It would be good to report that this is a lost masterpiece. It’s not, but it is a carefully crafted late version of the form that Meyerbeer had invented for Paris…Competent to a fault, Saint-Saëns gives his principal singers every opportunity to shine, and they rise to his challenge in this concert performance…Clémence Tilquin’s Colombe sings her heart out, investing some of the composer’s most lyrical with genuine feeling. Here and throughout is that French vocal style all too rarely heard in opera houses today.

The score is magnificent, if uneven. The dramaturgy wobbles in places…The recording, meanwhile, is tremendous in the way it captures the excitement felt by singers, players and audience in the rediscovery of a significant work by a composer whose output is still in a process of re-evaluation…Gauvin’s Duchesse dispenses scorn and seduction in equal measure…It’s a major achievement and highly recommended.

Tourniaire, who prepared the performing edition, draws persuasive playing from the Orchestra of the Haute École de Musique…In the title role Bernard Richter uses his agreeable lyric voice somewhat cautiously, while the rest of the cast…is sufficiently good to give listeners some notion of the work’s theatrical potential.

It is in many ways a magnificent beast, with fascinating and original orchestration making one realise why the composer was held in such high regard in his heyday. Tourniaire’s conducting, recorded live, is fluid and elegant and his cast excellent. Bernard Richter’s graceful tenor is perfect for the title role, Jean- François Lapointe’s cultivated baritone is commanding as Benvenuto Cellini, and Eve-Maud Hubeaux, Karina Gauvin and Clémence Tilquin provide well-contrasted vocal ranges and timbres in the female roles.