Hints and tips:
...Liparit Avetisyan also returns as Alfredo, at his best in the light and shade he brings to his aria, and Juan Jesús Rodríguez is a forthright Giorgio Germont with the right kind of Mediterranean sound, but...
...The high point was her searing account of Violetta’s death-obsessed aria, “Addio del passato”, both verses....
...Abdellah Lasri, as Alfredo, has the same problem, combined with audible nerves, so that the beautiful lines and lush colours of his voice are all too seldom evident....
...Most importantly, she never allows technical hurdles to eclipse the emotional message; her big Act One aria is just as dramatic as it is virtuosic....
...Mr Arias Cañete added that the situation would have been different had he debated with Alfredo Rubalcaba, the leader of Spain’s Socialist party....
...In a rhetorical showdown with Alfredo Rubalcaba, “we would throw all kinds of barbarities at each other…with a woman this would be perceived differently”....
...“They don’t know which way to go, so they are going nowhere,” says Mr Arias Maldonado....
...The real question is why, in a season with only three new productions, intendant Nicolas Joel chose to finance a new version of a repertoire lollipop rather than reviving Alfredo Arias’ perfectly adequate...
...So they helped legitimise the nationalist discourse – and now they are suffering the consequences,” argues Manuel Arias Maldonado, a lecturer in political science at the University of Malaga....
...“Things turned out not to be so easy to solve,” says Manuel Arias Maldonado, professor of politics at the University of Málaga, who detects rising resentment of the whole political class in Spain....
...Laurent Pelly’s production is fluent while giving pride of place to Dessay, partnered by Saimir Pirgu’s promising Alfredo and an exceptionally fine Germont from Laurent Naouri....
...She was melting in those lovely descending intervals at the climax of her familiar aria and soared vocally above the other participants in the climactic Act 2 quartet, the opera’s musical high point....
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