Termine Kritiken Artikel Video

Finde Artikel | Simon Holden

Simon Holden

Simon Holden

Simon is an operaphile based in Auckland, New Zealand. He wrote his dissertation on Japanese popular music. With a background in piano and classical music retail, he spends his time attending as much opera or vocal concert as he can and blogs at irishenceaway.blogspot.com.

Autor:Simon Holden

Deutschsprachige Inhalte zuerst anzeigen

50 von 118 Artikel angezeigt

Erfolgreiches Rollendebut für Anna Netrebko in einem spektakulären Münchner Macbeth

Von Simon Holden, 27 Juni 2014

Anna Netrebko gibt ein großartiges Rollendebut aus Lady Macbeth in einer Wiederaufnahme von Martin Kušej's chaotischer Inszenierung von Verdis erster Shakespeare-Oper.

****1

Netrebko feiert ihren Triumph als Lady Macbeth

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Gemma New conducts the NZSO in a superb Mahler 6 in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 06 September 2025

A key feature of New’s Mahler is the ability to keep everything cohesive across the long span of the works as witnessed in this account of the Sixth Symphony.

*****

Loading image...

Gemma New conducts a superb Mahler 6 in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Bruno Ravella's stunning direction elevates New Zealand Opera's La bohème

Von Simon Holden, 29 Mai 2025

New Zealand Opera's new production impresses with its stunning set design and art direction, and its restrained emotional tone.

***11

Loading image...

Stunning direction elevates New Zealand Opera's La bohème

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Masaaki Suzuki and the NZSO take on classical music’s legends

Von Simon Holden, 10 Mai 2025

In invigorating performances of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in Auckland, Suzuki's interpretative approach evokes the sensibilities of historically informed performance.

*****

Loading image...

Masaaki Suzuki and the NZSO take on classical music’s legends

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Astonishing Rachmaninov from Daniil Trifonov

Von Simon Holden, 12 April 2025

Daniil Trifonov takes New Zealand by storm with a performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto of technical command and musical artistry.

*****

Loading image...

Astonishing Rachmaninov from Daniil Trifonov

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

In Auckland, Piers Lane finds diversity of mood in Chopin's Nocturnes

Von Simon Holden, 09 März 2025

It was clear that there is much more to Lane’s conception of these works than mere surface beauty.

****1

Loading image...

Piers Lane finds diversity of mood in Chopin's Nocturnes

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

The orchestra shine in NZSO's Puccini Arias programme

Von Simon Holden, 26 Oktober 2024

The NZSO are on sparkling form in Puccini arias and other operatic orchestral passages; Eliza Boom shows her potential as a Puccini singer of the future.

***11

Loading image...

The orchestra shine in NZSO's Puccini Arias programme

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Fine singing but messy production of Le Comte Ory from New Zealand Opera in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 30 Mai 2024

Director Simon Phillips takes the opportunity to reshape the setting of Rossini's comic opera to modern-day New Zealand.

***11

Loading image...

Fine singing but messy staging: Le Comte Ory at New Zealand Opera

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Disappointing Bach in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 02 Mai 2024

David Fray's mannered Bach is a let-down, but Karl-Heinz Steffens brings out the spacious majesty in Bruckner's Ninth Symphony.

**111

Loading image...

Disappointing Bach in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Blissful Mansfield Park in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 21 April 2024

Dove’s masterful adaptation, combined with an ebullient and characterful rendition by New Zealand Opera, make for a very effective and at times, very moving, afternoon at the opera.

*****

Loading image...

Blissful Mansfield Park in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Brandenburg Echoes in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 18 April 2024

With all soloists demonstrating charming ornamentation, a wonderful sense of fun and ease pervades the APO's performance.

****1

Loading image...

Brandenburg Echoes in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Gemma New and the NZSO travel through twentieth century music

Von Simon Holden, 27 Oktober 2023

Centred around Scriabin’s mystical Poem of Ecstasy, a thrilling journey through the byways of twentieth century music takes in New Zealand, Finland and France.

****1

Loading image...

Gemma New and the NZSO travel through twentieth century music

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Gluck reimagined: (m)Orpheus in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 06 September 2023

Gareth Farr re-orchestrates Gluck in Neil Ieremia's imaginative reinterpretation of the Orpheus myth for New Zealand Opera.

****1

Loading image...

Gluck reimagined: (m)Orpheus in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

A masterful Così fan tutte in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 31 Mai 2023

Lindy Hume directs a refreshingly uncomplicated new staging for New Zealand Opera, supported by fine musical performances.

****1

Loading image...

A masterful Così fan tutte in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Bach and Stravinsky lack clarity in Auckland's Holy Trinity Cathedral

Von Simon Holden, 28 April 2023

Cavernous acoustics hamper individual lines in the latest concert in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's “Baroque and Beyond” series.

**111

Loading image...

Bach and Stravinsky lack clarity in Auckland's Holy Trinity Cathedral

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

A sublime Mahler 3 from Gemma New and the NZSO in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 01 April 2023

The strings brought gleaming tone to their long phrases, the cellos particularly gorgeous in tone and deeply felt in phrasing, and New built each restatement to glorious and emotional crushing climax.

