Showcase Review 2010

Opera Magazine - August 2010
National Opera Studio, Wandsworth, SW18, June 1

Although only minimal technical facilities are available for staging opera in the main hall of the National Opera Studio's headquarters, it did not impede the 12 singers for whom the Showcase is intended as a springboard to the next stage in their careers. Against Lily Arnold's ingeniously adeptable set - a single wall with a selection of doors and windows - the director Oliver Mears drew from them fully commited performances, not always in accord with what the composer intended, but which demonstrated their ability to round out a character as well as sing the notes. In extracts from six operas, most of the singers showed their paces in two sometimes contrasting rols. A striking example was the dramatic mezzo-soprano Sara Gonzalez-Saavedra: first a predatory Dalila, lolling on a satin-draped bed in a filmy scarlet peignoir, practising her seductive talents on the High Priest of Dagon, strongly sung by the baritone Joa Helgesson, while he urged her to discover the secret of Samson's strength; then an implacable Zia Principessa, crushing the tragic Suor Angelica to her will. The nun was sung by Meeta Raval, whose deeply-felt 'Senza mamma' demonstrated this soprano's growing vocal control and stylistic polish.

The tenor Nicky Spence and baritone Gerard Collett locked horns as Nemorino and Belcore, the latter a roaring parade-ground Sergeant putting the potential recruit through his paces, and returned on more equal footing as the disguised Ferrando and Guglielmo, hugely entertaining in 'Non siate ritrosi' but needing to keep their own enjoyment in check and, notably in their extravagant disguises, not oversing. Playing opposite them in both extracts, Sadhbh Dennedy displayed poised stagecraft as an initially heartless Adina and dispensed Despina's feminine wisdom singin 'In uomini' in a coolly focused soprano.

Anna Devin as the vulnerable Gilda and John Pierce as the lustful Duke of Mantua contributed an impassioned love scene. His still-developing tenor showed great potential but could have been used with greater subtlety and elegance. Her intensely musical account of 'Caro nome' was finely controlled and crowned with a good trill. In the third act from La boheme, set among the dustbins of Paris, the soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, stripped of all glamour and resembling a Parisian down-and-out, displayed a beautiful full-toned instrument and delivered Mimi's anguished solo with polish from end to end of her voice, which matched Pierce's tenor in scale. Joa Helgesson returned as the cynical Marcello in a bitterly aggressive relationship with the rubbish-hurling Musetta of Anna Devin.

Cameron Burns, Heather Tomala and Michalis Angelakis supplied piano and harpsichord accompaniment; Andrew Greenwood and Cameron Burns (Cosi) were the supportive conductors.

Margaret Davies