KEY POINTS:
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Rome, the Eternal City offered an eminently rewarding sojourn in the City of Seven Hills.
A superior musical polish helped - due, no doubt, to Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, whose precise baton attended to the smallest detail.
Berlioz's Roman Carnival was a bracing opener, from its initial outburst through delicate woodwind work to those no-holds-barred final pages.
Karabits brought vibrant emotionalism to Khachaturian's Adagio from Spartacus, an elegy we are free to thrill to now that its Onedin notoriety is well behind it.
The Triumphal March from Elgar's Caractacus also has a screen past, in the 1972 film Young Winston.
The orchestra closed the evening with Respighi's Fountains of Rome. This performance echoed the wonders achieved in film archives these days, as the APO seemed to restore the original Technicolor to what are too often faded musical postcards.
Tenor Simon O'Neill and soprano Erika Sunnegardh revealed their stellar status very early in Bellini's "Ah, crudele! In sen del padre".
O'Neill laid out impressive Wagnerian credentials in Allmachtger Vater from Rienzi, as noble a prayer as any strife-torn nation could want.
After interval, the singers returned with a selection from Puccini's Tosca. Once again the singers delivered a total performance, Sunnegardh dashing on stage to join the waiting O'Neill in the great Act I duet.
The soprano was spine-tingling in her "Vissi d'arte" and, after a rapturous "E lucevan le stelle" from O'Neill, the two sang their hearts out until silenced by Puccini's 4am bell.
The drama of these 36 minutes alone bodes well for the orchestra's Fidelio on August 10, when O'Neill and Sunnegardh promise to be a Florestan and Leonore to remember.
