Artaserse: A Countertenor Extravaganza at Versailles

By Nahoko Gotoh, 23 March 2014

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“When Fagioli sang this bravura aria with jaw-dropping virtuosity, the audience simply erupted”

Reviewed at Château de Versailles: Royal Opera House, Versailles on 19 March 2014

Vinci, Artaserse

Concerto Köln

Diego Fasolis, Conductor

Max Emanuel Cenčić, Mandane

Franco Fagioli, Arbace

Vince Yi, Artaserse

Juan Sancho, Artabano

Valer Sabadus, Semira

Yuriy Mynenko, Megabise

Silviu Purcărete, Director

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Alexandra Ivanoff, 27th January

The Hungarian State Opera offered up a belated Hungarian première by one of its native sons, Péter Eötvös – his 2007 opera Love and Other Demons.

***11

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Snapdragon, 17th October

Nicht alles ist makellos, doch trotz aller Schwächen war dies ein unvergesslicher Abend, und Edita Gruberovà behauptet wieder einmal ihren Platz in den Herzen der Wiener.

****1

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Mengguang Huang, 3rd May

Markus Bothe’s Botticelli-inspired production fuses tableau vivant aesthetics with Jörg Halubek’s surgical musical precision, offering a peerless, vivid tribute to the fragrant dawn of opera.

****1

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Hilary Stroh, 1st May

Carlisle Floyd's operatic setting of John Steinbeck’s classic novella is given a new production in the composer's centenary year at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

****1

Two funerals and a bedding at the Linbury Theatre

Eleanor Knight, 1st May

Tales of love and loss as operas by Elena Langer, Charlotte Bray and Elizabeth Maconchy form a varied triple bill in this showcase for The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Artists.

****1

Boston Doodle Dandy: Boston Lyric Opera presents La Fille du régiment

Kevin Wells, 1st May

Very few singers can hold an audience in the palm of their hand the way Brenda Rae as Marie does in this rollicking frolic.

****1

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Nahoko Gotoh

Nahoko is a UK-based Japanese music journalist with a background in musicology. She writes regularly for various Japanese media including Ongaku no tomo and Mostly Classic magazines.