September 11, 19, October 4, 13, 20, 2015
I puritani, opera seria in three acts
Music by Vincenzo Bellini
Libretto by Count Carlo Pepoli
Performances of Welsh National Opera at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, UK (11, 19, 4); Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, UK (13); The Bristol Hippodrome, Hippodrome, UK (20)
New production of Welsh National Opera co-produced with Den Jyske Opera/Danish National Opera
Conductor: Carlo Rizzi
Elvira: Rosa Feola
Lord Arturo Talbo: Barry Banks / Edmond Choo (20)
Sir Riccardo Forth: David Kempster
Sir Giorgio Valton: Wojtek Gierlach
Lord Gualtiero Valton: Aidan Smith
Enrichetta di Francia: Sian Meinir
Sir Bruno Robertson: Simon Crosby Buttle
WNO Orchestra and Chorus
Chorus Master: Stephen Harris
Director: Annilese Miskimmon
Designer: Leslie Travers
Lighting Designer: Mark Jonathan
Photos (link to Rosa's Facebook page)
Excerpt:
Reviews:
"But the discovery of the night was soprano Rosa Feola, who spun Elvira’s long, winding melodies into gold. Her coloratura was gorgeous - and heartbreaking - with no histrionics but a myriad, delicate inflections. Quite simply, a star in the making."
Steph Power, "The Indenpendent"
"The Italian soprano Rosa Feola, a protégé of the great Renata Scotto, sings the dippy heroine Elvira with all her mentor’s questing intelligence. Warm and easy in her top register, she phrases sensitively, shaping the line into expressive meaning and colouring words with imagination. Her Mad Scene in Act 2 was exquisitely done, as was the miraculous (if implausible) recovery of her senses that ensues. Feola can act too, radiating considerable personal charm throughout Elvira’s neurasthenic travails. There is blazing star potential here [...]"
Rupert Christiansen, "The Telegraph"
"Elvira is the young Rosa Feola, an exciting new singer, who [...] interpreted her marvellous music with intensity and flexibility. Any Elvira is advised to listen to Callas’s very first recording, the great aria ‘O rendetemi la speme’, and it sounded as if Feola had and had made it her own."
Michael Tanner, "The Spectator"
"Elvira is superbly sung with nimble, silvered coloratura by the Italian soprano Rosa Feola. Her gift is to deliver Bellini’s crazed scurries of high notes and ornaments with resilience and effortless pliancy."
Fiona Maddocks, "The Guardian"
"Musically this is most rewarding, with Feola’s coloratura gracefully poised."
Rian Evans, "The Guardian"
"As Elvira, Rosa Feola is mesmerising: [...] an acute study in psychosis. [...] her obsessive-compulsive shredding of a bridal bouquet is the show’s most memorable image."
Richard Morrison, "The Times"
"Rosa Feola gives a genuinely affecting and moving performance, restrained yet full of deep passion."
Peter Collins, "Wales Online"
"Elvira [...] gorgeously sung here by the outstanding Rosa Feola"
Steph Power, "Wales Arts Review"
"Elvira – wonderfully sung by Italian soprano Rosa Feola [...] Feola’s exceptional Elvira [...]"
George Hall, "The Stage"
"Rosa Feola [...] effaces all memories of Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland by singing a soaring, secure, beautiful and vulnerable Elvira. [...] She will make you giddy. In act two [...] she breaks the heart in her mad scene, "O rendetemi la speme"."
Mark Valencia, "What's On Stage"
"Rosa Feola’s spectacular high notes emphasise her emotional distress and truly show a perfectly trained ability. None among the cast were strong enough to steal the show from the incredible talent."
Natalie Fordham, "The Edge"
"[...] the Italian soprano Rosa Feola is [...] attention grabbing as Elvira. And this exquisite singer-actress has everything you could possibly want from a Bellini heroine, meltingly beautiful delivery of the composer’s vocal demands and an empathetic characterisation that transforms the evening, just as her mind is transformed into madness in Act Two."
Mike Smith, "Art Scene in Wales"
"Rosa Feola’s outstanding coloratura soprano. [...] I puritani stands or falls by its Elvira, and this production stood high, with this young and hugely gifted singer making great musical and dramatic sense of the role. [...] a mad scene, which Feola interpreted with beauty of tone and length of line worthy of her great predecessors in the role."
Simon Rees, "Bachtrack"
"Rosa Feola, making her debut with Welsh National Opera, was coruscating as Elvira. Feola [...] here combined a fluency in the coloratura with a great sense of strength. Not quite a spinto performance, but something in that direction; this Elvira was no demented canary, and Feola made Elvira's madness truly a reality whilst giving us a superb series of fioriture and roulades, and a stunning sense of line. Technically adept, she folded the ornamental elaborations into the very fabric of the vocal line as Bellini intended and brought a scary intensity to the whole performance."
Robert Hugill, "Opera Today"
"Elvira of Rosa Feola, a marvellous singing actress, in full command of the part’s range and coloratura, and with poise and a fine sense of nineteenth-century visual idiom [...] Her mad scene, especially, is a masterclass in refined excess: in knowing, in Cocteau’s phrase, how far you can go too far. And, by the way, it’s exquisitely sung."
Stephen Walsh, "The Arts Desk"
"The young Italian soprano Rosa Feola was the undoubted vocal star of the evening. Her coloratura was consistently beautiful and expressive, her vocal technique seemingly flawless. She is a singing-actress too, and she presented [...] a thoroughly intelligent reading of Elvira, her singing sensitively phrased, passionate without any loss of balance or clarity and always nuanced in its interpretation of textual detail. She made one believe in the character’s core of inner strength, for all her vulnerability. Feola has, without being in any way showy or self-regarding, a charismatic stage presence. She has, in short, all the qualities to become a supreme lyric soprano. It was a privilege and a joy to see and hear her at what is still a relatively early stage in her career."
Glyn Pursglove, "Seen and Heard International"
For her portray of Elvira, Rosa was selected as the winner of "Best Female in an Opera Production", Wales Theater Awards 2016 ("Exquisite singing and acting in this unusual production that demanded so much from this wonderful artist"), as well as the winner of "Outstanding Achievement in an Operatic Role", 2016 WhatsOnStage Opera Poll.
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