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White Hot Intensity
Renée Fleming and the Russian National Orchestra
at the Festival of the Arts Boca 2010,
reviewed by LAWRENCE BUDMEN
An unusually chilly South Florida night could not dim the festivities when Festival of the Arts Boca 2010 opened on 6 March 2010 at Mizner Park's Count de Hoernle Amphitheater in Boca Raton, Florida, USA with operatic superstar Renée Fleming, backed by the stellar Russian National Orchestra, the festival's resident ensemble, under the baton of veteran opera conductor Patrick Summers.
Fleming brought her potent combination of glamour, engaging personality and, above all, vocal splendor to an unusually generous and musically ambitious program. After taking a little time to warm up with an aria from Rossini's Armida, a role she will undertake at New York's Metropolitan Opera this spring, Fleming launched into a velvety, luxuriant Casta Diva from Bellini's Norma, sung with plush, creamy tone, wonderfully cascading musical line and the most exquisite high notes.
Fleming's Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin was deeply poignant, reflecting the heroine's conflicting emotions, the final lyrical strophes absolutely gorgeous. There is nothing like a good Russian orchestra playing Tchaikovsky and the Russian National players backed Fleming's fervent singing with playing of idiomatic grace and balletic intensity...
Copyright © 9 March 2010
Lawrence Budmen,
Miami Beach, USA
On 10 March the Russian National Orchestra under Constantine Kitsopoulos plays Prokofiev's score for Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film Alexander Nevsky (with a showing of the movie) at Festival of the Arts Boca 2010 in Boca Raton, Florida, USA, featuring the Miami chamber choir Seraphic Fire and mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor. Festival of the Arts Boca 2010 concludes on 13 March 2010 with the ballet stars Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky dancing to music by Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Bizet, and the Russian National Orchestra playing the Musorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition, Borodin's Polovtsian dances and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. For information, see www.festivaloftheartsboca.org |
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