For an Italian, singing is in the bloodstream. Is there any Italian who doesn’t love opera?

For the past three years, the organisers of Carnavale, the Italian Festival in Adelaide, have put together a feast of opera delights showcased as Operativo. The recipe is simple, the ingredients mostly delightful and delicious: to a basic mix of opera’s best loved numbers add a quartet of singers, a pianist and a master of ceremonies, all from Italian backgrounds. It’s a sure-fire recipe for success. Judging by the enthusiasm which filled the Elder Hall at the University of Adelaide on a dismal mid-winter afternoon, the audience keeps coming back for more.

To be frank, the singers are not evenly balanced, but they are all seasoned performers and know how to milk an opera aria and strut their stuff. Let’s move the metaphor from milk to wine, another great Italian preoccupation, almost from the day of birth.

Teresa La Rocca’s soprano is like a big, full-blooded cabernet, florid and blustery, that takes command of the palette. Catriona Barr’s mezzo-soprano is a less demonstrative merlot, somewhat more demure and self-effacing. Brenton Spiteri’s tenor is a cheeky, spritzy drop, a young sauvignon blanc. Mario Bellanova’s baritone packs a...