“In the role of Laurette was soprano Lizzie Holmes, who gave an excellent performance. She sang clearly and articulately, her sweet sounding voice imbued with a purity and expansive quality that shone. Her phrasing was precise and secure, and captured both the comedy and the frustrations she had to experience. A hugely entertaining, fast-moving and genuinely funny presentation.”
Striking exactly the right bold tone were Rodney Earl Clarke as the sociopathic President and Lizzie Holmes as the armour-plated Strategist, a Vitellia incapable of remorse... sung with style and pizzaz.
“In the role of Laurette was soprano Lizzie Holmes, who gave an excellent performance. She sang clearly and articulately, her sweet sounding voice imbued with a purity and expansive quality that shone. Her phrasing was precise and secure, and captured both the comedy and the frustrations she had to experience. A hugely entertaining, fast-moving and genuinely funny presentation.”
“The women were simply brilliant – both vocally and dramatically... Lizzie Holmes was the fine and memorably well-sung and energetically well-acted Despina, especially delightful in the comic scenes disguised as the doctor and the judge. Her judge, in fact – an attractive and sexy woman – was so different visually from her Despina “look” that you could almost believe that she could have got away with it.” ★★★★
“Holmes (Despina) is recognised as a versatile and dynamic soprano; she certainly showed that with her two disguises, the doctor, and later, the notary… As the sister’s maid, Holmes joins in the charade and delights.”
“The lead roles in both pieces are performed with great skill and sympathy by soprano Lizzie Holmes and mezzo Emma Roberts… Holmes sings with a flexible soprano as a serene and elegant Euridice. Zanetto is an intriguing curiosity that flirts with melodramatic proper without fully giving into them… it’s actually a surprisingly powerful piece. The moment when the hardened Silvia finds herself able to weep again is imbued with real pathos by Holmes and offers a pleasingly mature conclusion.” ★★★★
“It breaks your heart to see the tragedy that Holmes brings to Silvia’s dilemma… her soprano cut through the heavy early evening air as her tragic fate overtook her… Not for the first time at an opera, you fight the urge to leap forward to intervene and set them on the road to happiness” ★★★★
“A terrific night of opera as real human drama... thanks largely to the luminous singing and sensitive acting of the two principals, Lizzie Holmes and Emma Roberts. Holmes sang Euridice with an impervious, sunlit poise before transforming herself into the all-too-vulnerable Silvia. This time, she was the one left bereft, and while her voice was just as radiant, her acting was even more compelling — she seemed to age before our eyes, through her facial expressions alone.”
As Nomio/Apollo, Véronique Valdès was the most successful in meeting Vivaldi’s extreme vocal demands; in slower arias she was able to display the beauty of her mezzo-soprano.
Mit dunklem Mezzosopran und beobachtendem Spiel legt Véronique Valdès sehr erhaben die Partie des Gottes an