The concert was given in June 1998 and a CD followed promptly (Decca‚ 11/98). A video‚ too. An immediate question is whether those who already have the disc can be recommended to add the DVD to their collection. Certainly there are attractions: five more songs for a start (two of Schubert‚ one each of Mozart‚ Donizetti and Rossini)‚ none of them exhibiting any particular reason for their original exclusion. The enchanting singer is a pleasure to watch (when she is not making peculiar movements of the neck and jaw)‚ and it is wonderful to see how the energy she invests in every item seems to grow just as ordinary mortals begin to wilt. Then there is the setting: Vicenza’s breathtaking Teatro Olimpico. The music seems scarcely more than a suitable offering to the Palladian splendours‚ the improbably proportioned heroes of antiquity who observe from their plinths and the gods who preside with olympic indifference up in the ceiling. Another benefit is the elegantly written essay by Anthony Stewart‚ who nevertheless seems to me to exceed the mark when he says that ‘students of bel canto could wish for no better model.’ ‘As long as they exercise discrimination‚’ I would like to add‚ for we don’t want a new generation of would­be bel cantists thinking that an admixture of breathy tone is de rigueur when charm or pathos are sought. This was a tiresome‚ if intermittent‚ feature of the CD and the visual proximity of the singer on DVD makes it all the more noticeable. A better lesson lies in the ability she has to persuade us that her songs are not written down but are in the process of creation as she sings. There’s a touch of genius in that.