1.   Baritone Dwayne Croft as the diplomat De Siriex and coloratura soprano Ainhoa Arteta as the frivolous Olga gave solid performances.

2.   Chicken Tetrazzini was created for another opera singer who loved her food, the Italian coloratura soprano Luisa Tetrazzini, although the chef of note has never been noted.

3.   Mozart was a genius of a character painter, providing in his music vivid likenesses of such friends as the coloratura soprano Aloysia Weber and the clarinetist Anton Stadler.

4.   Singing Zerbinetta in the Strauss was Petrova, a sparkling Russian coloratura soprano who recently made an impressive Met debut in the role, substituting for Natalie Dessay.

5.   The excellent coloratura soprano Elizabeth Futral was a perky, winsome Zerbinetta, although this brilliant vocalist did not seem at her freest and most secure on this occasion.

6.   His mother, a coloratura soprano at the Cologne Opera, was advised by non-Jewish musical friends to leave.