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Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia (Rossini Opera Festival)
Michael Spyres (Baldassare); Ewa Podles (Ciro); Jessica Pratt (Amira); Carmen Romeu (Argene); Mirco Palazzi (Zambri); Robert McPherson (Arbace);
"In the title role, the booming contralto Ewa Podles gives the kind of old-style, intensely felt performance that is her trademark. As Amira, the soprano Jessica Pratt established herself in two daunting arias as a brilliant new presence on the bel canto scene." (The New York Times)
Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Glyndebourne)
Danielle de Niese (Rosina); Alessandro Corbelli (Dr Bartolo); Taylor Stayton (Count Almaviva); Björn Bürger (Figaro); Christophoros Stamboglis (Basilio); Janis Kelly (Berta);
"The Bürger-Stayton double act is the answer to all your summertime needs. Sophisticated and funny, they're the ideal complement to a festive sunshine picnic" (WhatsOn Stage ★★★★)
Rossini: Il Signor Bruschino (Rossini Opera Festival)
Carlo Lepore (Gaudenzio); Maria Aleida (Sofia); Roberto De Candia (Bruschino padre); Francisco Brito (Bruschino figlio / Commissario); David Alegret (Florville); Andrea Vincenzo Bonsignore (Filiberto); Chiara Amarù (Marianna);
" ... wonderful singing actors who brought Rossini’s farce alive in high art that was well beyond mere opera. Roberto de Candia and Carlo Lepore supplied experience and savoir faire as Bruschino and Gaudenzio, Andrea Vicenzo Bonsignore as the innkeeper Filiberto, David Alegret as Florville the young lover, and Maria Aleida with her amazingly high notes as Sofia the ingenue supplied the promise. Young Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni was a lively participant in the proceedings as were members of the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini." (Opera Today)
Rossini: L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro)
Anna Goryachova (Isabella); Alex Esposito (Mustafà ); Yijie Shi (Lindoro); Mario Cassi (Taddeo ); Mariangela Sicilia (Elvira); Raffaella Lupinacci (Zulma); Davide Luciano (Haly);
"L’italiana in Algeri is probably the finest operatic comedy still performed today. Why? Comedy is subtler than farce and it is in just such subtleties that Rossini scores higher than any other, not least in the musical characterisations of his three main characters. This Isabella [Anna Goryachova] has such determination, your hair stands on end. When she began 'Crude sorti', the foundations of the theatre shook. Hers is a rare, rich, mellifluous, contralto voice, surprisingly small in size, but with every note perfectly placed and almost threateningly expressive. But the greatest applause was rightly reserved for Alex Esposito’s Mustafà. And what a colourful role Rossini hands him: authoritative, mischievous, dignified, scheming, solemn, jokesy. Esposito slips in and out of all of them with immaculate precision and athletic accomplishment of movement. Not too many bassi buffi can appear successfully in beach shorts. But Esposito does, a crown in his hugely impressive delivery. I should mention Davide Luciano’s (Haly) excellent singing of Le femine d’Italia- another basso buffo triumph. Watch that name. Anyone lucky enough to have seen last year’s ROF 'Ciro in Babilonia' or the 2012 'Demetrio e Polibio', will already know the wisdom and wit of Davide Livermore’s Rossini stagings. Here again, he is sure handed. Rossini would have adored it." (Seen and Heard International)
Rossini: La Cenerentola (Glyndebourne)
Raquela Sheeran (Clorinda); Lucia Cirillo (Tisbe); Ruxandra Donose (Angelina); Nathan Berg (Alidoro); Luciano di Pasquale (Don Magnifico); Maxim Mironov (Don Ramiro);
"This is a performance that meets the Glyndebourne gold standard...Hall has decided to keep it real and produced something understated, sensitive and thus deeply pleasurable." (The Daily Telegraph)