Sung in Italian, this performance of Les Contes d'Hoffmann is distinguished by Virginia Zeani's remarkable achievement in taking on all three of the principal female roles, a challenge few sopranos have successfully mastered. She meets it with impressive versatility throughout the evening. Unsurprisingly, her voice is at its most sumptuous in the sensual music of Giulietta, but equally impressive is the agility and precision with which she dispatches Olympia's daunting aria. She completes the trio with an Antonia that is understated, heartfelt, and deeply affecting.

In the title role, Agostino Lazzari is not always an ideal match for Zeani. His softer-grained, almost Mozartean tenor occasionally feels at odds with the more overtly Romantic demands of Offenbach's writing. Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, however, is a commanding presence as the Four Villains, bringing an imposing combination of menace, authority, and theatrical bravado to each of his incarnations.