March 19, 2012
Remarkable debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London.
On 27 February 2012, Yannick Nézet-Séguin made fantastic debut conducting Antonin Dvořák’s Rusalka. It was the first staging of this operaby the Royal Opera, but the production had been presented at the Salzburg Festival in 2008. Crudely criticised in Salzburg, so was it in London, most of all for its progressive sometimes vulgar staging. Fortunately, the orchestra and the singers, under Yannick’s direction, saved the production by a “gloriously colourful and impassioned reading of the wonderful score” (musicalcriticism.com, Hugo Shirley). Critics are unanimous to praise the maestro’s musical qualities; the conductor is already known and appreciated in London, being Principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2008.
| ConcertoNet.com |
February 28, 2012 |
« Pour ses débuts à Covent Garden, Yannick Nézet-Séguin a fait très fort. A la tête d'un orchestre en grande forme, au son soyeux et rutilant, il a tenu le public en haleine de bout en bout par son sens de la progression dramatique. Privilégiant au départ des tempi étirés pour porter à son paroxysme l'aspect lyrique de l'ouvrage, avec un détail de couleurs et de nuances, il a ensuite développé un crescendo époustouflant, débouchant sur des scènes d'une rare intensité. » |
Claudio Poloni
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| Classicalsource.com |
February 28, 2012 |
****
« ... I resolved to focus my attention on the music. After that I had a marvellous evening »
«Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Covent Garden debut is sensational. If only I could find a less hackneyed adjective to describe the symphonic sweep with which he conducts Dvořák’s luscious score, or to celebrate the sheer rightness of the sound he conjures from the pit, but I can’t. To risk another cliché, the members of the orchestra play like angels. And what extraordinary music it is. There is far more to this opera than just ‘Song to the Moon’; Rusalka offers three hours of Dvořák at his most romantic, lyrical and inspired. It defies belief that this is the first time it has been programmed by The Royal Opera. » |
Mark Valencia
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| Music OMH |
February 28, 2012 |
« Making his Royal Opera debut, the young but experienced Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts with a winning combination of relish and control. Sculpting the music and shaping the sounds to perfection, he demonstrates brilliant understanding of the score and uses this to bring out a rich variety of textures in the music. »
« ... I shall just mention that the closing scene between Rusalka and the Prince is as moving and brilliantly performed as anything you are likely to witness in the opera house this year. Rusalka is an incredible creation, that at the ROH you will hear sung and conducted to an exceptionally high standard.» |
Sam Smith
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| Opera Britannia |
February 28, 2012 |
« Eyes closed, this was a musically glorious evening, marked by the sensational debut of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a bundle of energy in the pit, who coaxed some sumptuous string playing from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and was alive to every nuance of Dvorak’s miraculous score. »
«The courtly dances of Act II had such pomp and vigour, the lakeside splashing of the three wood nymphs such sparkle»
« Close your eyes and live the concert experience and you’ll enjoy a musically superb evening. » |
Mark Pullinger
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| Seen and Heard international |
February 28, 2012 |
«... there was a homogeneous sound to the orchestra that I believe I last heard with Semyon Bychkov wielding the baton for Lohengrin at Covent Garden in 2009. » |
Jim Pritchard
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| The Arts Desk |
February 28, 2012 |
«... let’s look ... into the orchestra pit. This is Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Covent Garden debut, and it’s a triumph. Rusalka has always been a lovely score, but Nézet-Séguin wills the Royal Opera House Orchestra to deliver its beauties with an extra kiss of sensuousness, extra jabs of drama. Bucolic woodwinds burble, limpid harps ripple, Wagnerian chromaticisms slither in the brass: every detail shimmers with passion. No wonder someone yelled out Nézet-Séguin’s name after the last act’s introductory applause. » |
Geoff Brown
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| The Financial Times, UK |
February 28, 2012 |
« The show has made its point – and continues to do so, thanks to the spell cast by the conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. » |
Andrew Clark
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| The Guardian, UK |
February 28, 2012 |
« It's Yannick Nézet-Séguin's conducting that gives the performance a dramatic shape: measured to begin with, it gradually builds in intensity until the climax is authentically shattering. » |
Andrew Clements
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| The Independant, UK |
February 28, 2012 |
« Close your eyes and the inspirational debut of the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin brings Dvorak’s wonderful score off the page with thrilling immediacy motivating players and singers alike to rise above the banalities of the staging. »
