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

Péter Eötvös: music for martyrs in Budapest

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

Gruberovà und kein Ende der Begeisterung

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

Diamonds and steel: Anna Pirozzi rules in La Scala’s Turandot revival

Laura Servidei, 12th April

Visually enchanting and meticulously staged, this centenary revival confirms Livermore's production as a modern classic.

****1

Art imitates art in ETO’s bracing new Pagliacci

Dominic Lowe, 10th April

Divorced from Cavalleria rusticana, English Touring Opera’s contemporary take on Leoncavallo’s masterpiece ticks all the boxes.

****1

Regents Opera’s Salome lands a knockout punch at York Hall

Mark Pullinger, 10th April

Mark Ravenhill directs a brutal, bloody Salome for Regents Opera at the spiritual home of British boxing, York Hall.

****1

Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno returns to Rome

Pia Maltri, 7th April

Robert Carsen’s staging of Handel's oratorio arrives, via Salzburg, in the city where Handel composed it in 1707.

****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.