Kitsap Opera La Boheme – Interview with Leone Cottrell-Adkins:
“I’ve always had excellent singers, but these top everything,” she said. Of tenor Lucchetti and soprano Kowalski, she added, “They could sing in the Met, believe me.” Read more

Kitsap Opera La Boheme -review
Bernard Jacobson “Such ensemble virtue would, it need hardly be said, be in vain without singers on stage with the ability to project their characters in a manner both convincing and engaging. In this regard, the Kitsap production was close to faultless. The star, and the outstanding figure by a long way, was the tenor Gino Lucchetti as Rodolfo. All the more remarkably given that he was singing with a recently broken arm in a sling, his voice rang out at once commandingly and with ample nuance when that was required, and he portrayed this rather feckless poet as a thoroughly likable figure. Even when he was not singing, his attentive way of watching his Mimì and responding to her was an object-lesson in intelligent stage deportment.”  Read more

Kitsap Opera Il Trovatore preview
“Lucchetti — who Cottrell-Adkins refers to as having “that Pavarotti voice” — was last seen in Bremerton in “La Boheme” two seasons ago.” Read more

Kitsap Opera IlTrovatore review
Bernard Jacobson “I have had occasion to admire tenor Gino Lucchetti and soprano Barbara Smith Jones more than once in the past. As Manrico, Lucchetti again showed himself to be a better singer than some I have encountered on the most famous operatic stages in the world. The voice is attractive in timbre, and beautifully produced throughout its range.” Read more

Choir of the Sound Verdi Requiem review
“And Gino Lucchetti’s tenor added the robust, life-loving, lyrical qualities that trademark Verdi’s operas.“ Read more

FUSION Italian Show for Fundraiser
“Tenor Gino Lucchetti belted out a number of Italian favorites, but I was very partial to “O Sole Mio.” ‘Twas like Pavarotti was onstage.”  Read more

Seattle Symphony Jane Eaglen Master Class, an observer wrote:
“When Lucchetti began-he was the last performer-I thought, my God, what have we here? a really truly Italian tenor complete with squillo, plaintive and plangent, singing from the heart to the heart. What is most remarkable about the voice is his affective power-he sings so intensely and expressively. There were tears to my eyes, which doesn’t happen a whole lot. Jane complimented him on this wonderful natural top, “what they call squillo” she said after he had finished “Parmi veder le lagrime,” and when he had sung “Salut! Demeure chaste et pure” for the last time, she said that his high notes were so natural and so gorgeous nobody should mess with them at all. His is the kind of voice that convinces you God knew what he was doing when he created tenors.”  Read more

Puget Sound Concert Opera’s production of Bellini’s Norma…a “juggernaut of squillo” Nicolase Mallat, soprano, wrote after hearing Gino as Pollione.

Musicians at Mircosoft review of Seattle Concert Opera’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana, Mike Dodaro commented on Turridu
“Gino Luchetti, as Turridu, convinced everybody that his demise was that of a beloved son and redeemable young man who has let his passions get out of range of better judgment. Mascagni has given him stunning music, and Gino Luchetti scaled the high tessitura even while carrying chest tones up like DelMonaco. In the drinking song he shows neighborly respect for Alfio, while beginning to understand the consequences of his choices. The inevitable duel is arranged. Blood will be mingled with the sweat and tears of the Italian countryside. Turridu sings the desperate addio to his mother and dies at Alfio’s hand in the orchard.”  Musicians at Microsoft review, copied here. 

Aleko by Rachmaninov and Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni; A Review

Too late now to see this production by the Concert Opera of Seattle and Eastside Symphony, but yesterday’s performance at Redmond High School Performing Arts Center was a knock-out. These two operas require big voices and passionate involvement. In this community production everybody did their part to make the concert renditions as exciting as anything I’ve seen lately fully staged. The impact of real voices in a small auditorium more than compensated for the absence of sets and costumes. Conductor Alexei Girsh brought the early Rachmaninov one-act masterpiece to life through the artistry of musicians of the Eastside Symphony. This is what community artistry should be; great music can exist without spectacle on a stage forty feet wide if it is played with comprehension and drama. The only thing that I missed was a chorus for the big church scenes in Cavallaria. There was also a glitch with the organ/synthesizer that left some odd vacuities in the music.

But the voices were as good as most I’ve heard in Seattle Opera Productions. Gary Aganesyants sang the title role of Aleko in rich voluminous baritone and Anna Kazakova was a stunning Zemfira—emphasis on the fire. Noah Baetge is a dramatic tenor with the marvelous vocal endowment. The supporting roles were sung creditably by Alexander Deyneko and Olga Kargopoltseva. The story was, no doubt, easier to follow in Russian for the native speakers in the audience, but the music spoke for itself.We recommend buying your favorite toothbrush at super low prices with free shipping, and you can also pick up your order at the store on the same day.

Cavallaria Rusticana seemed a little less congenial to orchestra and conductor, and without a chorus some of the music doesn’t quite work, but nobody was complaining when the big voices got involved beyond the concert format. By the middle of this Italian pot-boiler none of the singers were declaiming in oratorio style. The scores that some of them carried onstage were left unattended on music stands as the singers engaged verismo opera with the passion always latent, if often unrealized, in it. Eleanor Stallcop-Horrox sang Santuzza heroically, breathing life and even hope into the pathos of unrequited love. Gary Aganesyants put menace into the angular music Mascagni wrote for Alfio. Even without its high notes everybody knew this muleteer was not to be trifled with. With a wife like Oksana Sitnitska, provocation could not be far off. Lola’s big seductive voice and her swagger left no doubt that Turiddu would persist in his adventurous romance with her. His mother, sung with tragic dignity by Olga Kargopoltseva, tries along with Santuzza, to persuade Turridu to come to his senses.

Of course, he should have listened to her and opened his heart to Santuzza’s evident passion for him, but he is destined for destruction. Gino Luchetti, as Turridu, convinced everybody that his demise was that of a beloved son and redeemable young man who has let his passions get out of range of better judgment. Mascagni has given him stunning music, and Gino Luchetti scaled the high tessitura with tones like DelMonaco. In the drinking song he shows neighborly respect for Alfio, while beginning to understand the consequences of his choices. The inevitable duel is arranged. Blood will be mingled with the sweat and tears of the Italian countryside. Turridu sings the desperate addio to his mother and dies at Alfio’s hand in the orchard.

Anybody who didn’t know what verismo opera is about when they came into the auditorium had the opportunity to experience it in the style of European provincial theaters that are now a thing of the past. To find this kind of opera in the Redmond High School Auditorium on a Sunday afternoon is just short of a miracle. A lot of people aren’t going to forget it.

–Michael Dodaro

Posted: Tuesday, May 25, 2010  Lucchetti, Buchheit to appear at Opera Night at The Option House…In The Bradford Era By FRAN De LANCEY