The National Opera Studio trains talented young musicians to become the leading artists of the young generation through the provision of top-quality professional training. NOS works in partnership with six of the leading opera companies in the UK and on this evening had the luxury of working with the orchestra and associate conductor of the English National Opera. Richard Farnes was meant to be the conductor for the night but had succumbed to Covid and his place was taken by Olivia Clarke who is an English National Opera Mackerras Fellow. Amy Lane who is the Artistic Director of the Copenhagen Opera Festival directed a fun evening again as she has done before.
The team of singers in the Studio worked hard to deliver a quite interesting program. Perhaps the dramatic Verdi start from Rigoletto was a touch too far for the more Mozartian sounds produced by the Ukrainian soprano Inna Husieva and the South African baritone Kamohelo Tsotetsi. The soprano however really showed her mark in a good combination with the Australian mezzo-soprano Shakira Tsindos, who is also a Samling artist, as they combined in their Act one duet from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. The evening however really came to light with a performance by the Belgium counter tenor Logan Lopez Gonzalez who sang The Refugees Aria from Jonathan Dove’s opera Flight. A moving duet from Act three Massenet’s Werther was well sung by the British pair of singers, mezzo-soprano Sian Griffits and soprano Ffion Edwards.
The first half of the program ended with the Act one Duet from Donizetti’s La fille du regiment with a real stage animal aria sung by a wonderful Latvian soprano Laura Lolita Peresivana, accompanied by the South African tenor Monwabisi Lindi. Laura Lolita Peresivana was also singing with Sian Griffit in Carmen’s Card Trio where a magnetic Italian mezzo-soprano Arlene Belli as Carmen stole the show. The British tenor Philip Clieve sang well from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with a super bass Thomas D Hopkinson and later a very considered Albert in Britten's Albert Herring with Gerrard McAuley and Judith Lebraukley – a great triumph.
Another really good opera scene was the one from Handel’s Orlando with Russian soprano Alexander Chernenko being joined by Fion Edwards and Logan Lopez Gonzales. At the beginning of the program, we heard Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Jolyon Loy’s Don Magnifico leading a group of singers including Joanna Harries, Monwabisi Lindi, Josef Ahn and Thomas D Hopkinson, but the evening ended with a scene from Massenet’s Cendrillon with the thrilling Shakira Tsindos returning to the stage as Cendrillon, with Joanna Harries as her Prince. The evening ended with the Act three wedding supper – Fugue – from Verdi’s Falstaff where the whole superb cast joined in.
The evening was a credit to the NOS with some very talented singers ready for a great career ahead.
