Juan Diego Florez has been used to glowing reviews since his début at the Rossini Opera Festival. Recently he has started receiving some sterner criticism, and reactions to his latest recital in London was no different.
Alexandra Coghlan for The Arts Desk writes:
We’ve all seen singers go wrong. Forgetting words, missing entries, skipping verses – it happens often enough, and is generally cause for little more than some awkward laughter and a second attempt. Never, however, have I seen a wrong entry (as ill-luck would decree, in the only sacred work of the programme) greeted with a resonant expostulation of “Oh, shit” from the performer, followed by minor audience uproar and many apologies. It wasn’t the finest moment of the evening for Juan Diego Flórez, but – loath though I am to admit it – it wasn’t the worst either.… [continue reading]
Programming Liszt is like counting calories: you can blow your entire month’s intake in less than an hour.
Whoever thought of pairing the Symphonic Poem Mazeppa with the 2nd Piano Concerto – presumably the conductor Francois-Xavier Roth – clearly placed musical symmetry over sensory overkill. One tub-thumping Cossack march might quicken the senses; two in quick succession is just plain careless.
…