A Snow Maiden to melt the iciest of hearts

By Mark Pullinger, 25 March 2014

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Reviewed at Bloomsbury Theatre, London on 24 March 2014

Rimsky-Korsakov, Snegurochka, The Snow Maiden

UCOpera

Charles Peebles, Conductor

Christopher Cowell, Director

Bridget Kimak, Set Designer

Vanessa Bowers, Snegurochka

Martyna Kasprzyk, Lel, Spring Beauty

Sheridan Edward, Tsar Berendey

Katerina Miná, Kupava

Adam Green, Mizgir

Christopher Foster, Frost

Monks, mistresses and broken swords

Dominic Lowe, 14th March

At the Theatre Royal Stratford East, the student group made a convincing case for the French version of this gripping work.

***11

Lombards but no crusade: Verdi's I Lombardi at UCOpera

David Karlin, 18th March

UCOpera, the opera company of University College London, has a history of putting on lesser known Verdi works: amongst many others, they have staged the British premières of Alzira, Oberto and the original 1847 version of Macbeth.

***11

Sins of the fathers: Le Cid at Dorset Opera Festival

Dominic Lowe, 26th July

Dorset Opera Festival's bold decision to programme Massenet's obscure opera about a medieval Castilian hero proves to be a major success.

****1

Queen's dating dilemma: Handel's Partenope at Iford

Charlotte Valori, 4th July

Another masterful, sprightly and unstuffily fun production of Handel at Iford: Christopher Cowell's Partenope is erotically charged, well cast and comically compelling.

****1

Dorset Opera deals with the devil in Gounod's Faust

Dominic Lowe, 26th July

Dorset Opera's second opera of their season saw a fiendishly good performance from Mark S Doss as Méphistophélès supported by a strong cast in Christopher Cowell's economical production.

****1

A rite of spring: Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night

Matthew Rye, 8th March

A welcome revival of a Russian rarity from the student forces of the Royal Academy of Music.

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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.