The Guardian is streaming Pappano's new recording of Britten's War Requiem, made this summer with Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
I watched them perform it at the Salzburg Festival a few days later. It is as you might expect an unashamedly 'operatic' reading, and all concerned are on top form.
The live stream disappears on 21 October, when the recording is commercially released.
Simon Boccanegra - Royal Opera House, 27 June 2013
Boccanegra is back - again. Covent Garden's penchant for revivals must have more to do with Tony Pappano's love of the score than any fondness for Elijah Moshinsky's unremarkable '80s production. And it's the orchestra who emerge on top yet again. Pappano revels in the music's cinematic chiarascuro, lending grandeur and colour to its bold strokes.
Close your eyes and the singing is fine too; open them and the clumsiness of the direction is all too apparent. Handsome marble sets can't compensate for some equally marmoreal acting.
This could be a load of cobblers, but rumour has it that Thomas Hampson will make his role debut as Hans Sachs at the 2013 Salzburg Festival.
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano / Thomas Hampson / Klaus Florian Vogt - Cadogan Hall, 27 February 2011
It's not often the worker bees of the Royal Opera House orchestra are released from their Covent Garden nest. It's not often either that the Cadogan Hall, despite its fine acoustic, hosts much worth listening to. But after Andres Orozco-Estrada's splendid Tonkünstler Orchestra they managed to pull a second terrific evening out of the bag.
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski / Alexander Markovich / Melanie Diener / Thomas Hampson - Royal Festival Hall, 26 January 2010
At this stage in the anniversary celebrations, I'm all for a few bars rest from Mahler wherever possible. But it seems there is no escape, even when he's not on the menu. As Vladimir Jurowski explained during a brief furniture-reshuffling break, this Mahler-free programme should be considered as contextualisation for the LPO's next concert (centrepiece: Das klagende Lied). Nice sales pitch Vlad, maybe it won over some of the fidgety teenagers padding out the stalls.
Recent Comments