Joyce DiDonato and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez have asserted that La Donna del Lago - or Lady of the Lake – is as difficult as competing for gold at The Olympics.

They made the comparison on Friday when the show opened, and were talking to Reuters. "When you're on stage and you know you have to hit this incredibly difficult note, and there's an exhilarating silence in the audience and everybody is zeroed in on you, it's like you're running for gold in the Olympics," DiDonato said. "Everything about it is difficult," Florez said. "I have performed the part many times before but it is still a huge challenge.” And it’s that challenge that attracts Florez, who is always looking for new ways to stretch his talents. "I know what I can do and I know what I'm most comfortable with but I'm always looking for new roles," he said. Based on an 1810 Walter Scott poem, La Donna Del Lago is a tragic tale of love and loss, in which Didonato plays the ginger-haired Elena: the enchanting Lady of the Lake who finds herself at the centre of two love triangles. So that’s, a love… something.

The show has been reviewed well, with The Telegraph claiming, in their review: “it’s the music that matters, and here the production triumphs. Rossini’s score, brightly coloured with hunting horns and Celtic harps, hits its stride after a slowish start.”