A comic collaboration in Liverpool: Terfel sings Gianni Schicchi

Sir Bryn Terfel and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Soloists from the European Opera Centre

By Peter Connors, 13 March 2023

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“although Terfel led the ensemble of singers it was very much a team effort”

Reviewed at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool on 12 March 2023

Puccini, Le Villi: La tregenda

Puccini, Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo

Mascagni, L'amico Fritz: Intermezzo sinfonico

Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo

Ponchielli, La Gioconda: La danza delle ore (the dance of the hours)

Puccini, Gianni Schicchi

European Opera Centre

Domingo Hindoyan, Conductor

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Bryn Terfel, Gianni Schicchi

Anaïs Constans, Lauretta

Matteo Roma, Rinuccio

Indyana Schneider, Zita

Robert Forrest, Gherardo

Aimée Fisk, Nella

Matteo Loi, Betto di Signa

Felipe Cudina, Simone

Stefano Marchisio, Marco

Céline Akçag, La Ciesca

Jacobo Ochoa, Maestro Spinelloccio

Emmanuel Franco, Ser Amantio di Nicolao

Patrick Alexander Keefe, Pinellino

Dionysios Avgerinos, Guccio

Britten's The Beggar's Opera with the RLPO

Andrew H. King, 1st March

On 29 January 1728, at John Rich’s theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, playwright John Gay and composer Johann Christoph Pepusch presented to the London public a new ballad opera that would shake the foundations of musical entertainment.

****1

A sorta fairy tale: Sleepers Awake premieres at Opera Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 22nd April

A new opera by Gregory Spears subverts the Sleeping Beauty trope, with middling results.

**111

Asmik Grigorian strengthens the Met’s revival of Eugene Onegin

Susan Stempleski, 20th April

The Lithuanian soprano’s riveting performance as the central character in Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece lights up Deborah Warner’s mostly bland production.

****1

At half mast: Simon Boccanegra revived in Vienna

Orsolya Gyárfás, 19th April

Marco Armiliato's conducting thrills and Federica Lombardi's radiant Amelia stands out in the Wiener Staatsoper's latest revival of Simon Boccanegra.

***11

Anna Netrebko shines in Vienna’s timeless Tosca

Laura Servidei, 18th April

In a world where opera productions often stray into the abstract, the Wiener Staatsoper’s Tosca offers a refreshing return to tradition – and Anna Netrebko delivers a splendid performance.

****1

Weinberg’s The Passenger at Dutch National Opera

Clare Varney, 17th April

Tobias Kratzer's 2024 Munich production makes its way to Amsterdam, proving that Weinberg's opera has the power to transfix.

****1

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Peter Connors

Peter has been attending concerts and operas enthusiastically since his parents took him to see The Mikado in Liverpool when he was a boy of ten and to a “family concert” given by the RLPO a year or so later. Peter studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, Oxford and Law in Manchester. After spending twenty years as a pensions lawyer in Manchester, he retrained as a teacher of English as a foreign language, which took him to Germany and to Serbia. With the onset of the pandemic he returned to the UK and now works online and frequents concert halls and theatres in the North West of England.

A comic collaboration in Liverpool: Sir Bryn Terfel sings Gianni Schicchi