Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Riccardo Frizza

Showing 32 of 32 reviews

Loading image...

Perth welcomes the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

By David Smythe, 03 December 2024

The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with Riccardo Frizza conducting mix homeland sounds of Liszt and Kodály with Beethoven and Rachmaninov.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Perth

04 Dec 2024

Perth welcomes the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

By David Smythe

Loading image...

Bergamo

Tudor history, gothic thrills: Roberto Devereux opens tenth Donizetti Festival in Bergamo

By Mark Pullinger, 15 November 2024

Is Roberto Devereux the finest of Donizetti's four Tudor operas? Stephen Langridge's stylish, stylised production and a wonderful cast under Riccardo Frizza make a great case for it.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Bergamo

16 Nov 2024

Tudor history, gothic thrills: Roberto Devereux in Bergamo

By Mark Pullinger

Loading image...

Naples

Maria Stuarda: the second episode in Jetske Mijnssen's Tudor trilogy opens in Naples

By Lorenzo Fiorito, 20 June 2024

This production focuses on the psychological and human aspects of the central characters, rather than on their political conflict, with Elizabeth playing a pivotal role.

***11

Loading image...

***11

Naples

21 Jun 2024

Second episode in Jetske Mijnssen's Tudor trilogy opens in Naples

By Lorenzo Fiorito

Loading image...

Bergamo

Donizetti Festival’s Il diluvio universale drowned in a torrent of distracting video

By Stephen Pritchard, 17 November 2023

Artistic duo MASBEDO turn Donizetti’s tale of the Great Flood into a climate change polemic. Their unrelenting video overwhelms impressive singing from a cast led by bass Nahuel Di Pierro.

**111

Loading image...

**111

Bergamo

19 Nov 2023

Donizetti Festival’s Il diluvio universale drowned in video

By Stephen Pritchard

Loading image...

Naples

Annalisa Stroppa's Giovanna Seymour triumphs in San Carlo's Anna Bolena

By Lorenzo Fiorito, 08 June 2023

The Italian mezzo-soprano makes her mark as Anne Boleyn's rival in Jetske Mijnssen's production in Naples.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Naples

09 Jun 2023

Annalisa Stroppa's Giovanna triumphs in San Carlo's Anna Bolena

By Lorenzo Fiorito

Loading image...

Bergamo

La Favorite opens the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo

By Laura Servidei, 18 November 2022

The wonderful Javier Camarena joins Annalisa Stroppa, making her role debut, in a strong cast for a complete original version of La Favorite, in a successful production by Valentina Carrasco.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Bergamo

20 Nov 2022

La Favorite opens the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo

By Laura Servidei

Loading image...

Parma

Lamb to the slaughter(house): rare outing for the original Simon Boccanegra at the Teatro Regio

By Mark Pullinger, 25 September 2022

Boccanegra butchered in Parma? Only in the sense that director Valentina Carrasca sets the opera in an abattoir...

****1

Loading image...

****1

Parma

26 Sep 2022

Lamb to the slaughter(house): rare outing for 1857 Simon Boccanegra

By Mark Pullinger

Loading image...

Naples

Jessica Pratt hits the virtuosic heights in Barbiere at the Teatro di San Carlo

By Lorenzo Fiorito, 06 July 2022

An impressive revival of Filippo Crivelli's 1998 production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, with a lively cast in Naples.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Naples

10 Jul 2022

Jessica Pratt hits the virtuosic heights in San Carlo's Barbiere

By Lorenzo Fiorito

Loading image...

New York City

The Met’s new Lucia di Lammermoor: a good idea poorly executed by Simon Stone

By Ako Imamura, 26 April 2022

The Met unveils Simon Stone’s new production is set in a working class American town in decline... an interesting concept that ultimately fails to overcome its own cluttered ideas.

***11

Loading image...

***11

New York City

27 Apr 2022

The Met’s new Lucia: a good idea poorly executed by Simon Stone

By Ako Imamura

Loading image...

Bergamo

L’elisir d’amore: a successful, interactive opening of the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo

By Laura Servidei, 19 November 2021

Riccardo Frizza conducts Alberto Zedda's critical edition of L’elisir d’amore with a great cast, including tenor star Javier Camarena and a very young, very promising prima donna, Caterina Sala.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Bergamo

22 Nov 2021

A successful, interactive opening of the Donizetti Opera Festival

By Laura Servidei

Bergamo

Donizetti defies lockdown in Bergamo: Riccardo Frizza conducts a vivid account of Belisario

By Mark Pullinger, 21 November 2020

A concert performance of a middle period rarity is part of a slimmed down festival which transfers to an online format to audiences across the globe.

