He designed the program together with pianist Hyung-Ki Joo, who has formed a successful entertaining duo with Alexey Igutsman for many years. Joo kicks things off on the piano with a short, sweet piece. Then the soprano’s voice rang out in the darkened hall. No text, nothing but sounds, sounds, sounds. Almost 40 minutes long.

Starting from the standing floor, she sang in rows until she reached the stage. With a kind of endless voice, with pieces by Fauré, Reynaldo Hahn, Ravel, to name a few, she made her wonderful soprano flow like golden honey through all the registers. It seemed like an experiment. When he performed Puccini’s “O mio papino caro” the audience was in blissful relief. But his foray into opera was short-lived.

A short opera

He switched clothes and genre to rock and pop, a bit “West Side Story” — his “I Feel Beautiful” was deceptive — and then he was at the microphone with Lady Gaga. A kind of anything-goes seems to be the motto of the evening.

State Opera director Bogdan Rosick came to bring a costume. He told some self-deprecating anecdotes from his acting career. Her appearance in a large robe – without singing – recalled Marshall’s line in “Rosenkavalier”: “The whole thing is a farce, nothing more”. Celebrated with great fanfare.