Reviews

"At the première, maestro Rizzi conducted with elegance and momentum and both the house chorus and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra were at their superlative best."

"What the audience got under Rizzi’s baton was 15 minutes of a century-old symphony that felt as fresh and new as if it were born yesterday."

Dry and essential but powerful in Mascagni. Quicker and more colourful in Leoncavallo, whose musical strength lies in the combination and contamination of the various expressive and stylistic layers.

The Maestro imprinted great fluidity to the two 'Verism' masterpieces. He used a light hand to illuminate many moments which are usually not heard at their best, and to let the music flow with the right breath, luckily avoiding any emphasis and bombast.

Rizzi has Verdi in his blood, and from his cracking account of the celebrated overture to its final seraphic cadences, he conducts a fast-paced and vividly coloured account of the score, played with exceptional clarity by WNO’s wonderful orchestra.

This is an orchestrally thrilling Tosca. The conductor Carlo Rizzi knows exactly what Puccini needs and he draws wonderful colours from Welsh National Opera’s orchestra. The pacing is precise, the playing supple and gripping.

"Making his home debut with the Hallé […] the great Italian opera conductor Carlo Rizzi brought his great sense of operatic structure and drama to an intriguing and indulgently romantic evening of Respighi, Rossini and Rachmaninov."

"Carlo Rizzi conducted the Met’s superb orchestra in a firmly shaped account of the score. The Met audience’s reception was ecstatic." 

"The wild, swooping score sounded bracingly transparent under Carlo Rizzi’s direction and the company’s chorus sang with a boldness and musicality one wishes more star soloists could achieve."

If there was a gimmick Monday, it was the gimmick of putting the opera in the hands of someone who actually knew how it was supposed to go. The conductor, Carlo Rizzi, made his Met debut in 1993 and has been active at major companies around Europe for years. I don’t know if leading this year’s opening night at the Met signals another uptick in Rizzi’s career, but it should, because he certainly gets Italian opera: his conducting had the taut, light, forward drive that this music calls for, without excessive lingering, soupiness or grandiloquence.

Rizzi returned to the podium of the Galicia Symphony Orchestra, the last concert of the orchestra's silver anniversary season; they were oxygen and fuel. They only needed enough heat or a spark to trigger the reaction and there returned the fire of the great music which orchestra and conductor ignited together so many times in this musical hearth of A Coruña called Palacio de la Ópera.

Conductor Carlo Rizzi, a reliable Verdi veteran in front of the DNO, leads the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with a clear hand, so that the tricky vocal and orchestral ensembles remain tight and the beautiful, sharp-edged men's chorus can make the maximum impression ("Zitti, zitti"). The success was thunderous. 

Neither forgiving nor indecent, Mario Martone's staging favours transcendence. This is first perceived in the pit with an orchestra capable of conveying the complexity of a sometimes Straussian score under Carlo Rizzi's lively direction.

In the orchestra pit, Carlo Rizzi's elegant and restrained conducting seems to marry the scenic austerity of Cavalleria Rusticana, before finding release, for Sancta Susanna, in the spectacular musical storm unleashed by Hindemith around his heroine.

Bell’s score is technically exceptional, with fine writing for soloists, chorus and orchestra and both an immediacy and a momentum that are entirely persuasive. Carlo Rizzi conducts an assured account of a piece that demonstrates a complete command of the operatic medium

“Musically straightforward, Mascagni’s charming, intensely melodic hooks were rendered technicolor beauties by maestro Carlo Rizzi. Low on shading and ruckus, Rizzi allowed negative spaces their respectful ebbs and flows… Pagliacci's high color, closer to Verdi than Mascagni, was taken in lush, expressive cadence by Rizzi.”

Under conductor Carlo Rizzi, Bell’s richly multilayered score supports the deft interweaving of realism and mythic fantasy byco-librettists Emma Jenkins and David Antrobus

The themes of love and betrayal seem sharply contemporary, as Carlo Rizzi, conducting from memory and with uttermost conviction, ensures their emotional veracity.

“To safeguard authenticity in the pit, Lyric brought in Carlo Rizzi, an Italian conductor experienced in the Verdi style. He had Lyric's admirable orchestra playing with a full-bodied yet richly detailed sound, the robust trombones and distinctively colored woodwinds in particular. In all, this was one of the most cohesive, exciting Verdi productions Lyric has mounted in years, filled with one crowd-pleasing moment after another.”

"Reviews of Bellini operas don't usually start with the conductor. However […] Carlo Rizzi's conducting touched a level of intensity and understanding that might not unreasonably be described as great."

“What gives this show its compulsive force, however, is the energy of Carlo Rizzi’s conducting and the impassioned singing of the cast and, particularly, the chorus. Rizzi simply refuses to let the tempos sag, even when his singers seem to want more time, and he is right: Bellini needs this impetus.”

