The role of the orchestra conductor is particularly prominent in terms of visibility, because of their gestures as they guide and underline the music for the players as well as for the audience. Sir Antonio Pappano makes opera even more vivid through his emotional, almost total embodiment of the score. On this BBC Proms date, a 22-minute orchestral work by Strauss – Symphonic Fantasy, an abbreviated version of the longer piece – and the one-act Suor Angelica by Puccini were on the programme. Quite different in style and development, these two compositions centre on dramatic events in the lives of two women. Pappano fully embraced both, as did the London Symphony Orchestra, for a performance that felt both accessible – with the different generations sitting or standing in the venue proof of that – and passionate.
In the opening of Symphonic Fantasy, the violins, predominant throughout the evening, began smoothly before moving into an allegro. First violin Benjamin Marquise Gilmore led the strings as they built towards a climax, crowned by the cymbals. The central section, moving towards the finale, was characterised by overlapping and crossing lines between the different sections, not always in the same tempo or register, but instead coming together harmoniously in a storm-like effect, which then trickled back into tranquillity with the violins.
Puccini’s Suor Angelica was dominated by deep, angelic voices. It opened with the Tiffin Choir and London Symphony Chorus, monumental in number yet dulcet in tone. The only drawback was their distance from the stage, positioned high at the back of the hall. The singers for the main characters then entered in tiers. After the idyllic evocation of the nuns’ cloistered life, the story of the protagonist’s hidden past unfolded, with fewer orchestral passages and a crescendo of vocal intensity in the increasingly tense exchanges. Soprano Carolina López Moreno – making her Proms debut – was a remarkable Sister Angelica, powerful and intense in her singing. Contralto Kseniia Nikolaieva provided a profound contrast as the Princess, her magnificently sustained low lines leaving a deep impression. The orchestra – French horns, offstage trumpets, and brass in particular – made a more distinct contribution here, though always blending into a fluid wave of sound that supported and carried the voices.
The maestro delivered an operatic feat, and the euphoric applause from the hall was well deserved.
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