Three years ago, almost to the day, the great Swedish soprano Nina Stemme made her Australian début – in Hobart, a little unexpectedly. Joining her was Stuart Skelton, with whom she had just performed in Mariusz Treliński’s production of Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera – a sombre, martial, digital creation that divided critics and audiences alike (‘overdetermined darkness and cynicism’ was one complaint) but which this reviewer found coherent and ungimmicky.

In Hobart, rested and possibly liberated after the rigours of a month-long journey on a warship in the capacious Met, Stemme and Skelton performed generous extracts from Tristan und Isolde. The concert was rightly awarded the Best Symphony Orchestra Concert in the 2017 Helpmann Awards.