Hailed as a Wunderkind by Mahler at the age of 10, scorned as a scribbler of film music in his old age, poor old Korngold has never - despite a flurry of recent interest - quite made it to the top of the musical tree. Der Tote Stadt (The Dead City), a lusciously gloomy meditation on the effects of obsessive grief, is generally reckoned to be his masterpiece, but recordings are few and far between. So while this Royal Swedish Opera recording is, in principle, to be welcomed, in practice it's unlikely to win many new friends for the overheated, over-ripe score. Katarina Dalayman plays a blinder in the dual role of the dead Marie and the very-much-alive Marietta (yes, she bears a striking resemblance to the biscuit - skinny and prone to cracking up) but the men are less successful, especially the tenor Thomas Sunnegardh, whose light lyric voice sounds under considerable strain.