Hints and tips:
...Erin Morley’s pinpoint Zerbinetta brings light relief with her troupe of entertainers, only to find herself restrained during her big aria....
...Thomas Michael Allen imposingly projected Cato’s stoic rectitude, and Sarah Mesko, as Emilia, the widow of Caesar’s victim Pompey, coped ably with two fiendishly difficult arias....
...Giselle Allen is the handsome Lisa, Stephen Gadd a dignified Yeletsky, surrounded by strong comprimarios and an excellent chorus....
...René Barbera, a charming Nemorino, makes a strong bid for inclusion in the current bumper crop of bel canto tenors with a disarmingly simple yet dynamically subtle account of his big aria....
...Maybe this is what Allen believes directing is about....
...James Robinson oversaw a gripping, fluid, time-travelling production, abetted by Greg Emetaz’s projections and by Allen Moyer’s appealing sets, a series of multi-level dioramas that offered pleasures for...
...It didn’t enthral me, but because of the virtues enumerated above – plus James Robinson’s rich production, Allen Moyer’s stylish and versatile set, George Manahan’s expert conducting and singers who also...
...Laura Claycomb’s vivacious Zerbinetta seems to have lost the brilliance in her voice, possibly not helped by being tied up in a straitjacket as she was trying to sing her big aria....
...But as soon as the structural device of aria and recitative established itself, it became formulaic....
...And Jennifer Zetlan makes a high point of the fine aria in which Sardula, Abdul’s former girlfriend, agonises over how to tell Abdul she loves Kodanda....
...Dmitri Hvorostovsky gives Valentin everything he has and, though the aria lacked Gallic grace, his singing carried quite a punch....
...Yet the book ends not with a dirge of nihilistic despair but with the plaintive aria of a frustrated global revolutionary....
...Its aria-and-cabaletta style was already out of date by the time of its first performance in 1866....
...He had to create enough stand-alone arias, however inane or sentimental, for the string of operatic “stars” that would give the show credibility at the Met box-office....
...Herbie Hancock (pictured) and Lang Lang, who premiere the fruits of an 18-month collaboration at the Auditorium Stravinski on July 5; in the latter group, performers include girl-next-door singer Lily Allen...
...The vocal writing, for the most part, is lyrical, but Goren took the liberty of inserting a big bravura aria from another Haydn opera for the grieving heroine....
...Lily Allen does Lulu? Lulu does Lulu?...
...Susanna Phillips, a major discovery, contributes an exquisite, limpid-voiced Countess, with a lovely pianissimo for the aria “Dove sono”....
...aria....
...Verdi’s Don Carlo – too many acts, too many characters, too many major arias – would be eclipsed by Cavalleria Rusticana....
...With a clearer beat and more vital manner, Manson seemed to edge out Walker, but the real star was the soprano Sarah Coburn, who dazzled in Haydn’s demanding arias....
...We peer through the shoji doors to spy Lieutenant Pinkerton and his spurned Butterfly lolling about in jeans as a pianist runs through their arias....
International Edition