L’italiana in Algeri at Blackwater Valley Opera Festival

By Pia Maltri, 04 June 2018

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“Kelly’s top notes did not lose, but amplify her voice’s velvety quality”

Reviewed at Lismore Castle, Lismore on 1 June 2018

Rossini, L'italiana in Algeri

Marco Zambelli, Conductor

Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau, Director

Rachel Kelly, Isabella

Javier Abreu, Lindoro

Leonardo Galeazzi, Mustafà

Rory Musgrave, Taddeo

Rachel Croash, Elvira

Sandra Oman, Zulma

Rory Dunne, Haly

Blackwater Valley Opera Festival Chamber Orchestra

Blackwater Valley Opera Festival Chorus

Don Pasquale opens the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival

Andrew Larkin, 29th May

Farce, slapstick and cruel humour are to the fore in this Blackwater Valley Opera production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

***11

Hansel et Gretel à Strasbourg ou le côté obscur des marchés de Noël

Romain Daroles, 7th December

Pierre-Emmanuel Rousseau propose une lecture sociale cruelle du conte des frères Grimm, non sans quelques approximations. Christoph Koncz dirige en revanche une lecture musicale très juste de cette belle partition de Humperdinck.

***11

La nouvelle vie de Thaïs à l'Opéra de Saint-Étienne

Irma Foletti, 19th November

L'œuvre majeure de Jules Massenet est de retour dans la ville du compositeur stéphanois. Transposée à la Belle Époque, elle est défendue par une excellente distribution et par la direction attentive de Victorien Vanoosten.

****1

Peter Grimes drops anchor again at The Royal Opera

Christopher Woodley, 5th May

Allan Clayton and Sir Bryn Terfel lead a strong cast in a revival of Deborah Warner's dark staging of Britten's signature work at Covent Garden.

****1

The early flowering of opera: a fragrant L’Orfeo at Schwetzingen

Mengguang Huang, 3rd May

Markus Bothe’s Botticelli-inspired production fuses tableau vivant aesthetics with Jörg Halubek’s surgical musical precision, offering a peerless, vivid tribute to the fragrant dawn of opera.

****1

Boston Doodle Dandy: Boston Lyric Opera presents La Fille du régiment

Kevin Wells, 1st May

Very few singers can hold an audience in the palm of their hand the way Brenda Rae as Marie does in this rollicking frolic.

****1

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Pia Maltri

Pia first fell head over heels for opera when she was a teenager by listening to recordings of some of the great voices of the past: Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Mirella Freni, Alfredo Kraus. She holds a degree in Italian Literature and she lives in Rome.