“What may remain most vividly in the memory is the supreme conducting of Carlo Rizzi and the equally impassioned playing of the wonderful orchestra.”

“Conductor Carlo Rizzi governs the theatrical machine and the singing very well, without missing any opportunities to enhance the lyricism in symphonic passages.”


“Another delight of the evening was Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi’s direction, drawing a very precise and dynamic delivery from the orchestra, rich in instrumental detail and with an extraordinary dramatic intensity. Many passages are meritorious, such as the very interesting E scherzo od è follia, where the laughing climate suddenly turns into a tense and worried atmosphere, hinting at the tragic outcome, and the second act in its entirety, conducted with great dramatic urgency. The accompaniment of the arias is excellent; here Rizzi introduces a slow pace, still charged with emotion, thus conferring a nobility and eloquence of his own to the Verdian andante. The la Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Choir get to prove themselves as extremely flexible, and follow the vivaciousness of the direction without difficulty.”

“With his musical interpretation, Carlo Rizzi brings an amazing awareness to the complexity of the plot. The orchestra of La Monnaie, under Rizzi’s leadership, enforces a great moment. As sensual as it is gripping, it is lit up from the orchestra pit; that is terrific music theatre. And the singers correspond in excellent shape.”

“Conductor Carlo Rizzi fascinates, with immersive tempos and tight attention to detail.”

“The night’s big triumph was without a doubt the maestro Carlo Rizzi: he follows on a long tradition of conductors grounded in lyrical repertoire that has always demanded our admiration. His lively and sustained leadership, delivered with complete efficiency, generated warm applause from the audience.”

“Carlo Rizzi’s accompaniment, with the Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, is as prudent as it is gripping. Musically, the evening is at its best.”

'... WNO is to be congratulated for starting with a pair of rarities – Rossini’s grand Guillaume Tell and Mosè in Egitto ... David Pountney’s production is dark, sardonic, focused on a strong theatrical message ... a reason for the opera’s neglect has been the killer tenor role of Arnold. Here, WNO played its ace in Barry Banks, who has never sounded better, hitting top Cs with tremendous panache, bringing the French text vividly to life and radiating revolutionary zeal. With him and Clive Bayley’s baleful Gesler as rivals, the performance was in the grip of formidable opposites... The WNO Chorus and Orchestra, though, were on top form and conductor Carlo Rizzi often set the pulse racing. Rossini’s visionary call to liberty deserves no less.'

“The conductor, Carlo Rizzi, delivers a phenomenal performance. Under his leadership even the smallest and seemingly insignificant hahaha staccato notes in the choir carry extreme tension.”

“… Carlo Rizzi conducts with an expert yet sensual touch.”

The ultimate prize of the evening goes to the orchestra and their maestro, Carlo Rizzi. Conducting entirely from memory, yet attentive to every detail, completely engaged in the singers’ perspectives, he builds the dramatic tensions of the score with remarkable mastery, so that the sequences are perfectly fluent and the whole partition seems entirely made as one. Not a moment of weakness, not the slightest relaxation, but the whole thing is conducted with intelligence and sensitivity that fully do Verdi’s great work justice.

‘…David Poutney’s broadly stylised direction of this farrago is colourful, and WNO fields a strong cast, rigorously conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Two excellent tenors, David Alegret and Barry Banks, cope effortlessly with the technical challenges, while Claire Booth and Christine Rice turn their arias into show-stoppers…’

“There was a lovable flow in the sound stream under the baton of the Italian conductor, who in the second movement [of Beethoven’s Symphony No.6] also let the effects of the musical storm shine through after the birds’ chirping.”

"The concert opened with Martinů’s very impressive tone poem, “The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca” (premiered in 1956 in Salzburg), which refers to the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross. Rizzi got everything out of the work. The dynamic range was brilliantly exhausted by the orchestra and revealed the intentions of the Czech composer admirably… Carlo Rizzi put on the finishing touches, with every last detail accented perfectly… Rizzi conducted by heart with a vigorous devotion, but also with extreme subtlety when required. The Orchestre Philharmonique was excellent. Also fantastic was the sound specifically called for between the sections of the orchestra and soloists. "

It was an inspired idea to team Pérez up with the Basque National Orchestra, founded in 1982, under the experienced Carlo Rizzi for 'Nights in the Garden of Spain.'

All are sustained immaculately by Rizzi’s conducting, which exudes respect for the score in every bar. Overall, this joins the portfolio of outstanding productions that has done so much to restore WNO’s lustre during Pountney’s tenure as artistic director.

"In Short, this recording deserves the highest possible recommendation."

