Religion behind the comedy mask: Rossini’s Petite messe solenelle

By Mark Pullinger, 20 March 2016

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Reviewed at Cadogan Hall, London on 20 March 2016

Rossini, Petite messe solennelle

Wimbledon Choral Society

Neil Ferris, Conductor

Claire Seaton, Soprano

Anna Harvey, Mezzo-soprano

Ben Thapa, Tenor

Matthew Sprange, Baritone

Michael Higgins, Piano

Nicola Rose, Piano

Richard Pearce, Harmonium

Prom 43: Oramo and the BBC SO redefine tradition

Alexander Hall, 19th August

What to put with Beethoven's greatest statement on the universality of the human spirit? The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Sakari Oramo, Neil Ferris and Andreas Haefliger make a case for renewal.

***11

Green-eyed miracle: Salieri’s The School of Jealousy

Charlotte Valori, 22nd July

Wet English summer weather may have driven Bampton's pacy revival of Salieri's wickedly funny La scuola de' gelosi indoors, but rain could not dampen the sheer fun ahead.

****1

Ernani: Sweltering heat, Spanish passions

Mark Pullinger, 3rd July

Rarely performed, Verdi's fifth opera Ernani is full of fiery passions, with a relentless flow of melodic invention, as heard in this concert performance by Chelsea Opera Group.

***11

Donizetti re-done: The Siege of Calais with English Touring Opera in Hackney

Paul Kilbey, 9th March

A very concise, two-act opera which tells a bleak wartime tale of sacrifice, rarely performed and never realised to the satisfaction of its own composer. You could be forgiven for thinking I was describing something from 20th-century Germany, perhaps an expressionist work taking after Berg’s Wozzeck or similar. You’d be wrong.

****1

Monsters of the mind: Idomeneo at the Buxton Festival

Mark Pullinger, 8th July

Stephen Medcalf directs a coherent staging of Mozart’s opera seria in which Idomeneo’s inner demons are to be battled.

***11

For teenage kicks: Mozart's Lucio Silla at Buxton International Festival

Charlotte Valori, 9th July

The fashion for reviving Mozart's teenage operas brings a vocally dazzling production of Lucio Silla to Buxton, nevertheless hampered by the work's own lack of believable drama and some fairly flat staging.

***11

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Religion behind the comedy mask: Rossini’s Petite messe solenelle at Cadogan Hall