On reviewing a Mozart recording, the critic of the acclaimed US daily paper mentions the staged opera performance directed and conducted by Iván Fischer, holding it up as a model. “Over the past 30 years, Mr. Fischer has built this orchestra into one of the most admired ensembles in the world. Here was a supple, glowing, transparent and natural ‘Figaro’” – writes Anthony Tommasini. “The atmosphere was wonderfully informal. The singers passed between the orchestra players onstage; now and then, Mr. Fischer just sat among the strings and kept an eye on things. Since the aim was to be immediate, there were occasional shaky entrances or scrambled moments in the playing. It hardly mattered. This distinguished, vibrant Mozart performance seemed the result of involvement with this music over decades, not a crash session of intense rehearsing” – reviewed The New York Times on 14 March 2014. This is not the first time the BFO’s opera performance was described in superlatives in the USA: The Marriage of Figaro ranked first on the authoritative New York Magazine’s list of the ten best classical music events in New York in 2013.