The Also-Ran Who Outran Fate: Daniel Purcell's Judgement of Paris

By Charlotte Valori, 07 March 2014

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Reviewed at Smith Square Hall, London on 5 March 2014

Purcell, The Judgement of Paris

Julian Perkins, Director

Rodolfus Choir

Spiritato

Ashley Riches, Bass

Ciara Hendrick, Mezzo-soprano

Amy Freston, Soprano

Anna Dennis, Soprano

A thrilling evening of music from Bach's Bohemian Cousin

Jack Johnson, 20th October

Unlike his better-known contemporaries, Czech composer Zelenka has faded into obscurity, Spirato! and Barts Chamber Choir made an extremely persuasive case for this highly original music.

****1

Baroque rarities by the GSMD

Nahoko Gotoh, 11th June

The two works in Guildhall School’s Baroque opera double bill, Thomas Arne’s The Cooper and Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista had little in common except that both are rarely performed, yet somehow made quite good bedfellows.

***11

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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Charlotte Valori

Charlotte Valori read Classics at Christ Church, Oxford. As a classicist, her main interest is Greek tragedy and its reception by later cultures, which has led to a continuing passion for theatre and opera. Charlotte reviews for several online magazines, and won the Bachtrack Opera Award 2015 for Best Written English Review. Follow her on Twitter @operissima.