The Times

Review of the concert performance in 2007

'Opera Rara has just completed a studio recording; and the two-act melodramma was given a spine-chilling and timber-shivering concert performance, with the London Philharmonic conducted by David Parry whose masterly control of the nerve-system of this mobile, highly charged melodic declamation was as superb as the singing of the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir. And the LPO had the exact measure of the score's dark charcoals and indigos, pulsating with pizzicato, and lit by the silvery nocturnal light of solo oboe and flute.

In the title role, Patrizia Ciofi used her haunting soprano to wrap a white mist of mystery round the music of Alaide... Dario Schmunck's tenor was both tender and properly hysterical as Arturo; and Mark Stone captured perfectly the character of Bellini's new cantabile baritone in the role of Valdoburgo.'