According to the late Donizetti expert William Ashbrook, Maria di Rohan is the composer s, tautest, most melodramatic opera and shows him, in complete control of his musico-dramatic goals. The work was first performed in Vienna, but Donizetti revised it for its Paris premiere. Working from the new critical edition of the score, with the period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Mark Elder, Opera Rara has recorded the original Vienna version as well as some of the appendices from the Paris revision. Recorded in the studio this set comes with a lavishly illustrated book including a complete libretto with an English translation, comprehensive article and synopsis by the eminent 19th-century musical scholar, Jeremy Commons.