A Tale of Two Hearts: Dickensian Rossini at Holland Park

By Mark Pullinger, 08 June 2014

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“Vocally, Kitty Whately is a Rosina to die for, with a warm, honeyed mezzo”

Reviewed at Holland Park Theatre, London on 7 June 2014

Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia

Matthew Kofi Waldren, Conductor

Oliver Platt, Director

Neil Irish, Set Designer

Kitty Whately, Rosina

Nico Darmanin, Count Almaviva

Nicholas Lester, Figaro

Jonathan Veira, Dr Bartolo

Kozári Alinka, Berta

Alistair Sutherland, Officer

Tom Asher, Ambrogio

Nicholas Crawley, Don Basilio, Fiorello

Opera Holland Park Chorus

City of London Sinfonia

Redemption Song: Jenůfa triumph signals a bright future for Hrůsa

Eleanor Knight, 15th January

Corinne Winters is phenomenal as the self-possessed Jenůfa in The Royal Opera's revival of Claus Guth's powerful staging.

*****

Opera Holland Park: colour and laughter as Figaro opens the season

Stephen Pritchard, 1st June

Amid all the18th-century flummery, contemporary touches abound as the OHP's post-pandemic season opens.

***11

Cilea’s L’arlesiana shines at Holland Park

Mark Pullinger, 25th July

A good, honest staging and solid singing add up to an excellent new production – its third – at Opera Holland Park.

****1

Emotion and mayhem: a golden double bill from Royal Academy Opera

Stephen Pritchard, 18th March

Students triumph in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges.

****1

A classically elegant Così fan tutte at OHP

John Johnston, 31st May

As the two sisters, Eleanor Dennis and Kitty Whately ideally complemented and blended with each other.

****1

Don Giovanni all at sea

Mark Pullinger, 3rd June

Mozart's Don Giovanni is transported by director Oliver Platt to The Queen Mary in the 1930s. It looks handsome enough, but the concept is flawed.

**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.