Mainly Opera and Ballet
Antonio Pappano bows out at the Royal Opera with a superb Andrea Chénier. This verismo opera by Giordano is one of the great operas of that genre, with a superb libretto by Luigi Illica who wrote for Puccini and other Italian opera composers of that time. It brings the French Revolution and its bloody aftermath …
A man’s father is killed by an accidental gunshot. He holds his sister and her foreign lover responsible, and vows revenge. Despite the lovers parting, and taking sanctuary in religious devotion, they cannot escape the son’s undying fury, which in a scene of poetic justice reunites them at the end. The opera is based on …
In this hugely welcome revival of David McVicar’s 2015 production, the three greatest moments came in Act III: Sondra Radvanovsky’s terrific Mamma morta, Dimitri Platanias’s cri de coeur against the wrong turn the Revolution has taken, and Elena Zilio’s electrifying cameo about giving her grandson to fight and die for France. Roberto Alagna’s Chenier was less …
Seeing this opera for the second time in less than three year convinced me that it fills a much-needed gap in the repertoire. Clearly the cuts in London made by Opera Holland Park in 2010 were well judged. But if you’re one of the singers or the conductor or a member of the orchestra it …
David Alden’s vivid production of Verdi’s Ballo, portrays the main characters Riccardo and Renato in their historical roles as the Swedish king Gustav III and his murderer Anckarström. The assassination took place at a masked ball, and in an account written by a Polish officer who was present, the king received an anonymous warning “N’allez pas …
This was a terrific performance, with Sondra Radvanovsky and Roberto Alagna in superb voice as Leonora and Manrico.
