“Indeed, Rachel Peake has done her job so well that it can be difficult, while you are laughing so hard, to remember that these are killer vocal parts being sung exquisitely. Mezzo Simone McIntosh wins over the audience with sheer vocal agility and a lovely rich sound.”
“The opera is centred on the role of Cenerentola (Cinderella) and Simone McIntosh radiated the pure inner beauty of her character without a trace of self-righteousness or superiority. Even if rapidly rattling off the text’s relentlessly repeated fricative sibilants—a device Rossini uses almost to excess—was not her forte, that particular type of vocal virtuosity is not germane to her character. Her opulent, floating mezzo-soprano was perfectly suited to the role’s more quietly loving and sincere passages in the midst of the fractious, comedic ado transpiring all about her.”
