The two super-stars of the evening were Albina Shagimuratova as Elvira and Lawrence Brownlee as Arturo. Both had the vocal chops to sing these difficult roles to a fare-thee-well.
Ms Shagimuratova has a beautiful voice, capable to handle the difficult coloratura sections of the role as well as spin a beautiful lyric line. She also can sing an amazing diminuendo on very high notes, of which there are plenty. She is a convincing actress to boot. This is a role that Caballe and Sutherland were famous for and she is right up there with them.
Mr. Brownlee has a very high tenor voice. This role requires him to sing high 'ds' and one very high 'f' above high 'c'. He did it admirably. His small stature was a bit at odds with Elvira but his singing was wonderful. Alfredo Kraus is famous for singing this role.
The rest of the cast included Alec Carlson, Anthony Clark Evans, Adrian Sampetrean, Alan Higgs, and Lauren Decker. All sang very well.
Forget the plot. As Anna Russell said 'In opera you can do anything as long as you sing it'. I miss her!
A very effective set by Ming Cho Lee and the opera chorus sang wonderfully well, as always.
