Vicar’s delight
“It was… immediately clear that neither Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski nor French mezzo Sophie Koch were going to provide wildly enchanting interpretations of the Marschallin and Octavian…. But the most exciting element of the evening was the Sophie of the young British soprano Lucy Crowe, floating through the ecstasy of the Presentation of the Rose with silvery clarity and painting a totally plausible figure of a gauche, gold-digging minx. Here is an outstanding talent, and I only hope the Royal Opera will nurture it.” [The Telegraph]
As the saying went during WWII, “Buy British!”
Do not for one moment believe Rupert C. He is the man
who wrote last year that Christine Brewer was “newly
slimmed-down..” Haw!
Do you British readers know they’re constantly being fed this hogwash?
You should have been at the Wigmore Song Competition this year where a (to put it kindly) modestly gifted young baritone (English) won top honors. Oh, and he had been working with Graham Johnson, one of the judges.
“working” on what?
Sorry about the poor editing on my part…
Too few or too many gay friends:
Soile Isokosky not being a good Marchallin? Sorry, that sounds like bullshit to me. It’s like saying that Sutherland scooped and slided her way through Lucia.
Very well put, Lindoro.
I have seen Isokoski a few times and the results were startlingly varied. Though the Marschallin was certainly the best of her best work.
The Vicar must be very, very proud!
I’ve seen Isoloski’s Marschallin in Cologne, Bastille, San Francisco and now Covent Garden. It worked best in Cologne and was acceptable at the ROH. At the Bastille and SFO she was barely audible from the middle of the orchestra stalls, outsung by Joyce DiDonato (in SF) but not Angelika Kirschschlager (Paris), who you had to strain to hear, too.
http://intermezzo.typepad.com/intermezzo/2009/12/a-faded-rose.html
I was also at the rehearsal and this seems pretty fair – but I am going to the performance on the 15th and things may have improved by then.
Lucy Crowe is the English critics’ delight: a clear light soprano who sings in tune and whose voice has not a trace of sexual interest.
How is that possible? Even Julie Andrews’ voice betrayed a trace of sexual interest as Mary Poppins.
It’s easy to see why you’re often admonished:
http://tinyurl.com/yjnt2uq
and whose *voice* has not a trace of etc…
A spoonful of sugar, baby, a spoonful of sugar
“Lucy Crowe is the English critics’ delight: a clear light soprano who sings in tune and whose voice has not a trace of sexual interest.” Well she is certainly not my delight. I didn’t attend opening night, but at the dress rehearsal I thought her top unreliable, the bottom reasonably secure, whilst the middle suffered from a sort of hollowness. All very disconcerting and all very colourless. In the space of a few days I doubt if it changed that much.
Lucy Crowe certainly didn’t sound in her best voice on the opening night. Isokoski’s voice sounded smaller than it has here before although she did some exquisite things. The Silberne Rose phrase at the end of Act I was a collector’s item. Koch is a good, not great Octavian, same goes for Peter Rose’s Ochs, I guess your recent Rosenkavs were a good deal more starry. Crowe is a talent – a clean bright lyric-to-light soprano and an excellent actress. It’s not only the Brits who think highly of her: she is singing Sophie in Berlin next year and in Munich in 2011. I’d rate her less highly than Miah Persson in the role, but higher than Christine Schäfer.