Vasily Petrenko, the RLPO and the European Opera Centre reunite for a rare, live recording of the one-act opera Susanna’s Secret by Wolf-Ferrari, uniquely coupled with the composer’s Serenata: Five Songs for Baritone.

Vasily Petrenko and the RLPO first collaborated with the Liverpool-based European Opera Centre on a Russian double-bill of Shostakovich’s The Gamblers and Rothschild’s Violin by Fleishman. The resulting 2-CD set on Avie garnered a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and contributed to Petrenko’s winning the Young Artist of the Year accolade at the 2007 Gramophone Awards. The team reunites for a rare, live recording of Wolf-Ferrari’s humorous one-act opera, Susanna’s Secret. Wolf-Ferrari’s neo-classical score is as seductive as the Edwardian plot in which the new wife of a jealous Count attempts to hide her smoking habit. When he catches her, their improbable reconciliation results in a rather different sort of smouldering. The young singers of the EOC throw themselves into their roles with appropriate passion. The recording is uniquely rounded out with Wolf-Ferrari’s Serenata, five songs extracted from his seldom-heard Italian Songbook.

“This addictive entertainment was as much a showcase for Vasily Petrenko and the Liverpool Phil as it was for Canturri’s incisive, handsome baritone and Rodrigues’s smooth, well-focused soprano” The Independent on Sunday (on the live performance of Susanna’s Secret in Liverpool)