This week's opera CDs reviewed

Soloists: Bernarda Fink, Richard Croft, Sunhae Im, Alexandrina Pendatchanska. Freiburger Barockorchester. RIAS Kammerchor. Rene Jacobs Harmonia Mundi HMC 902036.38 *****

Mozart was just 24 when Idomeneo premiered, but it represents the first masterpiece of his maturity and raised his art to a whole new level. The opera was somewhat neglected in the last century, but critical opinion has come to recognise the power and intensity of this great work, despite the constraints imposed by its conventional opera seriaform. This recording has the electricity one has come to expect from Rene Jacobs. The result does justice to Mozart's incandescent score, given here in its complete form. The soloists are fully committed, with Bernarda Fink as a memorable Idamante, Alexandrina Pendatchanska an intense Elektra, and Richard Croft conveying the nobility of the much tested Idomeneo. www.harmoniamundi.com