August 2019
Welcome to our August issue.
Sondra Radvanovsky sang a magnificent Maddalena in Covent Garden’s revival of Andrea Chénier , and appears in that role on our front cover.
Matteo Sansone salutes the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo on the centenary of his death.
The veteran South African soprano Wendy Fine talks to John Allison about a career that took her from her home country to Europe and North America, with a British debut at Sadler’s Wells in 1969 followed by roles at Covent Garden that ranged from Tatyana and Jenůfa to Fiordiligi and Musetta.
Stephen Hastings describes the exceptional powers of characterization exhibited by the basses Fyodor Chaliapin and Kim Borg.
New productions reviewed in this issue include The Bartered Bride and Don Giovanni at Garsington Opera, Das Rheingold at Longborough Festival Opera, Un ballo in maschera and Manon Lescaut at Opera Holland Park, Falstaff and Le nozze di Figaro at the Grange Festival, Dead Man Walking , The Consul , Il prigioniero and Fidelio (Act 2) at Welsh National Opera, Fierrabras in Bern, Hulda in Freiburg, Falstaff in Madrid, Die Frau ohne Schatten in Vienna, Siegfried in Otsu, Orfeo ed Euridice and Anna Bolena in Rome, Nixon in China and Turandot in Copenhagen.
In our back page ‘For the record’ feature we have George Hall’s selection of Carmen , with Victoria de Los Angeles and Nicolai Gedda, conducted by Thomas Beecham.
Our disc of the month is Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida , resurrected by Opera Rara and featuring Joyce El-Khoury, David Junghoon Kim, Vito Priante, Laurent Naouri, Yevgeny Stavinsky and the Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder.
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