Came So Far for Beauty, Dome, Brighton Festival

Three hours, 23 musicians, 31 songs and, extraordinarily, not a bum note all night.

Three hours, 23 musicians, 31 songs and, extraordinarily, not a bum note all night. In the hands of lesser artists, this adoring tribute in honour of the poet, novelist and songwriter Leonard Cohen could have been pure purgatory, an overly earnest and grimly serious trawl through the back catalogue of the self-confessed Godfather of Gloom. But the atmosphere is one of joyous salutation from the outset, with all the singers cramming themselves on to the stage for the opener, a raucous, rock'n'roll version of "There is a War".

The starry set of performers who've come to pay homage reflects the high regard in which both Cohen and the producer-curator Hal Willner are held: among them are Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Laurie Anderson, Beth Orton, Linda Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, The Handsome Family, the folk siblings Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Teddy Thompson and Martha Wainwright. Some have taken time out from European tours; others, such as Anderson, have flown over specially. Now that's devotion. But Willner's biggest coup is bringing over two of Cohen's original backing vocalists, Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen, whose voices are so full of love and longing that they leave you breathless.

The interpretations are never less than respectful, though often radically different. Nick Cave's "I'm Your Man" is a horn-laden Twenties-style show tune; as performed by The Handsome Family, "Heart with No Companion" is a jolly jig. Jarvis Cocker and Beth Orton's duet on "Death of a Ladies' Man" ("So the great affair is over but whoever would have guessed/ It would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed") is a mischievous but ultimately tragic two-hander.

The highlights - almost too many to mention - include Rufus Wainwright's caustic "Chelsea Hotel", Cave's darkly gothic "Suzanne", "The Guests" by Anderson, Thompson's beautifully slowed-down version of "Story of Isaac" and Batalla's sweetly soulful "Bird on a Wire".

Perhaps trying to shift the view of Cohen as a doom merchant, the singers tease out the sardonic and witty elements of his work. Purists among the audience may object to the spirited, upbeat vibe, but the emphasis is rightly on celebration and entertainment.

There are moments of real heartbreak, of course, most notably during "Hallelujah", performed by Rufus Wainwright, and his sister Martha's elegiac version of "Tower of Song". At the end of the show, spirits are lifted once more with a bawdy rendition of "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On", during which Cocker and Cave can't resist the temptation to, well, illustrate the point. You can't help but wonder what the author of these songs would make of all this from his Californian mountain retreat. Hell, he'd probably laugh his socks off.