Leonardo Capalbo
Fallen women: Cavalleria rusticana and Suor Angelica, Dorset Festival Opera
**** The double bill of one act operas is given a linked theme of fallen women through a clever inclusion of the nun as young girl and her lover making a making a brief appearance in Cavalleria rusticana, presumably before her convent days in Suor Angelica. Paul Carr’s direction also has nuns in the Sicilian…
Passion and control; Werther at Grange Park Opera
**** John Doyle’s stark yet still beautiful staging of Massenet’s Werther continued what seems a probably unintended season of productions where the soprano dominates even if, as here, a man has the title role. The Gascoigne Orchestra conducted by Christopher Hopkins, sweeping along with the intense score, makes full affect with Massenet’s grand climatic moments….