Scottish Daily Mail

The night the orchestra rocked the ROH stalls . . .

- TULLY POTTER

Live At Covent Garden 4 (Royal Opera House) Verdict: Operatic hors d’oeuvres ★★★★☆

THIS was the biggest of the Royal Opera’s Saturday online concerts so far, with the stalls seats stripped out and the socially-distanced orchestra taking up the space normally occupied by well-heeled opera buffs.

Conductor Antonio Pappano got off to a fizzing start with the Overture to Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro. Then Figaro himself arrived, but in his Rossini guise from Il Barbiere Di Siviglia, Italian baritone Vito Priante giving a likeable account of the tongue-twisting ‘Largo al factotum’.

With lyrical New Zealand tenor Filipe Manu on the bill, having little to do, it seemed strange to have Charles Castronovo singing effortfull­y in the Act One duet from L’Elisir D’Amore: compensati­on came from the delightful soprano Lisette Oropesa.

Also lovely was mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshin­a, showing great vocal agility in the finale of Rossini’s La Cenerentol­a.

Oropesa charmed us again in Amina’s sleepwalki­ng finale from Bellini’s pastoral idyll La Sonnambula, complete with chorus and Manu chipping in nicely with Elvino’s brief phrases.

Castronovo was better suited to Riccardo’s big Act Three scene from Verdi’s A Masked Ball and the final scene from Carmen, where Priante shone briefly as the Toreador and Akhmetshin­a proved a tempestuou­s Carmen.

Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley dug deep for his nastiest moods in Iago’s chilling Credo from Otello and Scarpia’s scene where he stoked up Tosca’s jealous rage, then gloated while she sang a Te Deum.

Kristine Opolais made a fiery Tosca but also adapted herself to the pure melody of the Song To The Moon from Dvorák’s Rusalka. Priante made a villainous Dappertutt­o in an aria from The Tales Of Hoffmann and Oropesa sang Manon’s Gavotte with fine style.

The concert is available online for another three weeks.

 ??  ?? Digging deep: Gerald Finley
Digging deep: Gerald Finley

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