Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s I quattro rusteghi (The Four Curmudgeons) is a wonderful comedy. Very clever and very Italian: colourful, lively and rhythmic. The women are impertinent, cunning and seductive; the men are awful, dirty and mean. The confrontation between them is at the centre of the plot; of course this clash is explosive. This opera is a real feast for the senses and the imagination. The staging is choreographic and follows the plight of the different characters. Each is attracted by and then put down by the others. The subject could be serious, and in a way it is; but Goldoni turns it into a richly humorous comedy about emancipation.

The European Opera Centre chooses its repertoire with care to ensure it is suitable for young singers. This recording with the RLPO and Vasily Petrenko features some of the best young singers from across Europe with an average age below thirty who are joined by one highly experienced singer – Mihnea Lamatic from the Romanian National Opera