Since he first came to notice a few years ago — in Messiah in this very hall, as Creonte at Covent Garden, and as Arsace in Partenope at New York City Opera, to name by a few recently acclaimed performances — many a starry accolade has been heaped upon young Welsh countertenor, Iestyn Davies: “achingly beautiful tone”,“unforgettable focus and poignancy” and “compelling sense of rhetoric” are typical of the bountiful superlatives.
Category: Performances
Un ballo in maschera at its roots
In its production this season of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera
Lyric Opera of Chicago has staged the work in its original locale at the royal
court of Sweden.
December at Los Angeles Opera: Lohengrin and Rigoletto
At the end of November Los Angeles Opera brought two productions to the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
PellÈas et MÈlisande, New York
PellÈas et MÈlisande, Debussy’s impressionist drama closely
based on Maeterlinck’s eerie, symbolist play, is not a terribly vocal opera; it calls more for the subtlety of art song style than the belting of great divas and divos.
Susan Bullock, Wigmore Hall
It may have been five years since Susan Bullock last performed at the Wigmore Hall, as her prominence on the world operatic stage has taken her away from the recital hall, but she wasted no time getting into her stride in this charming and musically varied concert.
La Fanciulla del West, New York
La Fanciulla del West is Puccini’s love letter to an America that had acclaimed him joyously on his triumphant visit of 1907 to attend the Met premieres of Manon Lescaut and Madama Butterfly.
Karlsruhe Tosca: Guns ‘n’ Jesus
Badisches Staastheater’s production of Tosca starts off with a bang.
Paris: ‘Maler’ or ‘Malheur’?
No one could accuse the Paris Opera of pinching pennies (or Euro cents) in their lavishly expansive (and expensive) staging of Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler.
Wagner Tannh‰user: Royal Opera House, London
The Royal Opera House itself is the star of this new production of Richard Wagner Tannh‰user. An intriguing twist on an opera that pits orgiastic excess against purity, pleasure against morality.
La BohËme, New York
Perhaps the most unexpected occurrence of the evening was the malfunction of the Act I-Act II set change.