Of the Strauss operas Capriccio has never been a particular favourite of mine. I have always felt that the piece, Strauss's final opera (premiered in 1942, in the middle of World War II) not only lacks the immediacy and dramatic urgency of his master operas written in the first decades of the 20th century, but also shows an almost shocking disconnect with the political reality of the 1940s.

However, I have to admit that I enjoyed the performance at the Met on Monday evening enormously. John Cox's production, lovingly and with great attention to detail revived by Peter McClintock, serves the piece extremely well and I couldn't imagine a better cast than the Met's, led by Renée Fleming, Peter Rose, our Canadians Joseph Kaiser and Russell Braun, and conducted by Sir Andrew Davis with his very fine sense for the orchestral marvels and the humour of the score.

Sitting there on Monday evening, it made me proud to think how great it will be to have Sir Andrew for Ariadne auf Naxos this coming May and for the double bill (Florentine Tragedy and Gianni Schicchi) next season; and how great to have Joe and Russell together in Iphigénie en Tauride - and Russell in L'amour de loin next season.

Wonderful things are going to happen at the COC.