****1

****1

Bergamo

22 Nov 2020

Donizetti defies lockdown in Bergamo: Belisario

By Mark Pullinger

Bergamo

From Byron to Donizetti, the political drama of Marino Faliero in Bergamo

By Renato Verga, 20 November 2020

14th-century Venice, a city of intrigue, criminal activity and mysterious masks, is the setting for Donizetti's opera about the Doge Marino Faliero, whose life is torn between public and private issues.

****1

****1

Bergamo

21 Nov 2020

The political drama of Marino Faliero in Bergamo

By Renato Verga

Rome

A great cast for Anna Bolena at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

By Laura Servidei, 24 February 2019

Riccardo Frizza conducts a complete version of Donizetti’s masterpiece, with the debuts of Maria Agresta in the title role, Carmela Remigio as Giovanna Seymour and René Barbera as Percy.

****1

****1

Rome

26 Feb 2019

A great cast for Anna Bolena in Rome

By Laura Servidei

Bergamo

The first, forgotten Tudor Queen: Il castello di Kenilworth in Bergamo

By Laura Servidei, 24 November 2018

The Donizetti Opera Festival presents a rarity with a good cast of bel canto specialists in a somewhat disappointing production.

***11

***11

Bergamo

26 Nov 2018

The first, forgotten Tudor Queen: Il castello di Kenilworth in Bergamo

By Laura Servidei

Loading image...

Venice

A regal, integral version of Semiramide in Venice

By Laura Servidei, 21 October 2018

La Fenice presents Rossini’s monumental farewell to Italy and to 18th-century tradition in Ligorio’s elegant new production with a superb cast.

*****

Loading image...

*****

Venice

23 Oct 2018

A regal, integral version of Semiramide in Venice

By Laura Servidei

Milan

Sonya Yoncheva triumphs in Il pirata at La Scala

By James Imam, 29 June 2018

Yoncheva passed the test in style, providing a scintillating delivery that drew feverish approval from the public.

****1

****1

Milan

02 Jul 2018

Sonya Yoncheva triumphs in Il pirata at La Scala

By James Imam

Tokyo

Heart and soul: Irina Lungu sings Traviata in Tokyo

By Nahoko Gotoh, 16 November 2017

Tokyo's New National Theatre is currently celebrating its twentieth anniversary season with three new productions and revivals of their most popular productions including Vincent Boussard’s minimal yet colourful Traviata.

****1

****1

Tokyo

20 Nov 2017

Heart and soul: Irina Lungu sings Traviata in Tokyo

By Nahoko Gotoh

Budapest

Too much consolation: Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at Müpa

By David Karlin, 01 November 2017

An overpowering orchestra and unusual stage layout contribute to a disappointingly even-tempered Stabat Mater.

**111

**111

Budapest

01 Nov 2017

Too much consolation: Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at Müpa

By David Karlin

Parma

A melancholy Falstaff at the Verdi Festival in Parma

By Renato Verga, 01 October 2017

Not a particularly revealing Falstaff, but a pleasing performance though. Maybe one would have expected something of greater impact from a festival like this one, but that goal had already accomplished by Graham Vick with his Stiffelio the night before...

***11

***11

Parma

02 Oct 2017

A melancholy Falstaff at the Verdi Festival in Parma

By Renato Verga

Chicago

In new Norma, bel canto in the Iron Age

By Dan Wang, 28 January 2017

In the end, Newbury’s production leaves you with more questions than it answers.

**111

**111

Chicago

06 Feb 2017

In new Norma, bel canto in the Iron Age

By Dan Wang

Loading image...

Venice

Verdi at full throttle: an exhilarating Attila returns to La Fenice

By Mark Pullinger, 09 December 2016

A zinging account of Verdi's score, making up for Daniele Abbado's nondescript production.

****1

Loading image...

****1

Venice

10 Dec 2016

Verdi at full throttle: Attila returns to La Fenice

By Mark Pullinger

Macerata

Iago chills the blood in Macerata's gloomy Otello

By James Imam, 22 July 2016

Roberto Frontali is a stern, chillingly immobile Iago, armed with a brassy voice and a cleanness of diction that sees him carve Boito's text with surgical precision.

