Prime cuts: Fabio Luisi conducts Wagner in Aix

Gun-Brit Barkmin, Fabio Luisi and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai

Fabio Luisi conducts the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai

By Mark Pullinger, 09 April 2023

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“the heart of this particular bleeding chunk was red, raw and clearly still beating”

Reviewed at Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence on 8 April 2023

Wagner, Lohengrin: prelude to Act 1

Wagner, Tannhäuser: Overture

Wagner, Tristan and Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod

Wagner, Parsifal: Karfreitagszauber (Good Friday Music)

Wagner, Götterdämmerung: Brünnhilde's Immolation

Gun-Brit Barkmin, Soprano

Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai

Fabio Luisi, Conductor

Anastasia Bartoli a regal Ermione at the Rossini Opera Festival

Laura Servidei, 9th August

The ROF presents a new production of Ermione, a title not often performed, with a star-studded cast including divo Juan Diego Flórez.

****1

The Rossini Opera Festival comes home! Bianca e Falliero in Pesaro

Laura Servidei, 7th August

Jessica Pratt leads a strong cast in a beautiful performance of one of Rossini’s unjustly forgotten masterpieces, under the spectacular baton of Roberto Abbado, despite an unremarkable new production by Jean-Louis Grinda.

***11

Adelaide di Borgogna returns to the Rossini Opera Festival

Laura Servidei, 13th August

The ROF presents a new, cheeky production of Adelaide, by Arnaud Bernard, based on a unoriginal but very well executed “meta-theatrical” take, with an exemplary cast.

****1

Eduardo e Cristina: a rarity opens the Rossini Festival

Laura Servidei, 11th August

A strong cast and an inspiring production deliver the latest opera staged at the Rossini Opera Festival.

****1

Reverence and beauty in Mariotti’s Verdi Requiem in Parma

Mark Pullinger, 23rd September

A Verdi Festival account where the orchestral detail registers with true distinction and the singing impresses.

****1

The other Otello: Rosetta Cucchi delivers a powerful staging in Pesaro

Mark Pullinger, 11th August

Rossini's Otello is rarely performed, mainly due to its three demanding tenor roles, but the Rossini Opera Festival delivers a knockout, both vocally and emotionally.

*****

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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.