Humdinger of a Gianni Schicchi from ETO

By Mark Pullinger, 03 March 2018

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“Puccini painting a Parisian soundscape which chugs and puffs and growls”

Reviewed at Hackney Empire, London on 2 March 2018

Puccini, Il tabarro

Puccini, Gianni Schicchi

English Touring Opera

Michael Rosewell, Conductor

James Conway, Director

Neil Irish, Set Designer

Craig Smith, Michele

Sarah-Jane Lewis, Giorgetta

Charne Rochford, Luigi

Andrew Glover, Tinca, Gherardo

Timothy Dawkins, Talpa, Simone

Clarissa Meek, La Frugola, Zita

Dominic Walsh, Un venditore di canzonette (a song vendor), Ser Amantio di Nicolao

Luciano Botelho, A lover (tenor), Rinuccio

Galina Averina, A lover (soprano), Lauretta

Andrew Slater, Gianni Schicchi

Joanna Marie Skillett, Nella

Bradley Travis, Betto di Signa

Ed Ballard, Marco

Maciek O'Shea, Maestro Spinelloccio

Emma Watkinson, La Ciesca

Ian Beadle, Guccio

Jamie Rock, Pinellino

English Touring Opera Orchestra

Liam Steel, Director

Art imitates art in ETO’s bracing new Pagliacci

Dominic Lowe, 10th April

Divorced from Cavalleria rusticana, English Touring Opera’s contemporary take on Leoncavallo’s masterpiece ticks all the boxes.

****1

English Touring Opera transfers Donizetti to the English coast

Dominic Lowe, 27th September

L'elisir d'amore may not immediately bring Skegness or Romney to mind, but ETO's new production works quite well there... just look out for the seagulls!

***11

Blissful and hard-boiled: I Capuleti e i Montecchi at ETO

David Karlin, 22nd February

Eloise Lally shifts the Romeo and Juliet love story into New York mafia families. Jessica Cale and Samantha Price provide blissful bel canto as the star-crossed lovers.

****1

A tender Shakespeare-inspired curio from English Touring Opera

Susannah Moody, 15th February

ETO kicks off its spring season with What Dreams May Come, a strange and moving staging of songs inspired by William Shakespeare.

***11

Theatrically poverty-stricken: ETO's Blond Eckbert

Mark Valencia, 18th October

Judith Weir's cryptic folk opera lacks the narrative propulsion necessary to enthral an audience, and without resolution there is no catharsis.

**111

ETO's The Snowmaiden melts the heart and gladdens the ears

Dominic Lowe, 28th September

Olivia Fuchs' production of Rimsky-Korsakov's charming fable for ETO begins its tour in Hackney and is worth travelling to see. Catch this thoughtful production in a town near you.

****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.

Brooding Tabarro and a humdinger of a Gianni Schicchi from ETO