To mark the hundredth anniversary of World War One, Carlo Rizzi conducted the orchestra and chorus of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in a touching performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Op. 66 at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall...
It is in this inconsolably shattering terrain that Britten leaves his listeners stranded and alone, lamenting with soprano Alwyn Mellor on “this day full of tears” (Dies irae). Mellor’s voice had an arresting transparency, as devoid of piercing shrillness, it floated serenely above the groundswell of the orchestra. Mellor’s performance was controlled throughout; she demonstrated fine musicianship through her humility and emotive responsiveness to the orchestral backdrop. Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi was sublime in creating this barren landscape of futile hope and sorrow by keeping any grand orchestral sweeping gestures within a tight rhythmical frame. Along with Rizzi, Neil Ferris and James Bingham (chorus directors for the college chorus and children’s chorus, respectively) must also be congratulated for their fine leadership.

‘Conducted with a complete understanding of Rossini by Carlo Rizzi, superbly played by the orchestra under his direction and (with only the most minor qualifications) very well sung, this William Tell was an almost unqualified triumph musically speaking …’

'... I had to keep reminding myself that I was reviewing the performance, so big was the temptation to just sit back and enjoy the colourful refined score of Armida, beautifully delivered by the orchestra of Bologna's Teatro Comunale under Carlo Rizzi.'

'…In an excellent cast, the outstanding performer is Claire Booth in the role of Elcia …
The WNO Chorus was in wonderfully resonant form and the orchestra too …
Rizzi's tight grasp on proceedings ensuring a performance to remember.'

"It was tight, precise, and perfectly balanced - but more than that, Rizzi absolutely captured the spirit of the piece, letting Puccini's smoldering score drive the evening"

"He was superb from the beginning last night. From the opening measures, you knew you were in good hands."

“Carlo Rizzi’s love for the score comes across in every bar; he conducts the Met Orchestra superbly and they play gloriously for him.”

“There’s an anchor in the pit, where that staunchly experienced Verdian Carlo Rizzi draws both passion and grace from WNO’s excellent orchestra.”

“Italian colour and dramatic gusto are vouchsafed by WNO’s former music director, now conductor laureate, Carlo Rizzi, who inspires the company’s orchestra and chorus to thrilling heights. On this form, they are the finest Verdians this side of the Alps.”

“Carlo Rizzi conducts with terrific flair and has enormous fun with the splendid overture and its sly reference to the tune of “God save the Queen”.

“Conducted by Carlo Rizzi, who understands the idiom utterly, the WNO orchestra gives every note meaning and blazes with joy, especially in a cracking overture, which playfully includes God Save the Queen.”

“the highest praise must go to Carlo Rizzi in the pit, who coaxed an outstanding performance from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, bringing out all the delicacies in Verdi’s ravishing score and finding that elusive, haunting strand of melancholy in an opera that is, after all, about how the world both encourages and punishes the most grotesque self-delusions.”

Rizzi, who dominates the expressiveness of big orchestration works like few others do with his control of the sound based on the best exposition of the different sound layers, was able to give the work the character of nostalgic greatness which belongs to it. He stressed the tense calm at the beginning of the third prelude, marked ‘con molta espressione di dolore’ and its serene finale.

“… A more consistent, and certainly more delightful, production of “L’Equivoco Stravagante” (“The Bizarre Misunderstanding”), conceived by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier as a piece of commedia dell’arte, with all the characters wearing Pulcinella noses. The excellent conductor was Carlo Rizzi.”

“Superb shaping of Puccini’s score by Italian maestro Carlo Rizzi. […] Rizzi deserves special kudos for getting fine nuance as well as searing power out of Puccini’s score with the COC Orchestra.”

“Conductor Carlo Rizzi […] elicited dynamic shadings and expert timing from the COC Orchestra carrying the pace of the opera with impeccable tact.”

“Everything fizzed along under the assured direction of Carlo Rizzi (conducting without a score), with suitably crisp, energetic playing from the RAI orchestra”

"Verdi is core to the Welsh National Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru’s tradition and with this production – the last in the trilogy undertaken over three seasons by director David Pountney and conductor laureate Carlo Rizzi – they honour his intentions nobly. It is thanks to Rizzi in the pit that Verdi’s combination of power and finesse gives the ear much to savour, and there is theatricality and spectacle aplenty."

“The chorus and orchestra, conducted by WNO faithful Carlo Rizzi, impressed from the start, whether Verdi’s waving a nationalistic flag or creating airy delights.”

Conductor Carlo Rizzi is sensitive to every small variation in mood and tempi, and for example takes Cherubino’s military "Non so piu cosa son’" at a particularly lively pace to match the spirit of an impulsive lad whose heart is on fire.

‘This is emphatically not Hoffmann as an escapist fantasy. If at times it feels distinctly chilly, that’s offset by the commitment of the performances and by the taut, responsive playing of the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Carlo Rizzi (the orchestral colours really glow).’

‘A musically excellent Welsh National Opera reprise conducted with miraculous style and theatrical brio by Carlo Rizzi.’