La Straniera, the latest work to be revived by Opera Rara, is Vincenzo Bellini's problem piece. First performed in 1829, it was hugely successful in his lifetime, but subsequent generations of listeners have considered it atypical and found it wanting. In fact, it is an experimental work that probes the parameters of style and subject matter.

Like many of Bellini's operas, La Straniera inhabits extreme psychological territory that teeters on madness. In the process, however, it also reverses conventional gender polarities by depicting male insecurities in the face of female sexuality. The unstable Arturo becomes increasingly drawn to Alaide, the "stranger" of the title, around whom hangs an aura of erotic mystery. Arturo's passion turns to obsession when he wrongly assumes his friend Valdeburgo has become Alaide's lover, and he eventually kills himself when Alaide's bigamy is brought to light.

The score flies relentlessly in the face of bel canto convention. Bellini depicts Arturo's vacillating psyche by deploying a continuous declamation that dismantles the barriers between recitative and aria. Coloratura is associated solely with Alaide's sensual allure. Only the comparatively stable Valdeburgo and Isoletta, Arturo's dumped fiancee, get big set pieces. Much of it is startling, though you are occasionally aware that Bellini's musical language falls short of the dramatic requirements.

A more consistent performance might have made a stronger case for the piece. David Parry's conducting was suitably neurotic, if occasionally unyielding and over-emphatic. The role of Alaide requires a fuller tone than Patrizia Ciofi can muster, fine singer though she is. Dario Schmunck, however, subtly delineated Arturo's turmoil, while Mark Stone was a superb Valdeburgo, very much the voice of reason in a world in which reason itself is in short supply.