« Add four stars for Nézet-Séguin and the ROH Orchestra who work their magic on the glories of Dvorak’s passionate score - all dappled light and lowering Wagnerian shadow - and Camilla Nyland (Rusalka) ... with her Prince - the absolutely stonking tenor Bryan Hymel, quite the best I’ve ever seen in the role -» |
Edward Seckerson
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| The Telegraph, UK |
February 28, 2012 |
« I would far rather expatiate on the orchestra’s impassioned playing, inspired by the gloriously lithe and sensual conducting of Yannick Nézet-Seguin. I also wish I had more space to praise Camilla Nylund’s bravely committed performance in the title-role, and the strong vocal support offered by Bryan Hymel (the Prince), Alan Held (Vodnik), Agnes Zwierko (Jezibaba) and Madeleine Pierard, Justina Gringyte and Anna Devin (wood nymphs). They all do honour to Rusalka. » |
Rupert Christiansen
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| Whatsonstage.com |
February 28, 2012 |
« What happens on stage is so inexorably linked to the music that the fusion of acting, playing, design and singing becomes a marriage made in heaven. »
« I loved every minute of it. »
« Musically this is the finest night at Covent Garden for a very long time. Chief architect of this success is conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, making a sensational house debut. Those of us who have admired his concerts with the LPO, know that he has talent in spades, and here he secures playing that is at turns impassioned and wonderfully nuanced from a gloriously alert orchestra. He provides exemplary support for the singers and one only hopes that he’s been booked to return on a regular basis. |
Keith McDonnell
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| Times, UK |
February 29, 2012 |
« The Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin brings the music gloriously to life, with a sensuous sweep to the orchestral sound and fine pacing... this is a dazzling Covent Garden debut. » |
Richard Morrison
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| Musicalcriticism.com |
February 29, 2012 |
« Thankfully, however, the musical values were very high. If the directors discouraged emotional engagement, at least Yannick Nézet-Séguin, making his Covent Garden debut, demanded it with a gloriously colourful and impassioned reading of Dvořák's wonderful score. Dances were whipped up with bacchanalian delight, climaxes squeezed and caressed, textures finely calibrated; and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House clearly enjoyed playing for him. » |
Hugo Shirley
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| The Opera Critic |
March 1st, 2012 |
« ... enjoy the music, which is wonderful, and the performances, which are magnificent. »
« Yannick Nézet-Séguin (house debut) paces the work perfectly, has its beauty and exhilaration in place, and obtains some terrific playing from the orchestra, not least from the sensitive and expressive woodwind players. »
« But don't miss the chance to hear a great opera, for the singers, musicians and Nézet-Séguin (as alive to Slavonic dance as he is to deep utterance) do it proud.» |
Colin Anderson
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| The Independant |
March 4, 2012 |
« Under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Dvorák's nocturnal soundworld of gauzy violins, moon-bright woodwind and sighing horns prevails, though the nagging, finger-wagging cello figure warns you that it's all going to end badly. The orchestra's string sound is different under this conductor, plusher and darker. Individual vocal performances are strong: Petra Lang's proud Foreign Princess, Camilla Nylund's blanched, distracted Rusalka and Bryan Hymel's lustrous, gleaming Prince foremost among them. » |
Anna Picard
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| The Guardian – The Observer |
March 4, 2012 |
« At least the dazzling musical standards, under Yannick Nézet-Séguin making his house debut, were recognised. » |
Fiona Maddocks
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| Res Musica |
March 7, 2012 |
« C’est peut-être dans la fosse que les metteurs en scène ont trouvé l’écho le plus adéquat à leur point de vue, beaucoup plus que avec l’interprétation plus passe-partout de Franz Welser-Möst et du Cleveland Orchestra à Salzbourg. »
« Yannick Nézet-Séguin partage visiblement leur vision noire de l’œuvre. Dès le prélude, il n’est pas question d’innocence : il n’y a pas de place pour l’idylle maritime, pas plus que pour le romantisme des forces naturelles. La direction de Yannick Nézet-Séguin … soutient … admirablement les chanteurs et offre un écrin idéal à la rencontre passionnante entre un duo de metteurs en scène clairvoyants et un des chefs-d’œuvre de la modernité universelle.» |
Dominique Adrian
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| Weiner Zeitung |
March 8, 2012 |
« Malgré tout, on a célébré l`œuvre de Dvorak. »
« L`orchestre, sous la direction de Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a remporté un franc succès. » |
Stephan Burianek
(Traduit de l’allemand par Marie-Elisabeth Morf et Louis Bouchard) |
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