Agents will be queuing up to sign this 26-year-old baritone from Sichuan

The Royal Academy of Music’s end-of-term opera can always be looked forward to because it never disappoints: the repertoire is enterprising, the musical performance is invariably on a high level, and the productions are almost always sane and unpretentious: qualities that can’t be relied upon in more prestigious houses. This term’s production(s) were no exception: the strongest two of Puccini’s Il trittico.

If you have to say that one of the three is weaker than the others, my vote goes to Il tabarro, Puccini’s attempt at verismo, a B-opera comparable to B-movies of the 1940s, except that they tended to be not quite so relentlessly conscientious in building atmosphere and more intent on actually getting on with the plot. Each opera of trittico seems to be a piece of self-denial on Puccini’s part, the chief austerity being an almost total lack of arias. One applauds his enterprise in trying something new, but the price is high.