Performer: Alessandro Scotto di Luzio

A standout performance by Alison Langer as Gilda lights up an Opera Holland Park season opener marred by illness. 

A production apt for audiences who prefer a traditional, intimate staging of the most often performed of all operatic works.

An unlikely coupling of one-act operas by Zemlinsky and Puccini bears fruit in a staging that reveals their thematic parallels while leaving their obvious differences on show.