appearance as the High Priest, his voice seeming miraculously untouched by time. Parry's high-voltage conducting, meanwhile, maintains the work's high emotional level throughout.'

The Sunday Times
'It’s a coup for Chandos to have secured the great Nicolai Gedda as the high priest. He’s 78 this year, but still sounds authoritative. Rebecca Evans and Diana Montague are as good as any international Ilia and Idamante, and Bruce Ford’s Idomeneo is probably the best around today in any language. His English diction is immaculate.'

Gramophone
'Bruce Ford makes an impressive Idomeneo, with regal grandeur as well as anguish conveyed in his shapely phrasing and his fine, clear line of tone. Diana Montague gives a strong and unaffected account of Idamate's music. The Ilia, Rebecca Evans, is especially moving in her Act 2 aria, 'Se il padre perdei', very expressively shaped...The tension underlying all Electra's music is well caught in Susan Patterson's singing, with 'D'Oreste, d'Aiace' powerfully done; but even in the more docile Act 2 aria it is conveyed in her handling of vibrato. It is quite a luxury to have Ryland Davies's model articulation in Arbace's recitatives, not to say Nicolai Gedda, in his late 70s, bringing ripe authority (and rather beautiful elderly tone) to the High Priest.

 

 

Registered charity number: 258224

The Guardian

'Bruce Ford's Idomeneo and Diana Montague's Idamante generate tremendous power, and Susan Patterson's Elettra declines into insanity with frightening vividness. Rebecca Evans's Ilia is feistier than most.. Nicolai Gedda - now in his late 70s and a great Idomeneo himself in his day - makes an

CHAN 3103

3 December 2008

The Peter Moores Foundation supports projects which come to the attention of its Patron, or Trustees, through their interests and special knowledge. General applications for grants are not encouraged and are unlikely to succeed.

Dramma per musica in three acts
Libretto by Giovanni Battista Varesco
after Antoine Danchet's Idomenée
English translation by David Parry

The Cast

Bruce Ford, tenor - Idomeneo
Diana Montague, mezzo-soprano - Idamante
Rebecca Evans, soprano - Ilia
Susan Patterson, soprano - Electra
Ryland Davies, tenor - Arbace
Nicolai Gedda, tenor - High Priest of Neptune
Clive Bayley, bass (PMF Scholar) - Voice of Neptune
Chorus of Opera North
Orchestra of Opera North
David Parry - conductor

Recorded in Leeds Town Hall 23-27 June 2003
Producer - Brian Couzens
Sound engineer - Ralph Couzens
Assistant engineer - Michael Common

Registered charity number: 258224

Idomeneo

© Peter Moores Foundation 2004