Page 93 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

Conductor Alice Farnham drew crisp playing from the GSMD Orchestra. The overture
was brisk and clean, the horn playing vibrant. It’s a long play, and there are some
sequences of slow arias which demand concentration and care, but there was no sense of
flagging dramatic drive.

In a letter of 1781, Haydn declared his confidence that his operas would be assured of
success if only they could be performed in one of the great cultural centres of Europe: ‘…
if only they could hear my Operette [L’isola disabitata] and my most recently composed
opera, La fedeltà premiata, for I assure you that such work has not yet been heard in
Paris, and perhaps not in Vienna either. My misfortune is that I live in the country.’ After
this enjoyable evening - imaginative, technically impressive - I couldn’t help think that if
only we heard Haydn’s operas more frequently today, in productions so full of witty
ingenuity, our own praise for his theatrical endeavours might be less frequently diluted
by comparisons with Mozart.

Claire Seymour

Haydn: La fedeltà premiata

Amaranta - Eline Vandenheede, Nerina - Lara Marie Müller, Celia - Ena Nikolovska,
Fileno - Robert Lewis, Lindoro - Damian Arnold, Perruccetto - Matthew Palmer, Melibeo
- Adam Maxey, Diana - Siân Dicker, Flauto - Mian Shahmir Samee; Director - Stephen
Barlow, Conductor - Alice Farnham, Designer - Adrian Linford, Lighting designer -
David Howe.

Silk Street Theatre, Guildhall School of Music and Drama; Monday 4 November 2019.
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