Evening Standard
‘To mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, Pegasus Opera Company (motto: "Harmony in Diversity") is giving London its first sight of Koanga for 35 years, and while it doesn't emerge as a masterpiece, it is more than a mere curiosity.
The production is blessed with central performances of real presence. In the role of Palmyra, the mixed-race slave who provides love interest, Alison Buchanan displays a rich, occasionally vibrato-heavy timbre. Sadler's Wells is not an easy theatre for a voice to fill, but when Palmyra prepares for death, as operatic heroines usually must, Buchanan rivets the attention.
Here, Delius is at his most Wagnerian and not shamed by the comparison. As Koanga, the new arrival from Africa whose voodoo practices threaten the plantation's Christian veneer, Leonard Rowe is more commanding still, and manages to make the text work.’
The Daily Telegraph
‘Koanga does offer some irresistibly rapturous lyricism… sprinkled and leavened with the supple rhythms and melodic grace of authentic plantation songs and dances… Pegasus Opera is a company that operates a policy of positive discrimination in favour of black singers. As Koanga himself, Canadian baritone Leonard Rowe sang with dignity and poise, at his best in his impassioned outpouring at the climax of the second act and the voodoo incantations of the third... Sympathetically conducted by Martin André, the orchestra relished Delius's sumptuous scoring and painted some lushly evocative mood music.’
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