Exquisite Madam Butterfly crushed in the RAH

By Mark Pullinger, 27 February 2015

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 26 February 2015

Puccini, Madama Butterfly

Oliver Gooch, Conductor

David Freeman, Director

David Roger, Set Designer

Hyeseoung Kwon, Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly)

Sabina Kim, Suzuki

Jeffrey Gwaltney, Pinkerton

David Kempster, Sharpless

Lise Christensen, Kate Pinkerton

Julius Ahn, Goro

Swungwook Seong, Prince Yamadori

Richard Suart, The Official Registrar

Michael Druiett, The Bonze

Freddie Tong, The Imperial Commissioner

Michael Wallace, Yakuside

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Of art and genius: exceptional world premiere of Whiteley in Sydney

Chantal Nguyen, 15th July

Opera Australia delivers a sensational new Elena Kats-Chernin opera about the immensely gifted and troubled Australian painter, Brett Whiteley.

****1

Vivaldi's Olympics-themed opera gets a rare staging at Garsington Opera

Nahoko Gotoh, 3rd June

Although I never had the pleasure of attending Garsington Opera in its original setting in Garsington Manor, I was very impressed by their new premises at Wormsley, Buckinghamshire, with their spectacular-looking and also comfortable opera pavilion.

***11

Antonia Bembo’s Ercole amante wins hearts at the Opéra de Paris

David Karlin, 2nd June

Leonardo García-Alarcón's exhumation of Bembo's work proves a winner, in a hyper-quirky staging by Netia Jones with Julie Fuchs as the pick of the fine singers.

****1

Chasing the American Dream: UK premiere for Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up

Mark Pullinger, 1st June

Amy Lane directs an intimate staging of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s 2018 chamber opera in the compact Milton Court Theatre.

****1

Longborough Festival Opera season starts slow with Orlando

Eleanor Knight, 30th May

Beth Taylor gives the lows and highs of Handel's heroics an almighty, whole-body shakedown in Sinéad O'Neill’s new staging of Handel's Orlando.

***11

Bang! Mozart’s volcano erupts in Opera Holland Park’s Così fan tutte

Peter Quantrill, 28th May

Mount Vesuvius looms over Cecilia Stinton’s compelling new production of Così fan tutte.

****1

More reviews...

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.

Crushed wings: exquisite Madam Butterfly suffers in the Royal Albert Hall