Flirting individually with 2,000 people would seem to be a tall order, but cheeky opera divas Barbara Bonney and Angelika Kirchschlager did just that in a concert of duets at London's Barbican to promote their new CD, First Encounter.
Think of the most famous opera divas in the world and London-based US soprano Bonney and Austrian mezzo Kirchschlager would come close to the top of the list. So, to have both on stage together, along with pianist Malcolm Martineau, was an occasion not to be missed.
They looked sensational together, one blonde the other brunette and both in little strapless black dresses. All evening they smiled and pouted at us, tilting their pretty heads to one side and occasionally stealing sisterly sideward glances at each other before swirling their ingenuous faces back to their real love: their adoring audience, banked up in packed rows before them.
But even an audience with the sweetest tooth can eventually reach satiety.
Each song of the opening six Mendelssohn duets piled on another heaped teaspoon of the most refined sugar, and when the pair did a synchronised girly twirl in the Saint-Saens Pastorale Ici les tendres oiseaux it was a teaspoon too far.
The frothy, flowery lyrics didn't help much. The glossy programmes obligingly provided translations for all the songs, with a discrete reminder at the bottom of each page: 'Please turn the page quietly.'