****1

Loading image...

A sublime Mahler 3 from Gemma New and the NZSO in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

The Wishing Tree: the Gesualdo Six at the Auckland Arts Festival

Von Simon Holden, 15 März 2023

From the oppressed Catholic minority of 16th-century England to contemporary settings, The Gesualdo Six bring their Wishing Tree programme to Auckland.

****1

Loading image...

The Wishing Tree: the Gesualdo Six at the Auckland Arts Festival

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

A triumphant final chapter in the Auckland PO's Beethoven cycle

Von Simon Holden, 02 März 2023

Much delayed by the pandemic, Giordano Bellincampi's Beethoven symphony cycle with the Auckland PO finally reaches its conclusion with a triumphant closing concert.

*****

Loading image...

A triumphant final chapter in the Auckland PO's Beethoven cycle

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

The Auckland Philharmonia takes audience to the New World

Von Simon Holden, 23 Februar 2023

New Zealand-born violinist Geneva Lewis soars in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, framed in Giordano Bellincampi's programme by Korngold and Dvořák.

****1

Loading image...

The Auckland Philharmonia takes audience to the New World

Von Simon Holden

Unearthing New Zealand's lost art-song tradition

Von Simon Holden, 14 August 2022

In this part-concert and part-lecture, Michael Vinten chronicles the history or New Zealand art song through the lives of the composers and poets featured, stories alternately hilarious and tragic.

****1

Unearthing New Zealand's lost art-song tradition

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

The highest beauty imaginable: astonishing Prokofiev from Hilary Hahn and the NZSO

Von Simon Holden, 05 August 2022

Hahn balanced tranquility and ferocity in Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, and conductor Gemma New drew out an especially nuanced reading of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.

*****

Loading image...

The highest beauty imaginable: astonishing Prokofiev from Hilary Hahn

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Requiem opens the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's miniature Verdi Festival

Von Simon Holden, 07 Juli 2022

An excitingly theatrical Verdi Requiem under Giordano Bellincampi, benefitting greatly from a mostly stunning line-up of solo singers.

***11

Loading image...

Requiem opens the APO's miniature Verdi Festival

Von Simon Holden

Loading image...

Christian Li displays stunning virtuosity in Saint-Saëns and Ravel in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 21 April 2022

An astonishing showcase, with Christian Li tackling both works with technical skill and swagger that belied his tender age.

****1

Loading image...

Christian Li displays stunning virtuosity in Saint-Saëns and Ravel

Von Simon Holden

A taste of Vienna with the Auckland Philharmonia

Von Simon Holden, 08 Juli 2021

The slow movement is gorgeous in an unashamedly romantic fashion and Morrison, some moments of uncertain intonation aside, gave a poetic rendition, at times fining his sound down to the most exquisite filigree of sound.

****1

A taste of Vienna with the Auckland Philharmonia

Von Simon Holden

A meeting of cultures in NZSO's Matariki concert

Von Simon Holden, 02 Juli 2021

A combination of Western orchestral tradition and traditional Māori culture proves a fascinating and a worthwhile contribution to New Zealand’s orchestral repertoire.

****1

A meeting of cultures in NZSO's Matariki concert

Von Simon Holden

A refreshing new Nozze di Figaro from New Zealand Opera

Von Simon Holden, 08 Juni 2021

Lindy Hume directs a new production of Mozart's masterpiece which proves a constant delight.

****1

A refreshing new Nozze di Figaro from New Zealand Opera

Von Simon Holden

Simon O'Neill and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra standouts in Fidelio

Von Simon Holden, 08 Mai 2021

Giordano Bellincampi presides over a fleet and crisp performance of Beethoven's only opera, performed in Auckland Town Hall.

***11

Simon O'Neill and the APO standouts in Auckland Fidelio

Von Simon Holden

Inside out: Eight Songs for a Mad King in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 11 März 2020

The vocal part requires a range covering over five octaves, from the lowest bass notes to a high falsetto and Robert Tucker coped amazingly with the score’s lyrical elements and the various shrieking, whispering and clucking noises he was called upon to create.

****1

Inside out: Eight Songs for a Mad King in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Juilliard 415 excels in French and Italian Baroque in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 28 Februar 2020

In each brief and catchy excerpt, the ensemble played with infectious vitality and admirable precision.

****1

Juilliard 415 excels in French and Italian Baroque in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Edo de Waart signs off with awe-inspiring Mahler in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 23 November 2019

De Waart once again showed a formidable grasp of the musical structure so that the occasional outbursts of violence made thematic sense and a strong feeling of tension led up to the final cry of despair.

*****

Edo de Waart signs off with awe-inspiring Mahler in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

NZSO's enthralling Salonen and Schubert

Von Simon Holden, 09 November 2019

Edo de Waart and the NZSO thrill with the old warhorse that is Schubert's ninth as much as in an insightful and exciting rendition of Salonen's Violin Concerto.

****1

NZSO's enthralling Salonen and Schubert

Von Simon Holden

Ambiguity rules in New Zealand Opera's Turn of the Screw

Von Simon Holden, 18 Oktober 2019

Astonishingly vivid performances from an ensemble cast made it one of the most outstanding of their recent productions, an auspicious sign as de Mallet Burgess takes over the General Directorship of the company.

