Joyce El-Khoury shines as Donizetti's Tudor queen

By Alice Hughes, 04 March 2019

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“Joyce El-Khoury... both effortless and truly dazzling”

Reviewed at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 2 March 2019

Donizetti, Roberto Devereux

Welsh National Opera

Carlo Rizzi, Conductor

Alessandro Talevi, Director

Madeleine Boyd, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Joyce El-Khoury, Elisabetta

Justina Gringytė, Sara, Duchessa di Nottingham

Barry Banks, Robert Devereux

Biagio Pizzuti, Duca di Nottingham

Robyn Lyn Evans, Lord Cecil

Wyn Pencarreg, Sir Gualtiero Raleigh

Welsh National Opera Chorus

Welsh National Opera Orchestra

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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Alice Hughes

Alice studied Music and French Literature at the universities of Cardiff and Oxford. An avid concert-goer from a young age, she has a particular fondness for the music of Debussy, Satie and Rachmaninov and a lifelong interest in Paris as a hub of musical activity from the Belle Epoque onwards.

Joyce El-Khoury shines as Donizetti's Tudor queen in Welsh National Opera's Roberto Devereux