Whenever a glamorous soprano comes along, there are those who hint that she owes her stardom more to looks than to voice.

Good looks do no harm, of course, and English National Opera's current production of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea gives Kate Royal the chance to show off more body than most opera singers would care to, but there is also a genuine vocal talent to take into account.

At the Wigmore, she certainly cut a striking figure. At first the way she held herself suggested passion reined in; then when she stretched her long arms to the audience, it was as if she was opening her whole body to the songs' emotions.

No doubt it helped that her accompanist was Roger Vignoles, whose grasp of the song repertoire enables him to guide the singer while always seeming to follow.

Everything was from the heart of the German Lieder tradition: no Schubert, but a dozen songs by Schumann, 10 by Hugo Wolf, four by Brahms. Still, there was no lack of vocal variety, and Royal's diction was mostly clear.

Her slightly tremulous vibrato delivers operatic amplitude, and perhaps there were some who thought: "Steady on, there; this is the Wigmore Hall."

For the rest of us it was a pleasure to hear a singer able to scale her voice to the emotion she found in the songs.

When Brahms's May Night evoked "the silvery moon", her timbre was more burnished brass than silver, but she could lighten the tone when needed, or drain the voice of colour to suggest exhaustion, even defeat.

If the good humour of Schumann's Blacksmith's Song was rather heavy, the composer must take part of the blame.

She was at her best when the music was at its saddest, although there was an occasional hint of all-purpose melancholy about her delivery.

At 28, Royal is not yet the finished article, but she is definitely the real thing.