Welsh National Opera ( WNO ) / Reviews

"The role of Violetta is one of the pinnacles of the soprano repertoire. In this production, Australian-Mauritian soprano Stacey Alleaume gives a sparkling performance that is both warm and lively, impassioned and beautifully judged. She uses the space given to her by the stylish staging to sing with unabashed freedom. We fully appreciate that for her there can be no absolution without penance. Alleaume is impressive throughout.."

“It’s fair to say that the show is completely stolen by Australian-Mauritian soprano Stacey Alleaume, who is outstanding as Violetta, knowing when to unleash the full power of her voice and when to draw on the softness which lies beneath Violetta’s confident exterior. That balance is particularly notable in the opening act, which sees Violetta switching between the extravagant gaiety of the party she is hosting and the sombre realisation that her illness is progressing. Alleaume centres her performance on the emotion of Violetta’s first encounter with Alfredo, and her efforts to rebuff his affection, a choice which works in part because of Alleaume’s own visibly impassioned commitment to the role.”

"Wojtek Gierlach’s Giorgio Valton had a richness of tone that made him more than simply the avuncular figure who supports Elvira’s wish to marry Arturo, and his duet with Elvira, “Sai com’ardi in petto mio”, gave this gifted Polish bass an equal partnership with Rosa Feola’s outstanding coloratura soprano."

"There’s a strikingly powerful Giorgio from the Polish bass Wojtek Gierlach."

Anush Hovhannisyan is a beautifully sung Mimi who is immediately seen as no innocent, here she blows out her candle (twice) to create the situation for her fumble in the darkness with Rodolfo, and is not backward in coming forward. Similarly, Luis Gomes’ ardent lyrical Rodolfo has also grasped the opportunity presented by the apparently lost key, to make love to the young beauty. They both act as well as sing the roles with the chemistry of mutual attraction and raging hormones that even the bitter cold weather cannot chill.

Mimì (here played with remarkable vocal precision and softness of delivery by Anush Hovannisyan) is one of the iconic female figures in the history of opera, her stage appearances incisive from her first, flirtatious interaction with the poet Rodolfo (Luis Gomes, who does an excellent job at handling the complexities and contradictions of his character without losing the focus on his delivery of a part which includes a number of recognisable sections) to her tragic death, which provides an abrupt tonal shift to the last act of the production.

Angeles Blancas Gulin was a terrific Emilia Marty. Wearing Nicola Turner's stylish costumes, in Act One Blancas Gulin fascinated and intrigued, successfully conveying the way Emilia Marty was at the same time rather distant yet always the object of attention. As Act Two progressed we gradually saw both how monstrous this woman had become, how uncaring of the trivial detail of the world and also how riven by existential despair. Blancas Gulin brought out the monster but also gave us sympathy with her too. Then in act three, she gives everything up and stops struggling and finally reached peace. Throughout Blancas Gulin exercised fascination, and her command of the highly detailed emotional trajectory was superb. In the final act she seemed to age before our eyes, mesmeric to the end.

From the outset, Angeles Blancas Gulin owned the stage, vocally commanding and glamorous in appearance. She brought considerable passion to the role, whether as a charismatic and provocative presence in the offices of Dr Kolenatý, or in her unfeeling, not to say contemptuous, encounters with admirers in the shadowy backstage scenes of Act 2 where one devotee is driven to suicide.

Over the last few years I have found Madam Butterfly the most intriguing of Puccini’s operas. It displays very powerfully his superb judgement of dramatic tension and pace and his mastery as a manipulator of an audience’s emotions. In addition it is, in both formal and stylistic terms, especially ambitious, even if doesn’t always fulfil those ambitions. The cast was somewhat patchy. Mark Stone’s Sharpless was admirable – well sung and acted, a convincing portrait of an honest and decent man, appalled by the behaviour and attitude of his compatriot Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton and genuinely respectful of the Japanese way of life. As Pinkerton, Leonardo Caimi proved to have an attractive voice but, not surprisingly, made little of this psychologically and emotionally shallow character. I struggle to recall any tenor who has ever really convinced me that Pinkerton is genuinely filled with remorse even at the close of the opera, so it would be unkind to complain that Caimi failed to do so. The Suzuki of Anna Harvey was quietly impressive, encompassing well a real range of emotions; she was a clear and firm, almost choric, presence, whether identifying emotionally with Cio-Cio-San or frustrated by her mistress’s refusal to see or acknowledge the truth. The Yamadori of Neil Balfour made relatively little impression and was somewhat on the light side in vocal terms. Tom Randle’s Goro was suitably oleaginous. As The Bonze, Keel Watson was an impressive stage presence with a powerful voice, but with the absence, in this production, of his Japanese context, he struggled to find a meaningful role in the narrative.

Joyce El-Khoury and Leonardo Caimi in Madam Butterfly at Wales Millennium Centre. Lindy Hume sets Puccini’s empathetic tragedy in a dystopian future with mixed results. Anna Harvey’s Suzuki and Mark Stone’s Sharpless are in the top league.

“Boris and Sergei, exuberantly sung and performed by Dafydd Allen and Rhydian Jenkins, bemoan their lack of luck in love”

“But standing out among an excellent ensemble overall are…. Rhydian Jenkins’s eloquently sly Sergei”

Director Polly Graham was under no illusion about how ambitious a piece she had chosen for this WNO Youth Opera production, but she embraced the challenge for herself and the whole company because the work is, she says, “so original, so little-known and so well-written”, and she likes “the excitement of the very big hill to climb”. She thrives on the enthusiasm of the young people involved and their commitment to the process. Jo Fong similarly told me of how the performers had risen to the physical demands of the show, proving to themselves that they could do more than many of them had thought possible.

Conductor Alice Farnham ensured excellent musical values throughout and, in a sterling team effort, with some double casting, it was Chiara Vinci’s Sophie that stood out, incredibly moving, naturally poised and with a lovely bloom to the voice.