Flicking through the 150-page booklet enclosing the luxury edition of this disc, you might think that you have purchased a fine art dealer’s auction catalogue. Jewellery; gold-plated coffee pot; porcelain pipe, all get their fancy illustration; all are artefacts conjuring up the popularity of the opera singer Maria Malibran, who died in 1836.

The packaging calls her “the first female superstar in music history”. Treat that claim with caution. But one thing is definite – Malibran’s excitable coloratura repertoire, leaping over nearly three octaves, is ideal for Bartoli, the riveting dramatic mezzo who has been known to burn holes in paper simply with a look. Among the recent CDs resurrecting historical singers, Bartoli’s Maria sweeps the board.

She seems to be singing in four dimensions as she dispatches these mostly unfamiliar items from Malibran’s meteoric career: vivacious arias from forgotten operas; a sumptuous Mendelssohn concert aria; yodelling variations on a Tyrolean air; pieces by Maria’s father, Manuel GarcÍa; and her own show-stopper, Rataplan. The only familiar jewels are two from Bellini, from La Sonnambula and Norma.

Aside from that prayerful Casta Diva, the tracks celebrate Bartoli’s lack of reticence. The “s” consonant especially excites her. So do the text’s commandments for grief. She pitches equally into every emotion, conjuring a colour range of startling diversity at different pitches and dynamics. Judging from the music written for her, Malibran’s voice was strongest at the top and bottom. Bartoli’s is spectacular all over.

She keeps classy company, too. Maxim Vengerov joins her for the important violin solo in Mendelssohn’s Infelice, dangling before us the same lyrical beauty familiar from the violin concerto. And every instrumentalist shines in Adam Fischer’s Orchestra La Scintilla, the period instrument band of the Zurich Opera. The recording production by Christopher Raeburn is immaculate.

Malibran, history tells us, was a fascinating creature, a feisty lady of multiple talents with a private life perfect for the News of the World. But inevitably as the disc proceeds, Malibran fades. This is Bartoli’s show, and it’s a show at full throttle.

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