The vocal stars are Roberto Saccà as the prince Tamino,. Mr. Saccà sings gorgeously, with a telling range of vocal colour and texture and a caressing way with phrases.

The magnificent tenor Roberto Saccà in the title role, as a dictatorial, heroic victor.

Roberto Saccà, one of today’s best lyric tenors, was very convincing as the friendly Demon. With controlled power and a radiant upper register, he deservedly reaped the most applause.

The surprise lay with Roberto Saccà as Bacchus. The Mozart tenor has sung Puccini, but now for the first time the curiously difficult Bacchus. Where normally heavyweight tenors bellow across the seas, here stands an elegant gentleman, who fashions everything with great nuance. Saccà’s timbre withstands even the loudest fortissimo, and clarity is vouchsafed.

Bacchus, as the composer’s alter ego, accepts Ariadne’s surmise that he is the god of death, because he too is searching. Roberto Saccà’s uncommonly lyrical yet charismatic tenor voice is eminently suitable.