“Renée herself seemed as if she’d rather be somewhere else. Kicking off with a fussy rendition of Tatiana’s long letter scene from Eugene Onegin, her voice only clicked into gear towards its end. (Wasn’t there any time to warm up?) At which point she took a twenty minute break while the orchestra slugged through their Tchaikovsky…. Then it was CD promotion time, with three brief arias by Leoncavallo and Giordano followed by Manon’s ‘Sola, perduta, abbandonata’ from Manon Lescaut. And that was it.”

Sister blog Intermezzo and her coterie of cheesed-off public bemoan the “scant” programming last night’s “concert” by The People’s Diva — though her “gorgeous and flattering biscuit satin gown… designed by regular concertgoer Vivienne Westwood” escapes unscathed.