From The Washington Post: new Russian soprano named Olga Peretyatko.... indeed, both shows represented some of the best singing I’ve heard at the Met in a long time....she bloomed considerably as the night continued. Having heard reports of her coldness (a blessing, or curse, of attending the last night of a run rather than the first is hearing everyone else’s opinion), I was pleasantly surprised, indeed deeply impressed, by her acting as well as her vocal ability. Operatic acting is widely misunderstood these days, with a lot of motion being equated with thespian prowess; against the yardstick of an Anna Netrebko, who tends to fling herself about the stage, Peretyatko may seem static, but I found her physical gestures to be effective and even eloquent, in keeping with her voice, from the very first scene in which she was the perfect embodiment of a 19th-century heroine. (Peretyatko’s new solo CD of arias, entitled “Arabesque,” gives a good sense of her technical aplomb and vocal potential.) “I puritani” improves on the traditional bel canto mad scene by letting its heroine drift in and out of madness a couple of times before, again atypically, offering her a happy ending. These extended mad scenes got Peretyatko nicely lubricated for the “Vieni fra queste braccia” duet, which was such a confluence of fine voices that the applause stopped the action for some time. It didn’t hurt that the conductor, Michele Mariotti — the principal conductor of the opera house in Bologna, and Peretyatko’s real-life husband — animated the ensembles with brisk tempi that kept the singers on their toes, and an undercurrent of energy running through the music.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 13:17:09 +0000
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