The phrase 'lofty performance' is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to refer to a high standard of performance that has been achieved, either by an individual or a group of people. For example, you could say "The team put in a lofty performance to win the championship".
The Teatro Real has its share of lofty performances: There have been productions of Strauss, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Karol Szymanowski and Marina Abramović.
And while he has watched some of their races on video, his parents have been measured in what they have said about their own lofty performances.
He conducted the Second Symphony in New York with the Iceland Symphony in 1996 and the Fifth with the Lahti in 1999 in lofty performances that might have raised exaggerated expectations here, which were not entirely met.
Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and Juliet" strains to prove that Shakespeare consists of more than John Gielgud filling up the aisle with noises, but the actors end up twice as stylized, and a tenth as intelligible, as the loftiest Gielgud performance.
Helen Mirren has triumphed in this category before, but by her own lofty standards, her performance in The Last Station probably isn't in the very top drawer.
Even though Muni has never come close to achieving that lofty goal, its performance rate of between 70 and 75percentt is standard for other big-city transit systems that are forced to contend with street traffic and lack the speed-enhancing benefits of its vehicles receiving priority at traffic signals.
But often lost in the seeming confusion of the last year or so has been the fact that whoever is selected, the 72-year-old Mr. Masur, who has done so much to restore the orchestra to a lofty international standard of performance since taking it over in 1991, is to remain in place for two more seasons.
He was muted by his own lofty standards, an iffy performance summed up by a pair of injury-time free-kicks hitting the wall and a header straight into the goalkeeper's arms, but the lack of clinical players around him meant Portugal failed to convert their dominance – almost 72% possession and 26 attempts – into victory.
His side were representing not only his country but the band of Associates with their lofty ambitions and the Dutch performance had let them all down.
So far, Audra McDonald has received five Tony Awards for performance, tying that lofty record with Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris (who also possessed a sixth honorary Tony).
