Renée Gilly News
French operatic mezzo-soprano
- mezzo-soprano
- France
- opera singer
Last update
2024-03-20
Refresh
2021-09-26 14:36:00
[…] The role of Paride, written for a soprano castrato, poses a problem in that one will end up with a cast of five sopranos—or one will transpose it down for a high tenor. Allegedly, for the nature of the alleged ‘problem’ is unclear when one listens, especially to so accomplished a performance as we heard from Ella Taylor. Taylor’s Paris—we may as well use English, since the opera was sung in an English translation by Gilly French—evinced youthful strength and vulnerability through Orphic song, rising to more militaristic clamour where required. Their portrayal both contrasted with and complemented Lucy Anderson’s equally multi-faceted Helen, knowingly beguiling and resistant, ultimately moved—perhaps musically as much as verbally—to confront and acknowledge the transformation of her own feelings. As cunning agent of that transformation, Cupid posing as royal counsellor Erasto, Lauren Lodge-Campbell shone and sparkled. Milly Forrest, a late replacement as Pallas Athena, commanded attention […]
2021-09-25 11:26:40
Lyric intensity: Gluck's Paride ed Elena (Paris and Helen) receives its first London staging from Bampton Classical Opera
[…] staging. But then even in 18th century Vienna, Paride ed Elena rather lagged behind Gluck and librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi's other two operas, so that in the period to 1800, there were more than 100 performances of Orfeo ed Euridice in Vienna, compared to more than 70 of Alceste and just 25 of Paride ed Elena.So it was with great pleasure that I was able to encounter Gluck's Paride ed Elena, performed in a new English translation by Gilly French as Paris and Helen, with Bampton Classical Opera's performance at St John's Smith Square on Friday 24 September 2021. Thomas Blunt conducted Chroma, with a production directed and designed by Jeremy Gray, and choreographed by Alicia Frost. Ella Taylor was Paris, Lucy Anderson was Helen and Lauren Lodge-Campbell was Amor. There were two cast substitutions, Milly Forrest was a very last minute stand-in for Lisa Howarth as Pallas Athene with Lucy Cronin (from […]
2021-08-16 10:54:27
[…] or common sense: the creation of Reform Opera]. It tells the story of Paris' wooing of Helen (with the help of Amor and against the advice of Pallas Athene), using four soprano soloists, dancers and chorus. I was lucky enough to see the work staged at Drottningholm in 1998 (alongside Alceste) and can testify to the opera's imagination as a stage work. Bampton Classical Opera will be performing it in a new English translation by Gilly French, directed by Jeremy Gray, and conducted by Thomas Blunt. The cast features Ella Taylor as Paris (a role written for the soprano castrato Giuseppe Millico who created the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Parma version of Orfeo ed Euridice with the title role transposed up for soprano castrato). Taylor won second prize in the 2020 Ferrier Awards and this will be their professional stage debut. Helen is sung by Lucy Anderson, first-prizewinner in […]
2021-03-23 09:12:14
Giving Gluck's Paride ed Elena its due: Bampton Classical Opera's 2021 season
[…] and Paride ed Elena. Orfeo ed Euridice remains iconic whilst Alceste is occasionally performed (though more often in its later French re-composition) yet Paride ed Elena remains virtually unknown getting only very occasional revivals and may never have been staged in London. This is going to be remedied by Bampton Classical Opera whose 2021 Summer season features a staging of Paride ed Elena directed by Jeremy Gray in a new English translation by Gilly French, conducted by Thomas Blunt with Samantha Louis-Jean, Lucy Anderson, Lauren Lodge-Campbell and Lisa Howarth. There will be performances in the Deanery Garden, Bampton (23 and 24 July 2021), The Orangery Theatre, Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire (30 August) and St John's Smith Square (24 September). During Gluck's life-time the work was the least popular of his three Viennese Reform Operas. In the period to 1800, there were more than 100 performances of Orfeo […]
or
- timeline: Lyrical singers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): G...