Alwyn's Miss Julie rescued from the operatic desert

By Mark Pullinger, 04 October 2019

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“reminiscent of Ravel’s La Valse, a dance of death throbbing with desire in 3/4 time”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 3 October 2019

Alwyn, Miss Julie

Sakari Oramo, Conductor

Kenneth Richardson, Director

Anna Patalong, Miss Julie

Benedict Nelson, Jean

Rosie Aldridge, Kristin

Samuel Sakker, Ulrik

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Death is the star in a biting Kaiser von Atlantis at the Barbican

David Karlin, 23rd January

Ullmann's one act opera, written in the concentration camp at Terezin, receives a powerful performance from the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

****1

Death, destroyer of worlds

David Karlin, 25th April

At the Barbican last night, Gerald Finley, John Adams and the BBC Symphony Orchestra combined to deliver the heaviest operatic punch I’ve been subjected to all year.

*****

Where Bellini started: Opera Rara's Adelson e Salvini

David Karlin, 11th May

A youthful Bellini opera able to stand on its own two feet? Perhaps not, as Adelson e Salvini gets the Opera Rara treatment.

***11

Dalibor: The Czech Fidelio

Mark Pullinger, 2nd May

“What Czech does not like music?” declares Beneš, the jailor in Smetana’s opera Dalibor. Certainly not Jiří Bělohlávek, who is as superb an advocate for Czech music as any conductor in the world right now.

****1

Haydn, Hummel and Ravel performed with confidence by the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Evan Dickerson, 12th October

Josep Pons strode purposefully onto the Barbican stage to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Haydn’s “Clock” Symphony. The first movement opened by way of an Adagio laden with a suitable sense of portent, the layers of writing for the strings being clearly articulated to bring this out.

****1

Chiaroscuro extinguished: a self-indulgent Poppea in Copenhagen

Mengguang Huang, 26th April

Christoph Marthaler’s staging of Monteverdi’s Poppea for the Royal Danish Opera is a study in boredom.

**111

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.