****1

Ambiguity rules in New Zealand Opera's Turn of the Screw

Von Simon Holden

Grotesquery and cowhorns: HK Gruber and Håkan Hardenberger bring “pan-demonium” to Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 11 Oktober 2019

It was an altogether riotous and highly enjoyable performance of a wacky work, one long overdue to be heard in this country.

****1

Grotesquery and cowhorns in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Intense Schubert and Ravel from the Mullova trio

Von Simon Holden, 16 September 2019

A case of musical minds being in particularly close interpretative sync, revealing the music not through showy display but through restrained but intense concentration.

****1

Intense Schubert and Ravel from the Mullova trio

Von Simon Holden

Viktoria Mullova's intense Sibelius in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 12 September 2019

In the exquisite singing line of the second movement, the appeal was not just in her beauty of tone but in the concentrated feeling Mullova brought to the shaping of each phrase.

****1

Viktoria Mullova's intense Sibelius in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Exploring the fugue with the Brodsky Quartet in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 13 Mai 2019

This was a true tour de force and a fitting climax to a rather miraculous examination of counterpoint through musical history.

****1

Exploring the fugue with the Brodsky Quartet in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Susan Graham's gripping New Zealand debut

Von Simon Holden, 29 März 2019

This was astonishing and gripping vocalism from a true master of Berlioz style.

*****

Susan Graham's gripping New Zealand debut

Von Simon Holden

Kosky's mesmerising Magic Flute in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 08 März 2019

The Queen of the Night appeared as a malevolent giant spider, complete with exoskeleton, threatening Tamino with her stabbing limbs and summoning hordes of smaller spiders to writhe over Pamina when the latter hesitated to commit to Sarastro's murder.

****1

Kosky's mesmerising Magic Flute in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Sweeping Bruckner but lacklustre Beethoven from the Auckland Philharmonia

Von Simon Holden, 28 Februar 2019

Bellincampi’s way with this symphony was impressive: he knitted the composer’s sometimes diffuse structural cells into something cohesive, with no loss of tension in the various silences and odd transitional moments.

***11

Sweeping Bruckner but lacklustre Beethoven from the APO

Von Simon Holden

Intense Mahler and Schubert from Thomas E. Bauer in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 15 November 2018

The vocal items in this programme were the most successful, driven as they were by Bauer's searing interpretations.

****1

Intense Mahler and Schubert from Thomas E. Bauer in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Stephen Layton leads a nuanced St Matthew Passion in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 04 Oktober 2018

Stephen Layton returns to Auckland to continue his series of Bach's choral masterpieces with the APO.

****1

A nuanced St Matthew Passion in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Talented young cast shines in New Zealand Opera's La bohème

Von Simon Holden, 19 September 2018

It was hard not to be drawn in by the romance and tragedy as presented by such a sincere, credible and vocally talented young cast and a conductor with such strong identification with the idiom.

****1

Talented young cast shines in New Zealand Opera's La bohème

Von Simon Holden

Ebullience and piquant timbres: Ensemble Zefiro plays Mozart divertimenti in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 18 August 2018

An evening made up of five Mozart divertimentos had its longueurs, but the Italian period instrument ensemble delighted the audience.

***11

Ebullience and piquant timbres: Ensemble Zefiro

Von Simon Holden

Stunning Weber from Andreas Ottensamer in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 21 Juni 2018

The Viennese clarinettist joined the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto in a programme of Copland, Weber and Shostakovich.

****1

Stunning Weber from Andreas Ottensamer in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Simon O'Neill's thrilling Wesendonck-Lieder in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 09 Juni 2018

The New Zealander Heldentenor makes a welcome return to Auckland for Wagner's erotic song cycle.

***11

Simon O'Neill's thrilling Wesendonck-Lieder in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

New Zealand Opera’s L’elisir d’amore: an evergreen charmer

Von Simon Holden, 31 Mai 2018

Charming and hilarious by turn, this production fields a largely young and Kiwi cast.

*****

New Zealand Opera’s L’elisir d’amore: an evergreen charmer

Von Simon Holden

Disappointing Candide in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 23 März 2018

Though occasionally entertaining, this production was ultimately unsatisfying as a stage presentation of Bernstein’s work.

**111

Disappointing Candide in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

A heartwrenching Káťa Kabanová in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 19 September 2017

New Zealand Opera continues to strongly advocate Czech works, resulting in a gripping Káťa Kabanová.

*****

A heartwrenching Káťa Kabanová in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

La Damnation de Faust on autopilot in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 27 August 2017

Edo de Waart opted frequently for slow, steady tempi that robbed the music of a lot of its inner vitality.

**111

La Damnation de Faust on autopilot in Auckland

Von Simon Holden

Fascinating Manon Lescaut in Auckland

Von Simon Holden, 14 Juli 2017

Puccini’s score has many thrilling moments, here taken up by a fascinating if uneven cast of singers.

****1

Fascinating Manon Lescaut in Auckland

Von Simon Holden