Jeannette Pilou News
Italian soprano of Greek parentage and Egyptian birth
- soprano
- opera
- Greece
- opera singer
Last update
2024-03-28
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2017-01-10 20:12:20
A little off the top
[…] loss. As her guardian, the insipid Dr. Bartolo, Maurizio Muraro is appropriately stuffy, and sweetly comical—a difficult accomplishment for such a distasteful character. His resonant bass serves the pompous role sufficiently, though much of his appeal hinges on his nearly perfect comic timing. As the music master, Don Basilio, Mikahail Petrenko is funny in an unctuous sort of way, and his voice is a admirably secure presence within the mix. As Berta, Bartolo’s housekeeper, Karolina Pilou unfortunately sounds shrill and wobbly, her character remaining one-dimensional and unexplored. Despite the unevenness of the cast, Bartlett Sher’s production works to drive its players to madcap levels, especially during the frenetic, topsy-turvy thunderstorm scene in the second act. With pleasant, romantic lighting by Christopher Akerlind, and elegant costumes designed by Catherine Zuber, the staging captures the deeper, subtler humor of the source material, provoking profound, heartfelt sympathies for the protagonists. However, despite the […]
2016-05-13 14:49:35
Live and empoisoned
[…] to a cool audience, uncertain when to applaud. (They let loose at the end.) There was singing worthy of applause, but the conductor and pianist went right on with things. Perhaps the rental of the space is to blame. A pretty soprano named Angela Leson, whose lower register was uncertain but who flowered in the high coloratura of the mad scene, sang the title role. She was rather undercut by the massive contralto of Karolina Pilou as the neglected Princess Morna. Pilou, singing despite a touch of flu, stopped the show with a huge double aria (over two octaves in range) and much flashy ornament, all this expressing her delight in her forthcoming nuptials before Arturo even comes in. It’s all downhill from there, but like any good Amneris, she seemed quite capable of stealing the whole show with her rage and reconciliation moments, and the duet between the two […]
2015-09-27 19:45:28
Bushwick leagues
[…] sorrows. (I thought of Moffo.) One wished she would continue after Germont’s departure, but you need a clarinet for that scene. Her Leonora, too, expressed her desperation without losing quality. The ornamental conclusion of the Trovatore duet gave neither singer any trouble. (I always compare this duet to my 78 of Emma Eames and Emilio de Gogorza; at LoftOpera, it was not that fast, but no one ever is.) Between those scenes, we had Karolina Pilou and Dominick Rodriguez, a well-matched pair of discordant lovers, in the duet of Federica and Rodolfo from Luisa Miller, an opera too rarely heard in these parts. Rodriguez has the high register to express the ardent dreams of this manic Schiller firebrand, and his dilemma, his pleas for understanding, were of a more subdued hue entirely. He sounded game for Act II. Bring it! Pilou is a big woman with a voice of near-contralto […]
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