| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 4-May-2013 Auckland Town Hall | A magical gala evening with Bryn Terfel in Auckland |
 The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra really has the perfect Wagner sound. Their full, vibrant string tone and magnificent pealing brass were fully in evidence in a thrilling rendition of the concert version of the overture from Tannhäuser. Few moments in music are as exciting as the build-up to the Big Tune in this piece, and the orchestra’s performance here was barnstorming yet perfectly accurate.Read full review... | |
| 15-Dec-2012 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Gloom, doom, stormy seas, and a Dutchman flown over from Zurich: A concert Flying Dutchman in London |
| Opera being a strongly visual art form as well as a musical one, the idea of a pure concert performance seems a little strange to those unfamiliar with the form. However, removing the necessity for singers to run around (often in uncomfortable-looking costumes), negotiate (sometimes uncooperative) props and scenery, and bodily convey their thoughts and feelings in a manner visible to amphitheatre Row W, allows for 100% concentration on the music, in particular the expression of character and emotion through voice alone. Read full review... | |
| 18-Oct-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Connolly and Terfel stand out in a thought-provoking Walküre at Covent Garden |
 If you've been brought up with the Judaeo-Christian ideal of an all-powerful, all-good God, Norse mythology can come as a bit of a shock. Wotan, the father of the gods, is philandering, deceitful, power-hungry, sentimental, violent and ultimately weak - the gamut of human frailties writ large. Combine all of those with a magic spear and the ability to control the weather and you know that things aren't going to end well.
Read full review... | |
| 21-Jul-2012 National Theatre | An excellent Tosca in Munich with Terfel, Naglestad and Giordano |
 In Tosca there's a real sense of Puccini being at home. Written shortly after La Bohème, when he was right at the height of his powers, Tosca is a story of love, jealousy and political turmoil, taking place in Rome, the same city in which it was premiered. These are events and characters which Puccini could identify with, and the locale was one he knew, not the alien distance of Paris, the Orient or the US, where some of his other best-known operas are set.Read full review... | |
