Why, if Cecilia Bartoli invites you to a party, you drop everything and go

Classical music has a few certainties: Götterdämmerung will always be that little bit longer than you remember, it will reliably rain if you pack a Glyndebourne picnic, and if Cecilia Bartoli invites you to a party, you drop everything and go.

Which is why I found myself in Paris earlier this week, along with most of the record industry, prepared for serious music and some even more serious thrills at the launch of Bartoli’s new disc St Petersburg.

There are times when only a palace will do. For most of us those times are few and far between, but if you’re mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli – ‘La Gioiosa’, a classical music phenomenon and one of its biggest-selling stars – then life, and art, are far from everyday.

But when your launch parties are already as legendary as your coloratura (and every bit as extravagant), how do you up the ante? By taking over the Palace of Versailles, of course, for an evening of music, food and audacious spectacle that the Sun King himself would salute.