RIGOLETTO
Teatro San Carlo, Naples
January, 2023

"The musical responsibility is given to the young Lorenzo Passerini (born in 1991), whoensures a generally correct and clean performance of Verdi's masterpiece; his reading is based on a fast tempo, which is appropriate for the evolution of the masterpiece of musical dramaturgy that is Rigoletto.

Passerini has the merit of ensuring a discrete sound balance between singers, orchestra and choir, despite the extremely problematic acoustics of the Teatro Politeama.

Therefore, the difficult 'management' of the acoustics is a point to be scored in favour of the director.

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Returning to Lorenzo Passerini's reading, you can notice a tempo calibrated to the needs of the singers, as well as rallentando and rubati; the voices are carefully accompanied. The cabalettas are complete with takes; for the stars, there are the gratifications of traditional high notes."

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Luigi Raso, Ape Musicale | 16.01.2023

"An extraordinary evening in its own way, marked by an enthusiasm not usual forNeapolitans, generally reluctant to applaud, which brought to mind the very similar outcome of the unforgettable Sonnambula of a year ago, also, coincidentally, in concert form or, better-said, semi-staged.

This time, too, two numbers were repeated on the moment, both involving the dominator Ludovic Tézier. We do not know how often he is so compliant, but he seemed to enjoy the triumph and willingly repeated the second part of 'Cortigiani vil razza dannata' and 'Vendetta tremenda vendetta', in which Nadine Sierra was obviously also involved.

As with the 'Sonnambula' mentioned earlier, this time, too, on the podium was Lorenzo Passerini, in excellent harmony with the San Carlo Orchestra. The latter showed itself to be compact and precise, with powerful sonorities almost at one with the singing. The conduction appeared immediately clear right from the Andante sostenuto that opens the opera, and Passerini revealed himself to be a tireless concertmaster, attentive to the ensemble but with

a constant eye on the singers to give them directions, somewhat blatant and often intemperate, but effective. All in all, a fluid, very theatrical, vigorous and expressive, but elegant conduction."

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Bruno Tredicine, OperaClick | 19.01.2023

"A cast of first-rate stars with a very high concentration of interpretation, notable talents among the young male performers, the Chorus of tenors and basses plus Orchestra in good form, and a musical conduction attentive to sculpting tempos, shades, breaths and dynamics with dramatic effectiveness in the jubilation of the many open-stage applauses and two encores granted amidst the greatest enthusiasm during the opera.

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Regarding the work on the podium, compared to the Sonnambula that marked his debut on the Neapolitan podium last winter, the young conductor Lorenzo Passerini must be credited with a better understanding of Verdi's score, both in terms of the tight hold between voices and ensembles, and in the care given to the many metrical and expressive details. While maintaining the balance of a concert cut, the maestro does not deprive the score of a targeted research played on contrast and on the care for timbral reliefs, for example of cellos and double basses, respectively well-led by Pierluigi Sanarica and Carmine Laino, in Rigoletto's frightful encounter with Sparafucile. Or, again, in the turning of the motto of the curse, in the outbursts of vengeance and in the skillful sequential construction of quartet, trio and tempest."

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Paola De Simone, Connessi All’Opera | 19.01.2023