Bachtrack logo
What's on
All eventsConcertsOperaDanceKids eventsMasterclassesCompetitionsFestivals
Reviews
All reviewsConcert reviewsOpera reviewsDance reviews
Articles
All articlesFeaturesInterviewsOpinionPlaylists
News
Video
Video homeAll videoStreamed eventsConcertsOperaDanceKids eventsMasterclassesPublishers
Site
About usContact usLink to usConditions of useCookiesPrivacy
Young artists
Travel
EventsReviewsArticlesVideo

Amanda Forsythe a truly overwhelming Semele in Opera Philadelphia's Festival O

By Susan Gould, 23 September 2019
Loading, please wait...
See full listing
“flinging off embellishments, rapid-fire scales, and generally impressive trills”
Reviewed at Kimmel Center, Perelman Theater, Philadelphia on 19 September 2019
Programme
Handel, Semele
Performers
Opera Philadelphia
Gary Thor Wedow, Conductor
James Darrah Black, Director
Cameron Jaye Mock, Set Designer
Sarah Schuessler, Costume Designer
Daniela Mack, Ino
Alex Rosen, Somnus, Cadmus
Amanda Forsythe, Semele
Tim Mead, Athamas
Sarah Shafer, Iris
Alek Shrader, Jupiter
Emily MacDonald, Set Designer
Elizabeth Braden, Choirmaster / chorus director
Opera Philadelphia Orchestra
More Opera reviews
A sorta fairy tale: Sleepers Awake premieres at Opera Philadelphia
Cameron Kelsall, 22nd April
A new opera by Gregory Spears subverts the Sleeping Beauty trope, with middling results.
**111
Opera by committee: Opera Philadelphia premieres Complications in Sue
Cameron Kelsall, 4th February
Opera Philadelphia commissions ten composers to tell the story of an ordinary woman's idiosyncratic march from cradle to tomb.
****1
A didactic Decameron: The Seasons at Opera Philadelphia
Cameron Kelsall, 20th December
Conceived by Anthony Roth Costanzo and Sarah Ruhl, this high-handed pasticcio sets the climate crisis to a soundtrack of Vivaldi.
***11
A long, strange trip: Opera Philadelphia’s Il viaggio a Reims
Cameron Kelsall, 19th September
The intrepid company brings Damiano Michieletto’s well-traveled production of a Rossini rarity to the US for the first time. 
***11
The Listeners: daring psychological thriller at Opera Philadelphia
Cameron Kelsall, 25th September
The new opera by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek draws on cult mindsets and conspiracy theories but smartly avoids sensationalism. 
****1
Opera Philadelphia's Unholy Wars creates a dialogue with Monteverdi
Cameron Kelsall, 23rd September
Arab-American tenor Karim Sulayman devises a thoughtful pastiche that centers the perspective omitted from Early Modern depictions of the Middle East in music.
****1
More reviews...
Read reviews of
Alek ShraderAlex RosenAmanda ForsytheCameron Jaye MockDaniela MackElizabeth BradenEmily MacDonaldGary Thor WedowGeorge Frideric HandelJames Darrah BlackOpera PhiladelphiaOpera Philadelphia OrchestraSarah ShaferSemeleTim Mead
Related articles
Loading image...
Bachtrack top ten: Opera in English
Loading image...
Aiming high: Hugh Cutting on Handel, good storytelling and countertenor appeal
Loading image...
Singing on the strings: Élodie Brzustowski on Early music in France
Loading image...
The art of memory: classical music for mourning
Susan Gould
Susan Gould
Philadelphia native Susan Gould has been writing professionally about classical music since her Barnard College years in New York. She has written for both American and European publications, primarily during fifteen years in Europe, and has done liner notes for recordings and program notes for opera companies and orchestras. Among those she has interviewed have been Sills, Tebaldi, Popp and Fleming; Bumbry, Ludwig, Fassbaender, and von Stade; del Monaco, Kraus and Pavarotti; Prey, Morris and Ramey; Muti, Abbado, Giulini, Sawallisch, and Eschenbach. Fluent in Italian, German and French, she has coached both student and professional singers in foreign-language diction since 1980.