Guildhall School: Debussy and Donizetti

By Charlotte Valori, 06 November 2013

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Reviewed at Guildhall School of Music & Drama: Silk Street Theatre, London on 4 November 2013

Debussy, L'Enfant prodigue

Donizetti, Francesca di Foix

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Dominic Wheeler, Conductor

Stephen Barlow, Director

Yannis Thavoris, Set Designer

Students from Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Lauren Fagan, Soprano

Joseph Padfield, Bass

Gerard Schneider, Tenor

Piran Legg, Bass-baritone

Anna Gillingham, Soprano

Szymon Wach, Bass-baritone

Joshua Owen Mills, Tenor

Respighi’s Lucrezia compels in Guildhall School’s double bill

Dominic Lowe, 3rd November

Pleas for more Respighi operas are answered as the students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama give the UK premiere of Lucrezia, paired with Ethel Smyth's Der Wald.

****1

Sacred and profane in Guildhall School's Respighi double bill

Susannah Moody, 6th November

From the spiritual conversion of a Medieval sex-worker, to the Sleeping Beauty tale reimagined, Guildhall stages a Respighi double-bill.

***11

Holst and Weir operas from the Guildhall School of Music

David Truslove, 5th June

Two accomplished performances bring emotional depth only intermittently, but show ample security of singing and playing.

***11

Dead Man Walking given a triumphant staging by Guildhall School

Mark Valencia, 27th February

Under Dominic Wheeler’s expert baton the musicians, all youthful if not downright young, give a spectacular account of a harrowing score.

****1

Picture perfect: a fine triple bill from the Guildhall School

Dominic Lowe, 11th November

Massenet, Smyth and Rota are unlikely bedfellows, but in the Guildhall School's Autumn production, a one-act opera by each contributed to a most convincing triple bill, all set around the La Scala Picturehouse in the 1920s.

****1

Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon outshines Bizet at Guildhall School

David Karlin, 1st November

A double bill of French operettas shows Guildhall students to advantage as well as providing an introduction to Viardot that's well worth the trip.

***11

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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.

From the sublime to the fashion-fabulous: Debussy and Donizetti at the Guildhall School