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Frederico Ricci's Corrado d'Altamura is a dramma lirico that opened at La Scala in 1841. Set in 12-century Sicily, the highly dramatic plot tells of betrayal and then revenge between Roggero, the Duke of Agrigento and his former friend and tutor, Corrado, to whose daughter, Delizia, Roggero has promised marriage - only to break his vows. The great expert in 19th-century Italian opera Julian Budden thought Ricci's serious works 'are worthy to stand beside Mercadante's.' This is the sixth opera in the Essential Opera Rara series and, once again, a vivid impression of the work is captured on a single album, accompanied by a complete libretto and article by the eminent 19th century scholar, Jeremy Commons. Opera Rara, the brainchild of Patric Schmid and Don White, has been in the business of bringing back forgotten operatic repertoire of the 19th-century for over 40 years. Operas once threatened with extinction have now been brought vividly back to life through the Opera Rara recordings. In a world in which recording companies find it increasingly difficult to survive, let alone expand their activities, the achievement of Opera Rara is a remarkable success story. The secret of this success is that the company has always been a highly specialised venture founded on the conviction that there is an inexhaustible mine of fascinating, yet undeservedly forgotten, 19th-century Italian and French operatic music.