A few hours before Nina Stemme Returns, I browsed through my Facebook newsfeed. I stopped to glance at a status update from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, touting the event-to-come as “one of our biggest concerts ever” and “part of TSO history”. It continued to boast an experience with “the opera superstar of her generation”.

Nina Stemme. Photographs courtesy of Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra 

(Stemme returned – as per this concert’s namesake – after her 2016 performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which won her and the TSO a Helpmann for Best Symphony Orchestra Concert; and which your humble reviewer gave a rare 5 stars.) Such bold claims before a concert can be risky, and often used to generate hype. But in this case, the excitement was justified as Nina Stemme Returns delivered nothing short of the TSO’s predictions.

There was an unusual buzz in the foyer before the concert, and an observer may have noticed the “who’s who” of the Australian arts scene dotted among the crowd. Upon entering the hall itself could be heard the blast of about a hundred musicians simultaneously warming up for Wagner. (It sounded just as you’d probably imagine.)...