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Adrian Dwyer
Tenor
Production reviews (8)
6 févr. - 6 févr. 2023
Calling for a large cast coupled with a large orchestra and chorus getting a production of War and Peace off the ground is a mammoth undertaking for any opera company, so well done WNO for achieving such a feat and, indeed, for Sir David Pountney - who’s now preparing a new Ring cycle for Chicago’s Lyric Opera next year - for delivering such a colourful and, indeed, rewarding account...
Sung in English War and Peace might have been, but a nice touch was to have the work title in Cyrillic on the spine of the booklet. The surtitles did not always match exactly what was sung, which is slightly disconcerting if we are actually hearing the work in the vernacular. And that is basically getting the criticism out of the way: this was a spectacularly successful evening. Sir...
Pountney’s resourceful staging looks a billion dollars but may have cost a touch less. Spectacle, of which there’s plenty, is achieved largely through the ingenuity of video designer David Haneke. His burning of Moscow is a stunning achievement; his extensive use of clips from Sergei Bondarchuk’s gargantuan movie version an aesthetic disaster. In a production that places suspension o...
Staging a three-and-a-half hour operatic dramatisation of War and Peace is an ambitious undertaking. Adapting Sergei Prokofiev’s immense opera for the English stage was always a brave choice by David Pountney, the artistic director of the Welsh National Opera. Based on the acclaimed work of the author Leo Tolstoy, it tells the love story of Natasha (Lauren Michelle) and her betrothed...
Directed by Sir David Pountney for the Cardiff-based company last autumn, and making two guest appearances only at Covent Garden, this overwhelming, four-hour undertaking, sums up a tumultuous period in Russian history in one gigantic package. At the heart of the personal and public/political dramas are the romances of the captivating Natasha, and the invasion of Russia by Napoleon's...
This Welsh National Opera production is long - well, it episodic structure keeps the pace up and the superb video work from David Haneke complements the torrents of humanity before our eyes (beautifully costumed by Marie-Jeanne Lecca). The set pieces (opulent balls, dance sequences, ambushes) stand as plays within plays, each one an event in its own right. Sung in English with surtit...
I never thought of Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace (or should it be Peace and War, for that’s how his opera divides) as a sing-along opera, yet the lady (soprano voice) seated next to me is singing along to the final patriotic anthem, keeping apace with the fine Welsh National Opera chorus. Just what Stalin wanted... a rousing call to arms... I’d have liked it in Russian (such a dif...
6 févr. - 6 févr. 2023
Tenor György Hanczár, ist ein wunderbar widerlich missgünstiger Prinz Gwydion, Bariton Marko Pantelić als sein Gegenspieler ein herrlich weinerlicher Prinz Alfron. Beide gewinnen mühelos durch das Kabinettstückchen ihrer Darstellungen das Publikum auf ihre verquere Weise für sich. Denn sympathisch sind die Rollen nicht, aber halt buffonesk und zum Schmunzeln bringend....