Congratulations, Opéra de Lyon, winner of the Best Production award for Romeo Castellucci's terrific production of Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher. Bachtrack's Beate Langenbruch was bowled over:
“Romeo Castellucci’s staging and Piersandra Di Matteo’s dramaturgy seem precisely to shed light on the range and complexity of Paul Claudel’s libretto, at the same time analytic, allegorical, grotesque, epic and burlesque, mediaeval and modern."
Congratulations to Anita Rachvelishvili, winner of the Best Female Singer award for her performance of Dalila in Samson et Dalila at the Opéra de Paris in October. Bachtrack's Anne-Laure Faubert enthused about how Rachvelishvili was:
“able to play a woman who is in turn manipulative, loving and determined, she succeeds brilliantly in the three great arias, and her duet with Samson is a thing of utter beauty”
Congratulations to Lawrence Brownlee, winner of the Best Male Singer award for his performance of Ernesto in Don Pasquale at the San Francisco Opera in September. Bachtrack's Ilana Walder-Biesanz enthused about how Brownlee:
“...casually hit dizzying vocal heights while fighting to shove clothes into a suitcase or pounding the ground in despair”