Rossini’s Le Comte Ory
The Times: ‘The conductor David Parry is at his best, relaxed, full of the art that conceals art, and the orchestra responds with zinging verve.’
The Guardian: ‘Rossini was never more sparkling than in Le Comte Ory. Garsington’s Rossini series now offers it in a riotous production, built on fizzingly brilliant ensemble work from the singers and orchestra under David Parry.’

Conductor

Born in the UK. He is the Music Director of Almeida Opera and the Artistic Adviser of Opera Rara.

David Parry

The Guardian: ‘He is a man of the theatre with whom directors love to work; he is good with singers… He is a controversial and outspoken defender of the operatic form, and a passionate advocate of opera in English.’

Rossini’s La Donna del Lago
The Times: ‘... a top-notch score, brightly guided by conductor David Parry.’
Bloomberg: ‘David Parry holds the whole thing together with aplomb. He negotiates the switches between pathos and Rossini's pitter-patter with ease.’
The Independent: ‘In Act II, brilliantly abetted by the conductor David Parry, Alden allowed the music's singular beauties to emerge.’

Mozart’s Idomeneo
The Independent: ‘David Parry, who provided the new English translation, conducted a sharp-edged and fast-moving performance that properly reflected Mozart’s own concern for continuity and dramatic tension.’
The Spectator: ‘David Parry is superb, and so is the Opera North orchestra.’ The Financial Times: ‘David Parry is a conductor with the admirable virtues of dramatic punch and energy.’
The Times: ‘Everyone performs with conviction, and under the brisk, idiomatic baton of David Parry (whose English translation is used) the music packs a punch.’
The Sunday Telegraph: ‘David Parry conducted with exemplary sense of style.’
The Independent on Sunday: ‘Conductor David Parry cuts to the bones of Mozart’s score; razing any sentimentality or ponderousness from what is a vicious conflict between personal desire and patriotic sacrifice.’

3 December 2008 
Beethoven's Fidelio
Bizet's Carmen
Donizetti's Don Pasquale , The Elixir of Love ,
Lucia of Lammermoor
Gounod's Faust , Faust (abridged)
Leoncavallo's Pagliacci , Cav & Pag
Mascagni's Cavalliera Rusticana
Mozart's Don Giovanni , Idomeneo , The Marriage of Figaro
Puccini's La bohème , Tosca , Jane Eaglen sings Tosca , Turandot
Rossini's The Thieving Magpie
R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier highlights
Verdi's Aida , A Masked Ball , Ernani , Il trovatore , Nabucco , Verdi - A Celebration
Wagner's The Flying Dutchman
Baroque Celebration
Recitals: Sir Thomas Allen , Barry Banks , Christine Brewer Bruce Ford 1 , Bruce Ford 2 , Jennifer Larmore ,
Della Jones , Yvonne Kenny 1 , Alastair Miles ,
Diana Montague 1 , Diana Montague 2 , Dennis O'Neill 1 , Dennis O'Neill 2 , Alan Opie , Andrew Shore ,
John Tomlinson 1 , John Tomlinson 2
Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool ,
La Romanzesca e L'Uomo Nero ,
L'Assedio di Calais , Maria de Rudenz ,
Pia de' Tolomei , Rosmonda D'Inghilterra
Renée Fleming sings Rosmonda D'Inghilterra ,
Ugo Conte di Parigi , Zoraide di Granata
Mayr's Medea in Corinto ,
Jane Eaglen sings Medea in Corinto
Mercadante's Emma d'Antiochia ,
Orazi e Curiazi
Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto ,
Margherita d'Anjou
Pacini's Carlo di Borgogna ,
Maria Regina d'Inghilterra
Rossini's Bianca e Falliero , Otello ,
Ricciardo e Zoraide , Rossini Gala ,
Rossini Three Tenors ,
Bruce Ford - Serious Rossini
Essential Opera Rara: Mercadante's Zaira
Artist's Collections: Yvonne Kenny ,
Ferme tes Yeux
Susan Patterson
Mozart's Idomeneo
Verdi's A Masked Ball ,
Ernani , Nabucco ,
Verdi - A Celebration
Recitals: Jennifer Larmore ,
Alan Opie
Soprano

