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

By Stephen Pritchard, 19 March 2019

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“ensemble work at its best”

Reviewed at Royal Academy of Music: Susie Sainsbury Theatre, London on 18 March 2019

Tchaikovsky, Iolanta

Ravel, L'Enfant et les sortilèges

Royal Academy Opera

Gareth Hancock, Conductor

Oliver Platt, Director

Alyson Cummins, Set Designer

Samantha Quillish, Iolanta

Shengzhi Ren, Vaudémont

Sung Kyu Choi, Robert

Thomas Bennett, King René

Emilie Cavallo, Brigitta

Yuki Akimoto, Laura

Leila Zanette, Martha

Joseph Buckmaster, Alméric

Darwin Prakash, Ibn-Hakia

Niall Anderson, Bertrand

Olivia Warburton, The Child

Alexandra Oomens, Princess, Bat

Lina Dambrauskaite, Fire, Nightingale

Ryan Williams, Wedgwood teapot, Tree frog, Little old man

Tabitha Reynolds, Mother

Hannah Poulsom, China Cup, Dragonfly

Aimée Fisk, The armchair, Shepherdess, Owl

Gabrielė Kupšytė, Cat (female), Squirrel

James Geidt, Clock, Cat (male)

Will Pate, Chair, Tree

Royal Academy Sinfonia

Jake Wiltshire, Lighting Designer

The Royal Academy's Carmen has too many what-if moments

Dominic Lowe, 18th November

Presenting a work like Carmen is a punchy move by a conservatoire. The Royal Academy of Music's production has conceptual weaknesses, but features some good singing.

***11

Royal Academy Opera stages a magical Zauberflöte

Mark Valencia, 18th March

A lyrical yet zesty account of Mozart's' adorable score, in a production that is on the nose and off the wall.

****1

A dystopian Hansel und Gretel at the RAM

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Jack Furness serves up an unappetising mess of Humperdinck's delicious masterpiece for Royal Academy Opera.

***11

Keeping it surreal: Martinů double-bill at the Royal Academy of Music

Dominic Lowe, 8th May

With typical spirit, the students at the Royal Academy of Music did an excellent job in bringing Martinů’s Comedy on the Bridge and Alexandre bis to life – two lesser-known pre-war surrealist gems.

***11

Unreal city: The Rake's Progress at the Royal Academy of Music

Benjamin Poore, 22nd November

Frederic Wake-Walker's realisation of the Hogarth-inspired opera is visually bracing and assuredly sung.

****1

By Jove! A terrific Semele at the Royal Academy of Music

Matthew Rye, 14th November

Royal Academy Opera maintains its usual high standards in a production of Handel’s operatic oratorio, a showcase for the singers of the future.

****1

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Stephen Pritchard

Stephen Pritchard began singing as a treble at the age of eight and progressed to become a tenor in Portsmouth Cathedral Choir, the Gibbons Consort and now the English Chamber Choir. Writing about music has been at the core of his 40-year career in journalism, chiefly at the Observer. He has been known to play a pretty mean jazz double bass.