Verbier Festival / Recensies

There is always talent at the Verbier Festival Academy , and in particular within its Atelier Lyrique, which provides vocal and theatrical coaching to young singers every summer. Two recitals of melodies at the Church of Verbier, for example, generated some musical favourites: Mendelssohn with a magical voice with infinite possibilities (soprano Theresa Pilsl), Schubert lieder suspended and set at human speech level (the baritone Olivier Bergeron), or even a Canzonetta spagnuola by Rossini exceeding virtuosity by the dramaturgy of words (the mezzo Mira Alkhovik). That was without counting the usual end-of-festival opera, here Hänsel und Gretel by Humperdinck, intelligibly staged by Tim Carroll in the Salle des Combins, whose perceived interior temperature went well with the evocation of the gingerbread oven...