Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera House, London - review

When Antonio Pappano became music director of the Royal Opera he had a dream of giving concerts with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House enjoying the limelight on the stage. That was in 2002. The dream has been a long time in the making.

At this first annual concert the atmosphere was very congenial. An unexpectedly diverse audience turned up for the occasion, part well-heeled opera-lovers, part youthful newcomers. If the concert is judged a success, could we also have back the old series of celebrity solo recitals?

It would be good to say that the event was an opportunity to see the faces usually hidden in the pit, but from a seat in the stalls only the players at the front or raised up at the back were visible. This had implications for the sound. Encased in a smart, light-wood box - the Royal Opera House goes to the sauna - the orchestra sounded warm and direct, but there was not much transparency. Players who could not be seen could not be heard so well either.

A pair of Ravel's atmospheric orchestral pieces - Une Barque sur l'ocean and Alborada del gracioso - set the tone with some nicely detailed playing. The warmth of sound that Pappano brought to those then went up a few degrees in the hothouse French romanticism of Chausson's Poeme de l'amour et de la mer. Anna Caterina Antonacci was the singer, admirable in many ways, firm in voice, direct in emotion, though her dark soprano does not glow with the luminous colours suggested by the music.

The joyous hit of the evening was Bernstein'sFancy Free. His early ballet does not come round often in concert, but Pappano had picked a winner. Brash and colourful, the music is pumped up with all the dynamism of wartime America in 1944, and Pappano and his players let rip with it. After that, there was no holding back in Scriabin's Le Poeme de l'extase, its ecstasy whipped up to fevered heights - a high-octane conclusion to a high-profile concert. Why did we have to wait so long?

roh.org.uk

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