Photo from the National Post |
Sondra Radvanovsky opened the inaugural season of the BlackCreek Music Festival in Toronto last Saturday alongside legendary tenor Plácido Domingo and one common thread came through the plethora of reviews — “power.”
Here are just a few…
“[Plácido Domingo’s] mainly Italian program at a tennis stadium near York University stayed clear of the most well-worn paths, offering a smartly curated selection of solo numbers and dramatic scenes with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, an operatic power in her own right. I’ve spent entire evenings in an opera house that have yielded fewer thrills than this pair’s rendition of Favella il doge…Figlia, a tal nome from Boccanegra, or of Verdi’s intimate Gia nella notte densa, from Otello.”
“The sonic blend with Radvanovsky was warm and the chemistry was affectionate… Her voice was sumptuous in La mamma morta from Giordano’s Andrea Chénier and poised in Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
The Toronto Star:
“Some events are guaranteed to succeed, musically, and pairing veteran tenor Plácido Domingo (who has been singing well literally as long as I can remember) with American-Canadian powerhouse soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is as safe a recipe for vocal satisfaction as one could think of. And they didn’t disappoint.”
“Radvanovsky is, to put it simply, a force of nature.
“Both are deeply committed to whatever piece of music they happen to be singing — be it an extended scene from Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra, or the “Tonight” duet from West Side Story.
“They gave the program their all, and the audience responded in kind. The result was that wonderful, under-the-stars alchemy that draws crowds to open-air festivals.”
“Ms. Radvanovsky’s entrance is a prolonged seductive dance—a bit strange, actually—but when she begins to sing Elena’s “Bolero” from vespri siciliani by Verdi, her plush sound soars above the orchestra, then performs a finely nuanced dive into softness so detailed it takes your breath away, and establishes a mood of excitement that never goes away.
Maestro Domingo joins her for the duo from Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. They sing “Figlia! a tal nome io palpate”and embrace as they act convincingly the scene in which the Doge Boccanegra realizes that Amelia is his long-lost daughter. Their combined tones and colours in this aria, so tender and sad, shed a splendour that seems somehow more precious in this popular setting than it might on an operatic stage.
Ms. Radvanovsky intensifies the mood of pathos into the unbearable with the aria “La mamma morta” from Giordano’s political drama André Chenier. She becomes Maddalena telling the tyrant Gérard that she will let him love her body, but he needs to understand she will allow it only to save the life of her lover André, and that she, who brings terrible fortune to those who love her, is already dead. You wouldn’t think this is a song for a Saturday night, but Ms. Radvanovsky wowed us with it.“
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Verdi Arias | Verdi Opera Scenes | ||