Il Viaggio a Reims, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, review This jolly if over-extended concert performance marked a decade of the Royal Opera's Young Artists scheme, an ongoing project which annually apprentices a dozen or so young singers, repetiteurs and directors, giving them post-postgraduate training as well as opportunities to take small roles and understudy. Its original benefactor, Alberto Vilar, has been silently airbrushed out of the story, following a conviction for fraud and failure to make good his promises; since 2005, the sole sponsor has been the Oak Foundation, under the name of Jette Parker, to whom thanks are owed. Honour is also due to the scheme's artistic director, David Gowland, who has now shepherded over 75 striplings from 25 countries, several of whom have moved on to establish international careers. Some of these distinguished graduates returned to Covent Garden to take part in Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims, a light comedy written to welcome the restoration of the Bourbon Charles X in 1825. It's pure froth of a peculiarly Rossinian kind: much of the music was recycled into Le Comte Ory, and its quality ranges from the divinely inspired (a heavenly sextet, for example) to abjectly mechanical note-spinning. Late in the evening, a meandering and interminable aria for an ethereal poetess - queasily sung by a less than radiant Marina Poplavskaya - prevented the opera from concluding with a nice sharp bang. But there was much fun to be had along the way, as various foreign travellers, caricaturing their respective nations, are stranded at an inn en route to the coronation at Rheims with love or lost luggage uppermost on their minds. Outstanding contributions came from two members of the current crop of Young Artists, Madeleine Pierard (as a hysterical aristocratic fashion victim) and Lukas Jakobski (as a philosopher with a great patter song). Ji Hyun Kim (as an amorous Count) was an admirable last-minute substitute for his Korean compatriot Ji Min Park, and I wished that the score had offered Jacques Imbrailo, Edgaras Montividas, Kostas Smoriginas and Matthew Rose more chances to show their mettle. But absolutely everyone in the cast happily shared a team spirit, and their evident enjoyment of the musical party spilled across the stage into the auditorium. Visiting from the Coliseum, ENO's excellent orchestra was bouncily conducted by Daniele Rustioni, and the event brought a final burst of sunshine to what has otherwise been a pretty dreary season for the Royal Opera.