Matteo Lippi and Aitana Sanz in Opera Celebration

The Gibraltar Philharmonic Society concluded a difficult season with the traditional Celebration of Opera, filling the Holy Trinity Cathedral with the power of two voices.

Aitana Sanz opened with a fluttery Caro nome from Rigoletto, a coloratura balance beam of vocal gymnastic precision. Matteo Lippi first offered successive arias from Luisa Miller, contrasting the unsettling energy of Oh! Fede negar potessi with the tender and mellifluous Quando le sere al placido.

Following an impressive intro by pianist Ugo D’Orazio, Sanz sang two arias from Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi.

Eccomi in lieta vesta showed a poised delicacy, Oh quante volte a cool sensitivity, stressing the less obvious phrases to compelling effect.

Lippi replied with a penetrating and perfectly enunciated E lucevan le stelle.

The first wordless song from Mendelssohn’s Op.19 allowed D’Orazio’s piano to soar airily, before Lippi and Sanz hammed out the lovers’ roles from L’Elisir d’Amore.

Lippi’s Nemorino was silly enough, and Sanz’s Adina sufficiently flirtatious, to fill winsome gaps between the la rà, la rà, la ràs.

The second half of the evening was mostly given to Zarzuela and Neapolitan songs.

Lippi raised a rousing Marechiare, lusty at the start, tender to the end, a raconteur in command of his audience.

Sanz replied with a very operatic Yo quiero a un hombre from El Cabo Primero: attractive, technically impressive, but a little short on emotion.

Lippi’s Torna a Surriento was hearty and full of swagger, while Sanz’s Pensar en él, from Marina, was all sweetness and joy.

D’Orazio brought us closer home with a Cádiz from Albéniz that conjured the life and energy of that coastal city, and the rest of the programme never strayed from Andalusia.

Lippi applied the lyrical brio of his Italian songs to a full-bodied version of Lara’s Granada.

Sanz rolled Me llaman la primorosa with apparently effortless musicality.

Torero quiero ser used the space to reunite tenor and soprano as a passionate couple, offering a more satisfying finale than the Merry Widow encore.