Alfredo Kraus amazed with his suavity and staying power as Werther and Hoffmann. Raymond Gniewek played an exquisite violin solo in "I Lombardi". Catherine Malfitano and Dwayne Croft provided one of the evening's most successful passages of authentic music drama in a pyrexic scene from "Eugene Onegin". Jane Eaglen, "a Wagnerian diva straight from a "New Yorker" cartoon", showed that it did not much matter what Brünnhilde looked like if she had a voice as overwhelming as a tsunami. Sharon Sweet was "strident" in "La forza del destino". Frederica von Stade demonstrated that "charm conquers all" with "her still boyish Cherubino and irresistibly tipsy Périchole". Karita Mattila and Hakån Hagegård were almost as seductive in a flirtatious Watch Duet from "Die Fledermaus". Birgit Nilsson provided the gala's most exhilarating tribute to Levine with a trumpet-like Valkyrie war-cry. Plácido Domingo and Samuel Ramey were comfortingly stellar in "Faust", Ramey for once being allowed to perform without baring his chest. Deborah Voigt, Bryn Terfel, Ruth Ann Swenson, Aprile Millo and Gabriela Beňačková were equally impressive in their celestial wattage. As far as clothing was concerned, the contributors most deserving of an award were Ileana Cotrubas for sporting a "gigantic Christmas bow", Mark Oswald for losing his tie and vest in "Don Pasquale" and "the various cleavage divas who lent new meaning to the concept of heaving bosoms". Jessye Norman perpetrated the evening's "most mannered" selection in a "crooned, roared and sighed" performance of "D'amour l'ardente flamme" that was so erratic in pitch as to present Berlioz as bitonal. Grace Bumbry was a wobbly old Dalila, and Gwyneth Jones an even wobblier Turandot. Dawn Upshaw's eloquent ornamentation in a "silver-bell" "Deh! Vieni, non tardar" was jarringly followed by the Jerry Hadley slathering on the schmalz in "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz".