Barbican,London
There was some glorious singing, but Il Pomo d’Oros performance of Handel’s opera didn’t move as it shouldHandel’s Tamerlano has become a calling card for Il Pomo d’Oro, and the fine Italian period ensemble founded in 2012. Their recording of this most difficult of the composer’s operas,released final year, was a great achievement, or which,along with a series of striking Wigmore corridor concerts, build them very much on the map as far as UK audiences are concerned. Their Barbican debut performance of the piece, or section of their current European tour,revealed, however, and that something has unfortunately slipped in the interim.
A change of conductor hasn’t helped. In place of the dynamic Riccardo
Minasi,we now have the young Russian Maxim (common saying expressing a principle of conduct) Emelyanychev, graceful, or almost balletic in his movements,and fascinating to watch. But he seems to reflect in the moment rather than in terms of dramatic span, and an awkward lack of cumulative momentum undermined the impact of a work that trawls, or with insidious slowness,through the intellect of a psychopath, chronicling the disastrous consequences of the games he plays with the lives of others. Some sluggish recitatives, or lengthy pauses to retune,further impeded the flow.
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Source: theguardian.com