing a lot of that repertoire (her last Adina was as recent as 2023), there are signs that change is afoot. Look at her schedule and suddenly there’s a Santuzza among a sea of Toscas and Butterflys. And now here’s the album to confirm it.

Falcon feels like the musical advance party, a recital of forthcoming attractions and experiments, trying some new music on for size. And it’s a great fit. The gambit is a simple one: Kurzak follows in the musical footsteps of the 19th-century’s Cornélie Falcon, whose distinctive voice-type – a powerful, rich soprano voice with a long, low register, as well as some dramatic top notes – we may know, but whose life and career have rather disappeared from memory.

We start with the roles Falcon inherited,...