Scant Sodom but a riveting Moses und Aron

By Simon Rees, 27 May 2014

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“Tomlinson played Moses in a way that resembled the older Brahms – the man, not the music”

Reviewed at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 24 May 2014

Schoenberg, Moses and Aron

Welsh National Opera

Lothar Koenigs, Conductor

Jossi Wieler, Director

Anna Viebrock, Set Designer

Elizabeth Atherton, First Naked Virgin, Young Maiden

Rainer Trost, Aron

Mark Le Brocq, Aron

Alexander Sprague, Young Man

Daniel Grice, Another Man, Ephraimite

Sir John Tomlinson, Moses

David Soar, Priest

Sergio Morabito, Director

A magnificent Tosca from Welsh National Opera at the Mayflower

David Truslove, 3rd October

WNO imports Edward Dick’s exceptionally fine production, which benefits from from superb casting and outstanding performances led by Natalya Romaniw.

*****

Bancroft and BBCNOW at the Proms: a deeply satisfying Mahler 3

David Karlin, 11th August

Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales provide a Mahler 3 of exceptional clarity and forward momentum, with terrific posthorn solos from Corey Morris and Beth Taylor an outstanding soloist.

****1

A dark and disturbing Rigoletto from WNO at the Mayflower

David Truslove, 14th November

Fine performances in a punchy new production that coats this tragic opera in a large dollop of debauchery.

****1

WNO stages Death in Venice for the first time and it’s a triumph

Mark Valencia, 7th March

Olivia Fuchs solves the problems of Britten's thorny opera in a brilliant new production that hits the heights, featuring Mark Le Brocq as earthbound scholar, Gustav von Aschenbach.

*****

Musical performances keep WNO's new Così afloat

Mark Valencia, 6th March

Max Hoehn takes Così‘s subtitle, La scuola degli amanti (The School for Lovers), and connects it to Monty Python’s sex education sketch in The Meaning of Life. What larks, eh?

***11

Stacey Alleaume leads WNO's emotionally-charged Traviata

David Truslove, 24th November

Leading an international cast in a still-sumptuous revival in Southampton's Mayflower, Stacey Alleaume gives a sovereign performance as the ill-fated courtesan Violetta.

****1

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Simon Rees

Simon Rees writes programme articles and surtitles for most British opera companies, and reviews for Opera, Opera Now, Musical Opinion, Early Music Today and a wide range of other publications. A novelist, poet and librettist, from 1989 to 2012 he was dramaturg at Welsh National Opera. He lives in Cardiff.

Scant Sodom, no Gomorrah, but a riveting Moses und Aron