Born in the USA

International Record Review:
Verdi‘s Nabucco
‘All ears, of course, are on the Abigaille, the one Verdi role that makes Lady Macbeth seem a walk in the park, and Susan Patterson does not disappoint. The voice is powerful from top to bottom and she sings fearlessly, 

The Philharmonia Orchestra

The Philharmonia Orchestra was founded by Walter Legge in 1945. Vladimir Ashkenazy is Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras is Principal Guest Conductor and the Principal Conductor Christoph von Dohnányi. It has received the Evening Standard Outstanding Ensemble Award, Royal Philharmonic Society's Large Ensemble Award, Royal Philharmonic Society's Best Concert Series in 1997 for Clocks and Clouds: The music of György Ligeti.

The Guardian: Adès’ Powder Her Face
‘Powder Her Face began life as a chamber opera, though the Overture, Waltz and Finale - reorchestrated for the Philharmonia, who gave the first performance at Aldeburgh this year - transforms the original's sparse textures into a pointillistic phantasmagoria, its exuberance finally collapsing into shards of disillusionment. It is a fine showpiece for the Philharmonia, who played it with bittersweet finesse.’

Mahler’s Third Symphony
The Times: ‘Mahler’s Third Symphony really was the vindication not only of the regenerated acoustic of the hall (Royal Festival Hall), but of the Philharmonia’s happy decision to take on Esa-Pekka Salonen as principal conductor from 2008. The vividly individuated solos, the chamber-like transparency of ensemble, and the assured pacing and structuring of the vast first movement were very much a result of his inspiration. Horns, brass and percussion found a new focus and the offstage posthorn a new and magical balance.’
The Independent: ‘Mahler wrote nothing more flabbergasting than the first movement of the Third Symphony. As acoustical work-outs go, this one has all the highs and lows - the piccolo and E-flat clarinet-led marching bands, the growling lower brasses coming up through seismic string basses. Great vistas open up from nowhere and need to feel overwhelming, not oppressive. They did. It was like the music itself had been spring-cleaned. Salonen took a broad view of this poetic and rabble-rousing movement, but extremes of tempo rubato were accommodated, too, with the wild pay-off of the first movement sprinting to its trumpet-driven

Beethoven's Fidelio
Berg's Wozzeck
Bizet's Carmen
Donizetti's The Elixir of Love ,
Lucia of Lammermoor
Gounod's Faust , Faust (abridged)
Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel
Mozart's Don Giovanni , The Marriage of Figaro
Puccini's La bohème , Madam Butterfly , Tosca ,
Jane Eaglen sings Tosca , Turandot ,
Puccini Passions
Rossini's The Thieving Magpie
Smetana's The Bartered Bride
Verdi's Aida , Verdi - A Celebration
Baroque Celebration
Recitals: Barry Banks , Christine Brewer ,
Bruce Ford 1 , Elizabeth Futral ,
Yvonne Kenny 1 , Jennifer Larmore ,
Alastair Miles , Diana Montague 1 ,
Diana Montague 2 , Dennis O'Neill 1 ,
Dennis O'Neill 2 , Alan Opie , Andrew Shore , John Tomlinson 1 , John Tomlinson 2
finishing line more thrillingly than I've ever heard it. The  Philharmonia brass really were extraordinarily accomplished - not least the solo trombone with his wintry orations and the posthorn, whose flawless offstage solos became the still centre of the whole piece.’

The Daily Telegraph: Dvorak's New World Symphony
'When music has become too popular for its own good (not necessarily through its own fault), it needs the revitalising agent of a conductor such as Belohlavek. With the Philharmonia on top form, he reminded us not only how freshly melodic the piece is - Dvorak was homesick for his native Bohemia as much as he was keen to kickstart an American national music - but also how darkly dramatic it can be, especially in the turbulent finale.’

Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool , L'Assedio di Calais ,
Maria de Rudenz , Rosmonda D'Inghilterra
Renée Fleming sings Rosmonda D'Inghilterra
Ugo Conte di Parigi ,
Mayr's Medea in Corinto ,
Jane Eaglen sings Medea in Corinto
Mercadante's Orazi e Curiazi
Meyerbeer's Dinorah
Pacini's Maria Regina d'Inghilterra
Rossini's Otello , Rossini Three Tenors
Essential Opera Rara: Mercadante's Zaira
Ricci's La Prigione di Edimburgo
Mary Plazas
Bizet's Carmen
Donizetti's The Elixir of Love
Gounod's Faust , Faust abridged
Mozart's Don Giovanni
Puccini's Turandot , Puccini - passions
Recitals: Bruce Ford 1 , Della Jones , Diana Montague 1 , Andrew Shore
Soprano PMF Scholar, A Kathleen Ferrier Award winner  

Born in the UK

Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux
The Independent: ‘Mary Plazas sings Elizabetta, displaying her versatility as a singing actress in this bloody tragedy... Plazas successfully (and seemingly effortlessly) negotiates her virtuoso role with its range, ornamentation and – in the closing Vivi, ingrato – expansive yet restrained emotion.’
The Guardian: ‘Elizabeth was nothing if not a self-styled diva,

snarling the more vicious moments of the text and caressing the softer ones…’

MusicWeb International: Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso
‘Susan Patterson is magnificent; her voice is smooth and subtle.’

Boito’s Mephistopheles
The Spectator: ‘Susan Patterson is a heartfelt Margarita, exquisite in the garden scene, harrowing in prison. She is also Helen of Troy, even more at home in this act...’
The Times: 'magnificently engaging portrayals - a singer in terrific voice.’

The Daily Telegraph: Puccini's La Rondine
‘The Magda of Susan Patterson… was a full-hearted and generous portrayal.’

Pacini's Maria Regina d'Inghilterra
Rosalind Plowright

and Mary Plazas’s scintillating coloratura becomes an explosive expression of the queen’s histrionics… the outstanding Plazas is supported by a strong cast.’
The Sunday Times : ‘…it makes for riveting music drama, especially when it is sung with such

Mezzo-soprano PMF Scholar

Born in the UK. Awarded an OBE in 2007.

Wagner’s Die Walküre
Opera ‘...but the best single performance of the evening came from Rosalind Plowright as Fricka. Grandly dressed as a powerful Victorian matron, she fielded plenty of convincing mezzo tone that was secure and direct enough to make Wotan's quailing before her admonishment entirely credible. Here was the perfect balance between words and notes that Wagner needs.’
The Sunday Telegraph: ‘It was thrilling to hear Rosalind Plowright in such lustrous vocal and dramatic form as Wotan's wife Fricka.’
The Daily Telegraph ‘The duel with Fricka (the splendidly indignant Rosalind Plowright, in excellent voice) crackled…

Donizetti's Mary Stuart ,
Janet Baker sings Mary Stuart
Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel
Verdi's Aida , Otello
Verdi - A Celebration
Christopher Purves
Beethoven's Fidelio
Mozart's The Magic Flute ,
The Marriage of Figaro
Rossini's The Thieving Magpie
Verdi's A Masked Ball
Essential Opera Rara
Ricci's La Prigione di Edimburgo

Bass-baritone

Born in the UK

Bach’s St Matthew Passion
The Times: ‘Christopher Purves proved a model of warm-hearted profundity – tinted by the very human anguish the baritone found in the haunting moments before Jesus’ arrest.’
The Guardian: ‘Purves captured the genuine terror Agony in the Garden, and the deep sorrow of Christ’s subsequent discovery of his sleeping disciples.’

Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool , L'Assedio di Calais ,
Maria de Rudenz , Rosmonda D'Inghilterra ,
Renée Fleming sings Rosmonda D'Inghilterra ,
Ugo Conte di Parigi
Mayr's Medea in Corinto ,
Jane Eaglen sings Medea in Corinto
Mercadante's Orazi e Curiazi
Meyerbeer's Dinorah
Pacini's Maria Regina d'Inghilterra
Rossini's Otello , Rossini Three Tenors
Essential Opera Rara: Mercadante's
Maria Stuarda regina di Scozia , Zaira ,
Ricci's La Prigione di Edimburgo
Artist's Collections: Bruce Ford Serious Rossini ,
Yvonne Kenny 19th Century Heroines
Donizetti's Lucia of Lammermoor
Puccini's Tosca ,
Jane Eaglen sings Tosca
Rossini's Barber of Seville
Smetana's The Bartered Bride
Verdi's Aida , Ernani
Recitals: Alan Opie
Peter Rose

Bass

Born in Canterbury, UK

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Opera Critic: ‘… the imposing Peter Rose demonstrated complete mastery of the comic role with impeccable pacing and phrasing and a lush bass voice that could be both darkly venomous and gleefully animated.’
The Sydney Morning Herald: ‘After a resonant and expansive first aria, Peter Rose, as the caricatured Turkish oaf, Osmin, didn't initially seem wild enough in his first display of extremism, Solche hergelauf'ne laffen, but in the second and third act the

blend of comic exaggeration and fine singing was artfully balanced.’

Wagner’s Parsifal
Der Merker: ‘The evening's discovery was the debut of Peter Rose as Gurnemanz: If you did not know he is English, you would never have guessed it. His German... was more intelligible than that of a "real" German. His capable, controlled bass, brightly coloured and with beautiful modulation, was created for Wagner.’
Wiener Zeitung: ‘Not forgetting Peter Rose, whose Gurnemanz vocally fits like a glove.’

Andrew Shore

Baritone

Born in Oldham, UK

Vaughan Williams’s Sir John in Love
The Independent: ‘Andrew Shore's blustering charisma, here amplified by billowing plus-fours and bravura facial hair, is ideal for the title role.’
The Financial Times: ‘as comfortable and witty a portrait as anyone could wish, blessed with this singer’s immaculate diction and timing.’
The Times: ‘Andrew Shore’s brilliant Falstaff rightly dominates: a wonderfully rounded (in every sense) creation in tweed plus-fours with exactly the right mix of swagger, vanity, pathos and, at the end, redeeming grace.’
The Stage: ‘Andrew Shore’s inimitable Falstaff unsettles the social epicentre.’
musicOMH.com: ‘Andrew Shore as Sir John is as good as one would expect from this seasoned singer and consummate comic

Berg's Wozzeck
Donizetti's Don Pasquale ,
The Elixir of Love
Mozart's Don Giovanni
Puccini's La Bohème , Tosca ,
Jane Eaglen sings Tosca ,
Puccini passions
Rossini's The Barber of Seville
R. Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier highlights
Verdi's Falstaff
Recitals: Andrew Shore ,
Della Jones , Dennis O'Neill 2 ,
John Tomlinson 1
Sir John Tomlinson
Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle
Donizetti's Mary Stuart ,
Janet Baker sings Mary Stuart
Handel's Julius Caesar ,
Janet Baker sings Julius Caesar
Massanet's Werther
Mozart's The Magic Flute
Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov
R. Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier highlights Verdi's Rigoletto ,
Verdi - A Celebration
Wagner's The Flying Dutchman
Recitals: John Tomlinson 1 ,
John Tomlinson 2

Bass

Born in Lancashire, UK. In 1993, he won a Grammy Award for Bartok's Cantata Profana and in February 2007 he was honoured with the "Special Award" at the Laurence Olivier Award Ceremony. He was awarded a CBE in 1997 and Knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2005.

