Jose Cura/Cara O’Sullivan

The arrival of Jose Cura has helped to offset the lack of top-class spinto tenors available to sing the Italian and French dramatic repertoire. But composers expect even dramatic tenors to enhance their performances with some tonal shading, and there was very little of that in evidence at the RDS on Saturday.

The Argentinian tenor's stentorian delivery served him best in verismo pieces: he declaimed Andrea Chenier's Improvviso with ringing ardour and went on to give exemplary performances of show-stoppers from Pagliacci, La fanciulla del West, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, all given with scrupulous attention to phrasing and without a hint of a gulp or sob. The bonus in this feast of macho tenor singing was a truly stunning account of Nessun dorma from Turandot.

He was less happy in Verdi, a composer who calls for rather more subtlety than Puccini, Giordano and company. The long Carlo/Elizabeth duet from Don Carlo in particular suffered from the tenor's unwillingness to vary his colouring, but not enough to detract from the splendid singing of Cara O'Sullivan. Here, as in Elvira's scena from Ernani and Violetta's even more demanding double-aria from La traviata, the Cork soprano showed that she has become a Verdi singer of considerable accomplishment. She was equally good in other things; fearless in the bravura Poor wand'ring one from Sullivan's Pirates and tenderly love-smitten in duets from La Boheme and Butterfly.

Unfortunately, the singers’ efforts were thwarted by the use of an uncomfortably over-amplified public address system. Ms O’Sullivan came out of it rather better than the tenor, whose cutting edge was given an unpleasant rasp. As for the NSO, the erratic sounds emanating from the loudspeakers made it impossible to guage either the quality of the playing or the efficacy of conductor Alistair Dawes’ control of balance. He came across as a good accompanist and a man fully in sympathy with his singers and their music.