This, from friend Paul Howe:
From the opening of Anthony Lane’s review of Harry Potter in the latest New Yorker:
Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is now fourteen, and, while he gives little sign of doing what Lord Rochester planned to do at the same age, there are nonetheless changes afoot. Harry’s voice, like that of his best friend, Ron (Rupert Grint), sounds like the mating cry of an oboe, and, worse still, the two cease to be best friends.
Heh.
You can read it here. This reviewer was at the Saturday, opening night performance.
Both reviewers have said that the first scene is a bit on the slow side, and I agree.
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The Mercury News has a review of Un Ballo up. Richard Scheinin reviewed Sunday’s matinee performance (the same one my husband and son attended), so I’ll be curious to see how my family responds to the comments in the review. Both Dan and Jameson did say they enjoyed the opera. They also had positive as well as negative things to say about the performance, but I make it a point not to write about individuals here; that’s not the purpose of this little blog, nor is it a wise thing to do, since I’m not an anonymous poster. (I don’t usually care for anonymous blogs, but I don’t need to veer off topic right now, right?)
It’s interesting to note that Richard Scheinin felt the orchestra came to life when Deborah Berioli came on stage in the second scene. Truth be told, I cannot clearly hear her—not enough to change the way I play. (Nor should I play any less well if the cast is less lively.) But I do wonder about how we sound in the first scene; I think the overture and first scene feel a bit slow (thus “draggy”?), but I’m not in charge of tempi, and maybe the tempi are correct and I just want to get some touchy sections over quicker!
I’ll be posting more reviews if and when I locate them. Stay tuned!
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