Music / opera

La vida breve


Reviews (7)


MusicWeb international

2019 April

By

By

Simon Thompson (musikanmelder)

2019 April

"The orchestra are, perhaps, the finest thing about this performance, surprisingly so. Mena's enthusiasm for the work must have rubbed off on them ... The singers are all very good, too. That chorus were worth the air fare, because they enliven everything they do ... The soloists are very good, too".


MusicWeb international

2019 May

By

By

Michael Wilkinson (musikanmelder)

2019 May

"This is a valuable recording ... A characteristic of Mena's musical approach is a strongly lyrical, poetic style. He has a gift for bringing out the gentler aspects of any piece he conducts. That is very much the case here, in a profoundly beautiful, even devout, performance of this classic of Spanish music ... Throughout one is conscious of the love thrown over the whole work, as well as the meticulous preparation of all involved".


BBC music magazine

2019 May

By

By

Erica Jeal

2019 May

"While there's plenty of Iberian flavour to this recording, including a flamenco cantor of properly reedy vocal depth, Mena never lets us forget that the work is in that Italian [verismo] tradition ... [Fabiola Herrera's] voice is up to every expressive nuance of the role ... Faithless Paco is sung with the verve of a true rake by Aquiles Machado, and the smaller parts are all well cast".


Diapason

2019 mai

By

By

Didier van Moere

2019 mai


Operabladet Ascolta

(2002) 20. årgang nr. 7

By

(2002) 20. årgang nr. 7


The gramophone

2019 March

By

By

Tim Ashley

2019 March

"Mena prises open textures and sonorities with great subtlety and attention to detail, so that we're fully able to appreciate the shifting colours of Falla's writing ... The playing immaculately blends clarity with sensuousness, while the Coro de la Radio e Television Espanola sing with admirable warmth of tone ... Yet at times it all feels fractionally too considered ... Nancy Fabiola Herrera sounds sumptuous as Salud with her warm tone and full upper registers".


Operabladet Ascolta

(2002) 21. årgang nr. 4

By

(2002) 21. årgang nr. 4