Bryn Terfel Stunning in Domingo Celebrity Series

(Photo: Deutsche Grammophon)

Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel had a successful evening of arias and show tunes at the Kennedy Center last week: "It is always a pleasure to see a superstar at the top of his game in a relaxed, unbuttoned performance....Terfel is by now perfectly at ease onstage, making frequent eye contact with audience members while singing and between selections...It is in the extremes - high, low, loud, soft - that his natural gifts most clearly set him apart from others; the sound pours out like warm honey without any sense of strain...At this point in Terfel's career, every performance is a master class in singing and stagecraft."

The maestro conducting the performance did not fair so well: "Domingo's conducting continues to unimpress. While his hand was relatively sure in the numbers he knew from his own repertoire, the difficult 'L'onore!' from Verdi's Falstaff was a mess; he repeatedly allowed the orchestra to swamp Terfel in the show tunes; and he could not find the Viennese lilt in Strauss's Die Fledermaus overture. The Opera House Orchestra is playing well these days, but not always well enough to cover for weak conductors." [Source]