It’s a joy to watch sopranos Hilary Cronin and Rowan Pierce, and countertenors James Hall and (in an impressive jump-in) Tim Morgan.
Erin Helyard and the English Concert – a dream team of baroque dynamism and style, whose propulsive playing drives the action, only pressing pause for emotive obbligato moments for oboe and bassoon.
When you hear what Cronin can do with an appoggiatura, you understand precisely how she’ll deploy that curler. All that, and then she breaks your heart in a final aria delivered simply, straight down the lens.
****
Alexandra Coghlan, The Guardian
Morgan makes the seemingly endless runs in the complex arias seem effortless; Hall is, if anything, even more fluent.
Pierce’s high, slightly glassy soprano perfectly complements the creamier, more mezzo register of Cronin, who delivers Melissa’s increasingly intense and virtuosic arias with skill and panache. The English Concert orchestra underpins it all with well-drilled musical finesse.
*****
Clare Stevens, The Stage
Led by Erin Helyard, the players of the English Concert are on strong form
Daniel Lewis, The Times
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