A SPARKLING vision in a red sequinned dress, cut to accent her curves, Katherine Jenkins never fails to put the glamour into what might otherwise be crusty classical concerts.

But while it is a joy to watch the repeated dress changes – the audience could be heard to take a huge collective gasp every time she entered in another gorgeous creation – her beauty is more than matched by a voice made in heaven. And heavenly this show was.

Coinciding with the release of her Sacred Arias album, large chunks of the show felt like Songs of Praise as hymns like Abide with Me, May the Good Lord and Down By the River were the flavour of the night.

Time to Say Goodbye, which she had sung on TV’s Strictly Come Dancing results show with Andrea Bocelli, is surely one of the saddest songs ever written, and there isn’t a version to better hers.

And while few would dare compete with Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah she made the song her own.

She also reprised her tribute to Maria Callas – as performed in her Viva La Diva show with ballet dancer Darcey Bussell last year – with Rossini’s rousing aria, Una Voce Pocafa, from The Barber of Seville to rapturous applause.

Her rich and fulsome Nessun Dorma, as performed at the Olympic hand-over party outside Buckingham Palace, an airy and light show song from The King and I and an old 1950s song, Til I Met You, ensured everyone was happy.

Aside from the clothes show, her vocal performances were also punctuated by musical offerings from the equally presentable former male choristers Blake who gave powerful performances of Jerusalem, You’ll Never Walk Alone and the a cappella Silent Night.

By the end of it all I felt all that was lacking was the sherry and mince pies!