Ever since Lamberto Gardelli rescued Verdi’s early works from critical oblivion back in the 1970s, we’ve been waiting for a champion to bring out comparative new recordings. Well, Croatian conductor Ivan Repušić might just be the man to do it, thanks to the opportunities afforded by BR Klassik, the in-house label for Bavarian Radio.

In 2017 they gave us a decent Luisa Miller, in 2018 a fine I due Foscari, and in 2019 an appealing Attila. Now, in a thrusting and beautifully engineered recording, we get I Lombardi, an opera with more going for it than one might imagine.

It’s an odd sleeve note that begins by telling you how confusing the opera’s plot is and how the characters fail to come to life. It then goes on to apologise for the composer writing such stirring music to glorify the First Crusade. In fact, in the right hands Verdi’s follow up to 1842’s smash hit Nabucco can pack a considerable punch. The fraternal feud at its...