Handel's Theodora at Snape

By Mark Valencia, 01 April 2018

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“Polly Leech... whose command of style, score, vocal technique and stagecraft was staggering”

Reviewed at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape on 31 March 2018

Handel, Theodora

Christian Curnyn, Conductor

Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra

Polly Leech, Mezzo-soprano

Nazan Fikret, Soprano

Joel Williams, Tenor

Charlotte Bowden, Soprano

Patrick Kilbride, Tenor

Jolyon Loy, Baritone

Cocteau-esque camp: Alden’s Partenope returns to ENO

Mark Valencia, 20th November

Christopher Alden’s Olivier Award-winning production of Handel’s Partenope returns to the Coliseum, but it's the singing that earns the plaudits.

****1

In Mears’ bleak Royal Opera Semele, Pretty Yende stands out

David Karlin, 30th June

Superb Handelian singing and intense character acting light up Handel’s Semele, staged as a stark, uncompromising indictment of the rich and powerful.

****1

Fairy style for the Fairest Isle: King Arthur at Temple Church

Roy Westbrook, 27th September

A concert performance of a Purcell semi-opera can never fully succeed, but compromise is worth it, if it enables us to hear a significant part of a major composer's output.

****1

Big-hearted, quirky, fun: Richard Jones' Alcina for The Royal Opera

David Karlin, 8th November

Lisette Oropesa leads strong vocal performances in Handel's madcap tale of love and sorcery. Richard Jones' production is visually all over the place, but in a good way.

****1

Excellent cast crowns The Royal Opera's Ariodante in concert

Mark Valencia, 20th November

It’s the title character who gets the best tunes in Ariodante and Irish mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy ate them up.

*****

A live audience returns to Covent Garden

Stephen Pritchard, 17th October

Christine Rice gives an astonishingly performance in an evening of four powerful chamber pieces.

****1

More reviews...

Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

Handel's Theodora: Christian Curnyn conducts the Britten-Pears Young Artists at Snape