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Showing posts with the label Plàcido Domingo

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Prayers and thoughts: The Inseparables @Finboroughtheatre

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The Inseparables brings Simone de Beauvoir’s posthumously published novel to life. It traces a lifelong friendship between Sylve and Andrée, two unconventional girls who grew up in a stifling world where being a woman meant getting married or entering a convent. With a quick pace and engaging performances from the two leads, it is a journey back into the 20th century that captures two unconventional women trapped in a conventional world that will have you reflecting on how much or little things have moved on in the last century. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre .  We’re introduced to Sylve praying for her country, France, to be saved from the war and indoctrinated into the world of faith and obedience. But too smart for all that, her life was full of detached guilt and boredom. But when she meets Andrée, a new arrival at her school, she is struck by how different she is from everyone else. She was burned in a fire and had a passion for life that nobody else she knew...

Old doge: I Due Foscari @TheRoyalOpera

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The Royal Opera's production of I Due Foscari which opened last week is a chance to see Plácido Domingo in an age-appropriate role. Verdi's opera is intriguing for its use of leitmotifs for each of the principal roles, but lacks much dramatic fire, other than to see the predictable  tragedy of an ageing ruler weakened and lose everything. Thankfully it is short but it is also give much more interest with some star power and seems a perfect vehicle for Domingo. When his voice was at his strongest, you could also be forgiven for thinking he was back in tenor territory with its rich and bright sound. And at 73, it is an event to watch see such an experienced master at work.