Celine Dion performs at MTS Centre last night. (Jason Halstead, Sun Media)

WINNIPEG - Sorry, haters -- but if you came here looking for Celine Dion jokes, you're in the wrong place.

And if you came here looking for one of those passive-aggressive write-ups -- the kind where we begrudgingly admit that Dion can sing, then crack a bunch of jokes at her expense so we can hang onto our credibility -- well, you might as well stop reading right now.

Yes, Dion can sing. Nearly 20 years into her recording career (30 if you count the early days in Quebec), Celine's multi-octave soprano is an international treasure, and even if you're not exactly swayed by her sometimes schmaltzy arrangements, you can't deny the lady hits a mean high note. But there's much more to Celine than vocal runs and chest-thumping.

She also puts on one helluva show, as she proved to a soldout crowd of 16,000 fans last night (and as she'll prove again tonight to another completely packed house).

Is it over-the-top? Of course it is: It's inspired by Cirque du Soleil, of all things, plus she just spent the last five years working out the kinks at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

And the levels were through the roof from the start of the very first number, a dance-rock cover of the Roy Orbison classic I Drove All Night, which found Dion strutting onstage in a lavender mini-dress and sky-high stilettos.

The tune gave Dion plenty of opportunity to showcase her onstage idiosyncrasies -- the winking, the snarling, the perpetual look of surprise at the end of a song or sustained bit of melisma -- plus there were at least three moments when she hit high notes so powerful you'd think an air raid siren had just gone off.

And she followed up with The Power of Love -- one of her biggest hits of all time, and another perfect showcase for that decibel-busting voice of hers.

But just when we started to worry that Dion might be overdoing it on the diva stuff, she paused to address the crowd in a manner that was 100% down-to-earth -- explaining how she'd brought both her seven-year-old son and her 81-year-old mother on tour with her, and laughing it off when an overexuberant fan pelted her with a rose.

Interlude over, she and her 10-piece band got back to the good stuff, knocking out dynamite versions of Taking Chances and the Jim Steinman-penned mini-epic It's All Coming Back to Me Now.

And those who accuse Dion of being subtlety-deficient would have been silenced by the quieter passages of ballads Because You Loved Me and To Love You More -- the latter benefitting from that extra second she waits before launching back into the chorus.

Naturally, there were costume changes. First, Dion disappeared beneath the stage while a troupe of dancers worked out a slinky flamenco number, reappearing in a black-and-silver ensemble to sing Eyes On Me and Eric Carmen's All By Myself.

And after that number -- which ended with Dion lying flat on her back -- she ducked back down again, resurfacing in a sparkly black pantsuit to soar through Shadow Of Love and the duet I'm Your Angel.

As press time rolled around, Dion was wrapping her pipes around Heart's power-ballad Alone, another song thatseems tailor-made for her purposes.

And as she again lifted her voice in hair-raising harmony with her backup singers, there could be no doubt she's possessed of an undeniable talent.

You can joke all you like. But Dion is the real deal.