France flapped its wings a bit with dishes like a succulent free-range poularde with creamy lentils, lardons, beets and jus (not to mention a cheese course that's almost invariably French), but the superb grand finale, a spiced pumpkin cheesecake by the talented pastry chef Jennifer Smith, swung back the American way.
They are capable of creating extraordinary amounts of sound: the superb opener, "Last Known Surroundings", reaches titanic decibel-levels, its wailing intro building to a syncopated finale that creates a wall of sound as carefully crafted as an oil painting.
The soprano continues to flesh out Manon and fill out Puccini's music in richly detailed, finely nuanced fashion, culminating with superb work in the finale, when Manon meets her end in a desolate patch of America.
But it is doing so with a grand finale, featuring the superb violinist Hilary Hahn in both programs.
At the finale, Ernest John Cunninghamm, in superb high dudgeon) calls them "worthless degenerates" without "a decent instinct among the lot of you".
The finale initially showcased superb bassist Boris Kozlov, before setting the crowd clapping the groove on an impish tuba solo of jazz licks and dancefloor quotes from former Mingus sideman Earl McIntyre.
A stir of feet, a rustle of petticoats, a glimmer of shadows, and up went the house lights on a twinkling corps of models sitting on chairs scattered down the middle of Giorgio Armani's runway today, the finale to a superb show that used a theme of dance to blithely tease androgyny.
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson staged a 'walk off' as the finale to a superb Valentino collection and pushed social media into overdrive.
The first strikingly beautiful moments came during the pianissimo entry of the superb Westminster Symphonic Choir in the finale and when the radiant soprano of Twyla Robinson rose mysteriously and floated above the chorus's entrancing, shimmering sound.
