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Showing posts from December, 2016

Amadeus at the Olivier Theatre, National Theatre

Many of us have seen Peter Shaffer's Amadeus the film and got to know Salieri. But I guess few of us have seen the original staged version. So it was a delight to see this long awaited revival at National Theatre. Adam Gillen was an over-manic and energetic Amadeus - whether that amount of jumping up and down on stage was warranted was questionable. Lucian Msamati's rendition of Salieri was poised, pivoting from good to evil, compassionate to calculating - definitely the star of the show. It was remarkable the production included players from South Bank Sinfonia - playing incidental and Mozart's music while moving around stage with the actors and sets. The professional singers treated the audience to arias such as Queen of the Night's Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen . It was altogether a creative and impactful performance.

Il trovatore at the Royal Opera

A revival of David Bösch’s new production for The Royal Opera. The entire cast was capable but there wasn't anything outstanding. Perhaps Gabor Bretz rendition of "Il balen del suo sorriso" was pretty good.