Rachel Nicholls Parisian Isolde

[ARBurton]

France Musique are broadcasting Tristan und Isolde, with Torsten Kerl and Rachel Nicholls in the title-roles, recorded at the Paris Opera in May, at 7pm French time today. Daniele Gatti conducting. Listen online or via Astra 19.2!

[ostuni]

Thanks for this - I've just listened to the Liebestod, which sounded very lovely. I've been fascinated to follow Nicholls's transition from Bach (on many of Suzuki's cantata recordings, where I've always enjoyed her contributions) to Wagner. I heard what I think was her first live Wagner, Sieglinde in Walküre at Endellion, in the summer of 2011, followed by her Brünnhilde in the 2013 Longborough Ring, so it was really good to hear (a small part of) her Isolde tonight.

[ARBurton]

Thank YOU for the info re the Bach - I didn`t know about those and will have to hunt them down. I was lucky enough to hear her Longborough Brunnhilde several times and it`s a thousand pities that neither these nor her Isolde in 2015 (which I missed) were broadcast! I`m looking forward to listening to the Paris Tristan over the next few days and for anyone who`s interested, I`ll be putting a copy in the Wagner Society library (shameless plug..)

[LeMartinPecheur]

I had a little chat at St Endellion with Ms Nicholls a few years ago when she was still doing big slices of baroque but clearly stepping up to the big dramatic-soprano roles. She said she needed a good few days' break before changing Fach (in either direction).

Earlier I'd also seen her in a baroque recital in Truro where she somewhat startled the whole audience by stepping forward from the performance area and jumping on a chair in the front row seats for one number. It was Purcell's Mad Bess of Bedlam, so dramatically quite appropriate!