Page 453 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

Eri Nakamura performing as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester
BILL LAM/THE HALLE

Madama Butterfly — Mark Elder conducts a gorgeous finale to the
Hallé season

Elder’s orchestra was in full flight, throbbing with a passion both dark and lustrous, and a
precision of phrasing that told us, if we needed telling, that the Hallé is one of the world’s best

orchestras. Passages of delicacy and tender warmth, meanwhile, were a reminder that Elder’s

luxury item when cast away on Desert Island Discs decades ago was one of his wife’s sherry

trifles. He has Puccini’s sweet tooth.

Geoff Brown
Read the full Madama Butterfly review

Le nozze di Figaro — Glyndebourne serves up a sun-kissed, disco-

dancing tonic

This Countess is seemingly quite happy to revenge-cuckold her husband and she’d have ample

reason after hearing Emily Pogorelc, as Cherubino, perform a disarming Voi che sapete. You

can add to that showstopper Hera Hyesang Park’s pellucid Deh vieni: as Susanna, the Korean

soprano is charming and her characterisation altogether more considered than her Despina in