Not a wooden performance in sight: The Adventures of Pinocchio

By Penny Homer, 06 March 2014

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“Marta Fontanals-Simmons, utterly convincing as the little wooden boy, with a mezzo just as polished”

Reviewed at Guildhall School of Music & Drama: Silk Street Theatre, London on 4 March 2014

Dove, The Adventures of Pinocchio

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Dominic Wheeler, Conductor

Martin Lloyd-Evans, Director

Dick Bird, Set Designer

Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Pinocchio

Anna Gillingham, Blue Fairy

Lauren Zolezzi, Cricket/Parrot

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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Penny Homer

Penny Homer graduated from the University of Nottingham with a Bachelor of Music degree in 2003, where she was also a choral scholar at St Barnabas Cathedral. She is keenly interested in arts and education, and her work across both includes stints at Akademi South Asian Dance UK and Benslow Music Trust. Additionally she worked for Edition Peters in their sales department before joining the Association of British Choral Directors as their Training Manager. Penny currently sings at Eton Lower Chapel, St Andrews Fulham Fields, Wimbledon Choral Society, Londinium and Vocal Constructivists, and continues her vocal studies with Ian Kennedy.