Performer: Antonio Pirozzi

Released from the incarceration of directorial prison walls, Fidelio can still make a most powerful impact on the concert platform.

Tony Pappano’s recipe for a concert programme: take a 20th century Italian one act opera, follow it with a romantic symphony chopped in half, then throw in a related German aria; play without a break. It may sound like a train wreck in the making, but the result was a triumph.