****1

****1

Macerata

26 Jul 2016

Macerata's gloomy Otello

By James Imam

New York City

Radvanovsky tackles the second of The Met’s Three Queens... and wins

By Robert Levine, 01 February 2016

A brilliant revival of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at The Met centres on the dramatic confrontation between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart at Fotheringhay.

****1

****1

New York City

02 Feb 2016

Radvanovsky tackles the second of The Met’s Three Queens

By Robert Levine

Verona

A Babylonian extravaganza: epic Nabucco at the Arena di Verona

By James Imam, 18 July 2015

De Bosio's highly traditional reading of Nabucco takes blockbuster form, aided by Veronese architect Rinaldo Olivieri's sets, which are at once epic and pragmatic.

***11

***11

Verona

20 Jul 2015

A Babylonian extravaganza: epic Nabucco in Verona

By James Imam

New York City

A welcome reprise of Zeffirelli's La Bohème at the Met

By David Browning, 23 September 2014

Zeffirelli's La Bohème at the Met never fails to charm. Balance issues aside, a beautifully sung performance by a very capable cast.

****1

****1

New York City

25 Sep 2014

A welcome reprise of Zeffirelli's La Bohème at the Met

By David Browning

New York City

Radiant Sondra Radvanovsky in Norma at the Met

By Rebecca Lentjes, 10 October 2013

When the Met estimated the timing for Norma, Bellini’s familiar bel canto opera included in their fall repertory this year, they did not factor in the ongoing applause for soprano Sondra Radvanovsky.

****1

****1

New York City

14 Oct 2013

The Met: Norma

By Rebecca Lentjes

Vienna

These are not your father's Huns: Konwitschny's bold new Attila at Theater an der Wien

By Chanda VanderHart, 10 July 2013

Giuseppe Verdi’s Attila is not an opera that one hears often. Composed during his self-styled “galley period” – before he found his mature musical voice with Rigoletto – Attila has inherent musical and dramaturgical weaknesses. With one foot still firmly rooted in bel canto tradition, the numerous cabalettas can be exhausting, even ridiculous, considering the dramatic nature of the text.

****1

****1

Vienna

12 Jul 2013

These are not your father's Huns: Konwitschny's bold new Attila at Theater an der Wien

By Chanda VanderHart

San Francisco

Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in San Francisco

By Jeffery S. McMillan, 03 October 2012

In the last few decades, Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi has flirted with standard repertory status, but it has not sufficiently won the hearts of opera-goers to warrant more than the occasional production. Though blessed with some of the composer’s finest melodies, the opera has problems for modern audiences.

**111

**111

San Francisco

13 Oct 2012

Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in San Francisco

By Jeffery S. McMillan

Yountville

Joshua Bell and Hélène Grimaud raise the roof at Festival del Sole

By Brenden Guy, 22 July 2012

The Napa Valley is famous for its picturesque countryside, stunning weather and fine wine. With the ambitious Festival del Sole concluding their seventh season on Sunday night with a concert featuring two titans of classical music - Joshua Bell and Hélène Grimaud – they proved that “wine country” has even more to offer the Northern California region than that which makes them one of the premier de

***11

***11

Yountville

25 Jul 2012

Joshua Bell and Hélène Grimaud raise the roof at Festival del Sole

By Brenden Guy

Vienna

Tales retold: Hoffmann restaged at the Theater an der Wien

By Zwölftöner, 06 July 2012

The venerable Viennese tradition of airing dirty operatic laundry in public found an unlikely proponent this season in the form of the Theater an der Wien’s mild-mannered director Roland Geyer, who, unhappy with William Friedkin’s production of The Tales of Hoffmann in March, abruptly sacked the American director and announced he would devise a new staging himself a matter of months before the sec

**111

**111

Vienna

09 Jul 2012

Tales retold: Hoffmann restaged at the Theater an der Wien

By Zwölftöner

Vienna

Strong storytelling in the Theater an der Wien’s Tales of Hoffmann

By Zwölftöner, 02 April 2012

Director William Friedkin doesn’t put a dramaturgical foot wrong in his Theater an der Wien production of The Tales of Hoffmann and yet doesn’t challenge, or even engage with, any of the opera’s Romantic positions.

****1

****1

Vienna

05 Apr 2012

Strong storytelling in the Theater an der Wien’s Tales of Hoffmann

By Zwölftöner

New York City

The Met in HD, Armida, 2010

By Nahoko Gotoh, 01 May 2010

Read our review of Mary Zimmerman's production of Rossini's Armida in its 2010 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

New York City

01 Dec 2013

The Met in HD, Armida, 2010

By Nahoko Gotoh