Crouching pianist, hidden baritone

By Mark Pullinger, 02 November 2016

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“this Italian baritone is truly the real deal”

Reviewed at Wigmore Hall, London on 1 November 2016

Tosti, Non t'amo più

Tosti, Chanson de l'adieu

Tosti, A vucchella

Liszt, Rigoletto: Paraphrase de Concert, S 434

Tosti, L'ultima canzone

Tosti, Ideale

Mozart, Don Giovanni, K527: Deh, vieni alla finestra

Donizetti, La Favorita: Vien, Leonora, a' piedi tuoi

Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor: Cruda, funesta smania

Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 in C sharp minor, S 244/2

Gounod, Faust: Avant de quitter ces lieux

Verdi, Il trovatore: Il balen del suo sorriso

Verdi, Don Carlo: Per me giunto

Verdi, Don Carlos: Io morro

Verdi, La traviata: Di Provenza il mar

Simone Piazzola, Baritone

Giuseppe Vaccaro, Piano

Tudor history, gothic thrills: Roberto Devereux in Bergamo

Mark Pullinger, 15th November

Is Roberto Devereux the finest of Donizetti's four Tudor operas? Stephen Langridge's stylish, stylised production and a wonderful cast under Riccardo Frizza make a great case for it.

****1

COC returns to live performance with beautifully sung Traviata

John Gilks, 23rd April

Young Egyptian-New Zealand soprano Amina Edris makes a great impression in a revival of Arin Arbus’ strong 2015 production.

****1

A roof-raising Ernani in Palermo

Mark Pullinger, 26th February

Omer Meir Wellber conducts a spirited account of Verdi's early opera, semi-staged and live-streamed from the Teatro Massimo.

****1

Davide Livermore's La Scala Attila travels to Sydney

Jeremy Eccles, 12th March

Livermore updates the scene to the 1930s, but seems to be setting Mussolini's Italians against invading Germans.

***11

A disappointing new Falstaff from Laurent Pelly at the Teatro Real

Fernando Remiro, 25th April

Comedy fails to spark in Laurent Pelly's new production of Falstaff at the Teatro Real.

**111

Blue is the new Violet: an outstanding Traviata debut

David Karlin, 24th January

On her house debut, in Covent Garden's second cast of the year, Angel Blue is completely convincing as Verdi's doomed courtesan; Benjamin Bernheim is an unconventional but compelling Alfredo; Simone Piazzola a persuasive Germont père.

****1

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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.

Crouching pianist, hidden baritone: superb Simone Piazzola caught in Liszt ambush