Louise Kemeny and Rupert Compston

By Sebastian Scotney, 29 December 2010

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Reviewed at Foundling Museum, Brunswick Square, London on 18 July 2010

Britten, On this Island for soprano or tenor and piano, Op.11

Bellini, I Capuleti e I Montecchi: Eccomi in lieta vesta

Donizetti, La Conocchia (Folksong): Quann'a lo bello mio voglio parlare

Schubert, Ganymed (Goethe), D.544

Debussy, Quatre chansons de jeunesse

Louise Kemény, Soprano

Rupert Compston, Piano

Fine cast shines in Garsington's new Mitridate

Stephen Pritchard, 1st June

Robert Murray excels as the eponymous king in the opera seria that cemented the 14-year old Mozart’s position as the next big thing.

***11

Ballett Zürich's Monteverdi celebrates music in dance

Sarah Batschelet, 15th January

Blending the music of Monteverdi with lesser-known contemporaries, and even some pop, choreographer Christian Spuck takes leave of Zürich with a work that is as full of poetry as it is of emotional charge.

****1

Darkness and pain in Mark Padmore's St Matthew Passion

Benjamin Poore, 26th March

A brooding and melancholy presentation of Bach’s masterpiece from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mark Padmore.

*****

Bonbon-box Marriage of Figaro at DNO

Jenny Camilleri, 6th September

The singing is the main attraction in Dutch National Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro, but this new production is also entertaining and looks good enough to eat.

****1

Agrippina: Power-dressed and power hungry

Charlotte Valori, 25th July

Bruno Ravella's version of Handel's Agrippina moves the action from Classical Rome to the avaricious Eighties in a sharp, amusing night at Iford.

***11

Strong and stylish Ottone from ETO

Charlotte Valori, 24th October

A beautiful and much-put-upon princess, a pair of royal lovers who have never met, a scheming mother, and a pirate who is a prince in disguise: Ottone is a feast of ideas, beauty and fun.

****1

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Sebastian Scotney

Sebastian has written about music for the Daily Telegraph, Prospect, Arts Industry and the Bulletin in Brussels. He has been a professor at the Royal College of Music and has recorded a CD of the Mozart clarinet quintet with the Maggini Quartet.