“a virtuosa of the first rank”
Elizabeth Watts performed Telemann’s Ino at the Wigmore Hall with Florilegium on 16th March. Colin Clarke reviewed the concert for Opera Today:
“Performing without music and acting the emotions with zeal was soprano Elizabeth Watts. There was plenty of energy to the opening instrumental sally and ensuing recitative. It was the first aria, ‘Ungöttliche Saturnia’ (Ungodlike Saturn) that introduced Watts’s sheer power, the music fizzing along instrumentally in the strings. Watt’s attack is so accurate (Telemann asks the singer to come in on vowels, the ‘U’ of ‘Ungöttliche’ a case in point). A lovely gentle swaying was accorded to ‘Du hast Dich an Semelen ja’ (You avenged yourself of Semele); there was no dropping of tension in the recitatives, either. Pastoral flutes graced the Arioso, ‘Wo bin ich? O Himmel!’ (Where am I? O Heavens!); how splendid Watts’s delivery of ‘O Wunder!’ (O miracle), how tender her ‘Mileidiger Retter!’ (Merciful saviour!).
…Watts wondrously free of voice; it all sounded so easy, so magical. Watts has a firm lower register, too, heard in the ensuing recitative before the final hymn of praise, ‘Tont in meinen Lobgesang,’ Watts a virtuosa of the first rank against brilliantly stabbing accents from the tutti.”
“Watts’s Ino was the highlight, for sure.”
Read the full review here: