The first half of May was been a busy fortnight for opera in the Greater Bay Area. The renowned Chinese soprano He Hui sang her first Wagner role, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, at the Guangzhou Opera House on 5 and 7 May, a dramatic move (literally and figuratively) away from the Verdi and Puccini heroines for which she is best known.
He Hui appeared with American baritone Todd Thomas on an atmospheric stage which made considerable use of video and dominated periodically by a huge and malevolently ghost ship.

On 10 May, Diana Damrau and Nicholas Testé appeared in recital with an eclectic programme that ranged from French, German and Russian art song, through Italian bel canto and Verdi to Broadway. The highlight was the entire second scene of the first act of Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece I puritani, an extended duet; the closer Damrau got to acting as well as singing, the better she seemed to sing. She positively shone in “I could have danced all night” from My Fair Lady.
Damrau’s top billing in the recital, while understandable, was something of a disservice to her partner, bass Nicholas Testé: good basses are even rarer than good sopranos, and Testé’s performance was outstanding (even if he surprised the audience and, evidently, the designers of the house program, by singing “Ella giammai m’amò” in the original French).

Musica Viva’s series of school-day matinees continued with three performances from 3-5 May of an abridged L’elisir d’amore, Donizetti’s rom-com being one of the most obvious choices for an audience of secondary school students. Vicki Wu and Henry Ngan lead as the initially star-crossed lovers Adina and Nemorino (alternating with Phoebe Tam and Dennis Lau), with Frankie Fung and Michael Lam as the quack Dulcamara and sergeant Belcore.
There is little fat to cut in L’elisir d’amore; those who know the work might regret some of the missing scenes, but one supposes that this particular audience didn’t notice. They were, anyway, entertained by a very animated pantomime horse.
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