Mackerras made it clear that Mitridate is a masterpiece, paving the way for Idomeneo, the greatest opera seria of all.

As Mitridate, king of Pontus and head of the dysfunctional family, Nicholas Sales was nothing if not vocally determined, while the contrasting tone-colours of Emma Bell and Marianna Pizzolato as his sons Sifare and Farnace, rivals in love, made Mozart's remarkable recitatives truly dramatic and expressive, and they fired off the cadenzas with great style. With few ensemble numbers and no chorus, the focus on soloists is unremitting, but all rose nobly to this occasion...

...soprano Aleksandra Kurzak shone as Aspasia, with a lovely bloom to her sound as well as instrumental agility. In her second act duet with Bell, she demonstrated the teenage Mozart's implicit understanding of matters of the heart.