The Guardian: ‘Tomlinson has been the UK's most distinguished bass for perhaps two decades now, and the first quality that leaps into mind when thinking of him is one of sheer bigness: not in a physical sense, but in an ability to lift a performance merely by walking on stage, hogging every scene

Donizetti's Gabriella di Vergy
Verdi Originals: Verdi's Macbeth

without being ungenerous enough to steal it… Though long a favourite at Covent Garden, his best known association has been with the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the Bavarian theatre Wagner designed to house his own operas, and where he appeared every summer from 1988 to 2006, bar one. Wotan was his first role there, and he owned it for the next 12 years; nobody in Bayreuth's history has sung the role more times in Wagner's own theatre than he has… "Wotan's the best," says Tomlinson, whose speaking voice still makes clear his Lancastrian roots. "As a role it's got the whole gamut, from the tenderest, most intimate moments to the most grandiose. He is the mainspring of the whole Ring story, after all.’

Schubert's Winterreise
musicOMH.com: ‘John Tomlinson's eagerly awaited debut performance of Schubert's Winterreise was attended by the cream of British singers (such as 

Janice Watson
Janáček’s Jenůfa
Recitals:
Sir Thomas Allen
Barry Banks ,
Christine Brewer
Dennis O'Neill 2

Soprano. A Kathleen Ferrier Award winner

Born in the UK

The Independent: ‘Janice Watson is one of those British singers whose versatility and professionalism has led her to be taken for granted: no diva stories surround her, but a star she undoubtedly is.’

Puccini’s Madam Butterfly
The Financial Times: ‘Janice Watson is blessed with a silvery soprano that was made for Mozart or Strauss. As long- suffering Butterfly, she wisely stayed with what she does best, floating top notes, shaping lambent phrases, underplaying the drama. Like Minghella’s production, she had class. Neither of them chooses to sock the audience in the solar plexus.’
The Guardian: ‘There’s a new Butterfly in the form of Janice Watson. Wide- eyed and beautiful, she suggests both the girl’s naivety and the deep reserves of feeling that drive her on. There’s a touch of metal beneath the silky tone. He body shakes and twists with delight and pain. It’s a fine performance. The evening belongs… to Watson and Kempster, who inject a considerable

fervour as here, by a cast that any of our national opera companies would be proud to field. Mary Plazas’s feisty Elizabeth, Susan Bickley’s passionate Sara and David Kempster as the Duke of Nottingham are thrilling in their angry confrontations.’
The Daily Telegraph: ‘…the redoubtable Mary Plazas wins through by virtue of the sheer ardour of her singing, warmed by imaginative phrasing and sensitive musicality.’

Adès’ Powder Her Face
The Guardian: ‘... the portrayal of the Duchess didn't seem quite as heartless as it might - partly because of the dignity in soprano Mary Plazas's exemplary performance.’
The Times: ‘... the dark sensuality and wounded dignity of Mary Plazas’s Duchess... powerfully re-creates the pain of an aristocracy stranded in a fractured society.’

Puccini’s Madam Butterfly
Opera: ‘That lovely and courageous soprano Mary Plazas transcended the glitzy artifice of the production with heartfelt and beautifully judged singing as Butterfly.’
The Sunday Times: ‘Madam Butterfly stands or falls by its heroine, of course, and in the title role, the diminutive Mary Plazas triumphs… her Cio-Cio San is emphatically a “piccola Butterfly”: delicate, fragile, supremely musical and, finally, gut-wrenchingly truthful. Even if Minghella’s production were less watchable than it is, Plazas would be unmissable.’ 
The Observer: ‘Mary Plazas makes a beguiling Butterfly, singing beautifully...’
The Stage: ‘Mary Plazas’ Butterfly is extraordinary, the tiny figure disturbingly highlighting the

story’s more perverse aspects. She judges superbly the delicate balance between resolve and vulnerability, never plays victim. Vocally, she husbands her resources skilfully never to compromise the power of the ‘spinto’ vocal lines.’
The Times: ‘There’s one touching and beautifully observed performance, from the tiny-framed but great-hearted Mary Plazas in the title role.’ The Telegraph: ‘Mary Plazas… is a lovely singer, who imbued every note with feeling and instinctively musical shape.’
The Independent: ‘… she is a musician through and through and her wealth of experience brings much that is personal and touching, not least the way cadences melt away, now hopeful, now hopeless.’

