'Solid performances all round from the rest of the cast'
'As Elisabeth, Samantha Crawford was also inspired casting. She has the innocent presence and unconstricted soprano radiance perfect for this and other Wagner roles; the silvery gleam in her voice produced a trumpet- like 'Dich, teure Halle', and then she sang a beautifully remote prayer to the Jungfrau, Wagner's paraphrase of the Salve Regina. She engaged with the role, and it was thrilling.'
The young lovers were astonishingly well cast and – crucial for this opera I suspect? – they generally had youth on their side. Fiordiligi is the character who is most conflicted by events and has the biggest arc – which Jessica Cale with her bright eloquent soprano created perfectly – from professing Fiordiligi’s rock-like constancy in ‘Come scoglio’, her tenderly introspective ‘Per pietà’, to her succumbing to the impassioned Ferrando in their ‘Fra gli amplessi’ Act II duet.