Reviews from December's "Hansel and Gretel"
"The two leads – Laura Kelly's Hansel and Danae Eleni's Gretel – offer assured vocalism, with Kelly's rounded mezzo a particular pleasure... most successfully is in Kelvin Lim's expert pianism and keen musical direction. Realising a richly orchestrated late-Romantic score on a single keyboard is a major challenge, but Lim brings out Humperdinck's folksy charm and glamorous quasi-symphonic textures with aplomb."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec/27/hansel-gretel-review-kings-head
http://www.thepublicreviews.com/hansel-and-gretel-kings-head-theatre-london/ "Danae Eleni delivered a clear-voiced, bright Gretel... Laura Kelly’s fruity mezzo... Ian Wilson-Pope was particularly clarion"
http://recitative.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/hansel-and-gretel-at-the-kings-head/ "Kelvin Lim's handsome account of the fiendish piano reduction... Humperdinck's Wagnerian fairy tale super-straight until the entrance of Ian Massa-Harris's impossibly glamorous, unnervingly lascivious Witch. Camp as Christmas? I'll say."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/die-meistersinger-von-nrnberg-royal-opera-house-londonhansel-and-gretel-kings-head-theatre-london-6286444.html "Reynolds's new translation works well, his direction is constantly inventive and he brings out some splendid acting performances from his young cast. Especially notable were Katie Slater and Rebecca Dale as the children, bringing out a wide range of naughtiness alternating with trying to be good, sibling rivalry alternating with love, and just plain hunger. Dale plays Gretel's dream in Act II in slow motion dumb show as she turns the milk from the restored jug into angels' wings for her mother and father: it was a remarkable piece of theatre which bowled me over... Oliver Gibbs as the Father, who has a huge voice which will undoubtedly be filling much larger spaces... Rosalind Coad sang beautifully..."
http://www.bachtrack.com/review-hansel-and-gretel-open-door-opera
"It’s rare to find Opera as fun and accessible as Open Door Opera’s take on Humperdinck’s classic. Ian Massa Harris’s Witch... sinister character comedy that danced dangerously from Better Midler to Myra Hindley reaching a crescendo with a show stopping spell. Rosalind Coad’s Sandman and Alexandra Stevenson’s boozy Dew Fairy both bringing strong performances and fresh dimensions to the evening"
