Racette and Terfel Team Up Again for "Tosca" at Ravinia Festival

Maestro Conlon leads Racette and Licitra
(Photo: Patrick Gipson/Ravinia Festival)

"The trio of leads included two-thirds of the spring Metropolitan Opera cast from the Luc Bondy production that continues to stoke controversy in opera circles. At the core was a gripping, seething portrayal of the loathsome Scarpia by Bryn Terfel. The Welsh bass-baritone assumed a more static stage presence than the other cast members, yet he effortlessly commanded the full attention of a captivated audience with malevolent, coiled-spring intensity. His depiction of the sadistic police chief evolved from calm, confident brutality to wounded, vengeful fury, all evinced without bellowing or bombast. Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra has been well received at the Met and elsewhere for his idiomatic, dulcet-toned Cavaradossi. In this reading there was a hint of grain in a few top notes, as well as scenes in which he seemed needlessly risk-averse. On the whole his warm and ardent portrayal earned hearty and well-deserved kudos from his grateful admirers. Soprano Patricia Racette has also scored triumphs with leading companies in the title role, and her absorbing performance Saturday affirmed her status as a leading Tosca of our time. She wasn’t as vocally dazzling as some who have personified the celebrated singer and jealous lover, but she brought an honest dignity to a role often overwrought by helpless despair." [Source]

"The Turn of the Screw" Gets a Scrubdown For L.A. Opera

Patricia Racette stars in 1950s update
(Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

"Michael Kepler Meo, an impressively confident boy soprano with an eloquent musicality and a becoming stage manner, was a vulnerable Miles. Britten's score and Myfanwy Piper’s libretto suggest a boy who is more a threat, but this Miles was the modern innocent abused and wounded, seeking comfort. That played into Racette's Governess, whose hysteria proved compelling theater, if on the all-purpose side. She seemed the sort who could have been done in by just about anything. Both she and Ann Murray (Mrs. Grose) have large voices, and although they enunciated the English text admirably, they also produced a vibrato-rich blend in ensemble passages that undid them. Ashley Emerson was a striking Flora, the little angel who isn’t such a little angel. William Burden was a suave Quint and also sang the prologue with polish if without the curious edge characteristic of Britten tenors. Tamara Wilson's Miss Jessel was more a spook, coming across as having just been dredged from the lake. An odder, angrier, more mysterious Turn of the Screw can leave an audience too shaken to applaud. Saturday was a night to cheer the cleverness of a director and designer and the devotion of singers, a virtuoso instrumental ensemble and Conlon's engaged conducting." [Source]