But it was a stirring performance.Īnd Plácido Domingo, I can feel you ask! His appearance was pretty low key, actually. It's the opera aria that everybody knows, and it can sound tiresome and clichéd when over-used or used out of context. I also loved Joseph Calleja's Nessun dorma I don't believe I have ever heard it performed live. My other highlights took me slightly by surprise: Sonya Yoncheva's Depuis le jour from Gustave Charpentier's Louise was moving. I especially remembered being here two days after London had won the Olympics, one day after it had been bombed, the incredible spirit of that day, and reflecting that we were now just two days away from London 2012. Not least, flooding me with memories of some wonderful performances of this opera and this excerpt in particular. Up until then I had felt rather disillusioned, but the magic of the music grabbed my emotions. Indeed, as she took up Du bist der Lenz from Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond I spontaneously burst into tears.
My personal highlights were, unsurprisingly, the Wagner excerpts, which by default makes Nina Stemme my outstanding singer. I found the Bellini and Rossini pieces boring beyond words and I won't insult the doubtlessly fine singers by commenting further, because this was undoubtedly due to my personal feelings about bel canto, and anything further is unhelpful to you. In short, less bel canto and a token nod at Handel would have been welcome, but with Tony Pappano conducting, this was never going to happen. Also, this being badged as part of the London 2012 Festival, the absence of English pieces was an oversight. And there was a reasonable variety of pieces, although nothing post-Puccini and nothing pre-Rossini. Certainly no near neighbours found time to read the newspaper as we waited for the next act. Apart from starting, suitably, with the Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg every other piece was sung, and the transition between pieces was smoothly executed with no long pauses after the applause had died away. I was, by and large, pleased with the way the concert was programmed. I wasn't quite sure what the people two rows in front hoped to capture with their phone cameras! And, as I write, they appear to have no photos available on their Facebook or Flickr sites. And I decided not to take any photos because my seat, in row H of the amphitheatre, was so far above the stage that I know that they would be just shots of the top of people's heads, I have 300 unedited photos on the PC and I didn't fancy going through dozens of dismal shots trying to salvage something usable.
I am not a reviewer, I'm not paid to review, and I certainly don't get free tickets, so I don't intend to go through a detailed review. Considerably the large number of people performing and knowing how these things can go, I was pleasantly surprised that no other singers found reasons to withdraw.
I say revised, because unfortunately Erwin Schrott had to withdraw due to illness. As a result, the (revised) programme is available for download from the website. I bought a programme, but they run out and a lot of people were unhappy. This concert happened at the Royal Opera House last Wednesday.
0 kommentar(er)
