…the quality of the three ladies, Caroline MacPhie, Heather Newhouse and Dorothea Spilger, who bring grace and intelligence to the vocal line and the text.

One must also mention the performance of the beautiful Caroline MacPhie in the (far too brief) role of a young girl…

The Queen’s daughter, the cause of the friction between the Queen and Sarastro, was portrayed beautifully by Caroline MacPhie. She brought to the role a lovely mixture of obedience to her mother, and the emerging desires of a bright young woman.

But my personal favourite was the Lancashire-born Caroline MacPhie. Her light-lyric instrument was clean-toned and perfectly tuned, and she delivered an enterprisingly original programme… with flair, style and musical imagination.

MacPhie sings with haunting sensitivity and emotional engagement… This lovely disc marks the arrival of a fine young recitalist.

The whole cast in Nancy reaches perfection, starting with the small roles performed with panache, namely Caroline MacPhie…

…Caroline MacPhie and David Jones….both excellent.

MacPhie radiated joy and ecstasy…

The real modernism came in a taster of Josephine Stephenson’s ‘Les constellations, une théorie’, bewitchingly articulated by Gillian Keith and Caroline MacPhie in perfect accord with Cottis and the orchestra – the most surprising highlight. All works were sung in their original language – Stephenson’s in excellent French….

Caroline MacPhie, the only Brit, put over her material with far more dramatic verve than anyone else; her Cunning Little Vixen extract, sung in Czech, was especially gripping.