Manchester Evening News: A Christmas concert with the Hallé Orchestra
‘The outstanding contribution last night came from Mary Plazas… how relaxed and vivacious a performer she is in lighter stuff  whether it's Walking In The Air, Winter Wonderland, or leading the audience in a singalong Twelve Days Of Christmas.’

This was an enthralling occasion, received with a thunderous ovation.’
The Financial Times: ‘As Fricka, Rosalind Plowright has never sounded in better voice, or acted with such confidence: a triumph.’
The Independent: ‘Rosalind Plowright's imperious Fricka is scarily impressive, withering with her words and actions - a borderline dominatrix.’
New York Times: ‘… Fricka - sternly and strongly portrayed by Rosalind Plowright.’

Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur
The Evening Standard: ‘In the role of her rival, the Princess of Bouillon, Rosalind Plowright has all the poise and vocal caliber one could wish for. It’s a commanding performance.’

The Times: ‘The night took off in Act II as the princess (Rosalind Plowright, an explosion of passion in slinky killer black) waited with alarmingly genuine yearning for Maurizio to appear – a display of vocal power, note-bending and curdles that shifted the evening up several gears… and it is worth going for Miss Plowright alone.’
The Guardian: ‘Rosalind Plowright is wonderful at capturing the princess’s fury and fading glamour.’
The Independent: ‘As the Princess who dispatches her rival with a bowl of poisoned violets, Rosalind Plowright – a stage legend, having outfaced Janet Baker in Maria Stuarda – looks a killer from the start, and singing to kill for, too.’
The Financial Times: ‘Rosalind Plowright is a perfectly pitched villainess.’
The Spectator: ‘It is especially delightful to hear Rosalind Plowright, as the Amneris-like villain in stupendous vocal form, and looking and acting as a great star.’

Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina
The Sunday Times: ‘As directed by David Pountney, Marfa, in the statuesque form of Rosalind Plowright, is the focus of the drama... Although the role lies low for Plowright, she grows in stature and vocal confidence as the drama reaches its climax, emerging as a Brönnhilde-like redeemer in the final Immolation scene.’
The Spectator: ‘The fanatical Marfa was the charismatic Rosalind Plowright...  She was almost omnipresent, and seemed the most powerful personality in the whole drama.’

The Independent: ‘For much of the opera… (the)… anti-hero is overshadowed by Christopher Purves’s charismatic Balstrode…’

Berg’s Wozzeck
New York Times: ‘Christopher Purves, in the title role, is outstanding, his voice achingly in search, never conscious of what it possesses: a soft solidity and gleam.’
The Times: ‘Christopher Purves is compelling and warmly musical in the title role.’
The Independent: ‘Christopher Purves a marvellous, almost bel canto yet shambling Wozzeck.’ The Sunday Times: ‘Christopher Purves’s Wozzeck is one of the finest things this artist has done on the operatic stage. He sings the notes with beautiful, firm, dark tone and creates a pitiful figure of heroic fortitude, until he snaps.’
The Independent: ’Purves’s impersonation of the title role – intelligently and musically sung, as ever – is so complete as to eradicate his normally affable stage presence. For one and a half hours, he is Wozzeck.’

Britten’s Peter Grimes
The Sunday Times: ‘Christopher Purves’s sympathetic but tough Balstrode could hardly be bettered...’
The Daily Telegraph: ‘Framing them is a superb supporting cast, among whom I would single out Christopher Purves (Balstrode).’
The Times: ‘Nor can I recall a production that produced such plausible characters… Christopher Purves's great-hearted Balstrode…’ </