Holst and Weir operas from the Guildhall School of Music

Lorna Maclean (Sāvitri) and Steven van der Linden (Satyavān)

Jonah Halton (Hugo, Walther) and Louisa Stirland (A bird)

Emyr Lloyd Jones (Blond Eckbert)

By David Truslove, 07 June 2023

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“a vivid impression that underlined the work’s disturbing ambiguities”

Reviewed at Guildhall School of Music & Drama: Silk Street Theatre, London on 5 June 2023

Holst, Sāvitri

Weir, Blond Eckbert

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Timothy Redmond, Conductor

Ashley Dean, Director

Anna Bonomelli, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Andrew May, Lighting Designer

Lorna McLean, Sāvitri

Steven van der Linden, Satyavān

Joe Chalmers, Death

Louisa Stirland, A bird

Alexandra Meier, Berthe

Emyr Lloyd Jones, Blond Eckbert

Jonah Halton, Hugo, Walther, An old woman

Respighi’s Lucrezia compels in Guildhall School’s double bill

Dominic Lowe, 3rd November

Pleas for more Respighi operas are answered as the students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama give the UK premiere of Lucrezia, paired with Ethel Smyth's Der Wald.

****1

Sacred and profane in Guildhall School's Respighi double bill

Susannah Moody, 6th November

From the spiritual conversion of a Medieval sex-worker, to the Sleeping Beauty tale reimagined, Guildhall stages a Respighi double-bill.

***11

Dead Man Walking given a triumphant staging by Guildhall School

Mark Valencia, 27th February

Under Dominic Wheeler’s expert baton the musicians, all youthful if not downright young, give a spectacular account of a harrowing score.

****1

Picture perfect: a fine triple bill from the Guildhall School

Dominic Lowe, 11th November

Massenet, Smyth and Rota are unlikely bedfellows, but in the Guildhall School's Autumn production, a one-act opera by each contributed to a most convincing triple bill, all set around the La Scala Picturehouse in the 1920s.

****1

Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon outshines Bizet at Guildhall School

David Karlin, 1st November

A double bill of French operettas shows Guildhall students to advantage as well as providing an introduction to Viardot that's well worth the trip.

***11

Britten's Dream haunts Guildhall School

Roy Westbrook, 1st March

Dominic Wheeler did full justice to Britten’s brilliantly colourful and haunting score right from those first eerie glissandi.

****1

More reviews...

David Truslove

After many years as a musician – conducting choirs, singing as a lay clerk at Winchester Cathedral and an involvement in education, David now writes programme notes, occasionally composes and enjoys a busy schedule of reviewing.

Holst’s Sāvitri and Weir’s Blond Eckbert from the Guildhall School of Music