Performer: Coin du Roi

Almost all the singers, orchestra and conductor were Italian, but it was local soprano Elīna Šimkus and the Latvian Radio Choir who sang Purcell’s magnum opus as if to the English manner born.

"Grab ’em by the throat and never let ’em go!" goes the famous quote by legendary Hollywood director Billy Wilder – Sunset Boulevard, Some like it Hot, and Double Indemnity among his masterpieces – who regularly dispensed stellar advice to aspiring, young writers. Unlike good screenwriting, opera’s blood and thunder decree doesn’t need much coaching to bare its jugular.