One wouldn’t do Monteverdi like this now of course, but one has to remember that it was Raymond Leppard’s realisations of these pieces that largely put Monteverdi, and other operas of the period on the map. Leppard also changed the pitch of some of the roles, so we get a tenor Nero, a baritone Ottone, a female alto Arnalta and a tenor Page to Ottavia (the excellent John Brecknock, whose diction is so perfect you can hear every single word).

Remembering all that, this is an excellent performance and well worth investigating if you can get past the use of a modern orchestra and Leppard’s romanticised orchestrations. The opera is sung in (very clear) English. Would that more of today’s singers could sing with such natural, unforced diction. One hardly needs to follow along with the libretto, which is provided (yet another rarity these days).

It might come as a surprise to find the great Dame Janet Baker as Poppea rather than Ottavia, but she is wonderfully scheming, kittenish and manipulative, the voice character she creates a million miles away from the suffering Ottavia she sings in recorded extracts.

Unsurprisingly none of the other singers is quite on her level of inspiration, but all are expressive and more than adequate. Would that the ENO could provide such a cast nowadays.

My favourite recording of the opera is the quite recent la Venexiana recording of the Naples version under Claudio Cavina, but this Live ENO performances is worth listening to, both as a reminiscence of a bygone age and for the inestimable singing of Dame Janet Baker.