Elena Stikhina in the Savoy Theatre, 28.2.2019

This time I was probably amongst the first ones to buy a ticket to the concert of the Russian soprano Elena Stikhina in the Savoy Theatre. I have heard her sing both in the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki and in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and I was really looking forward to hearing her in her own concert. 

The first part of the concert consisted of western opera aria classics (Bellini, Cilea, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Verdi) and the end part of Russian classics (Tatiana’s letter scene from “Eugene Onegin” and songs by Rachmaninov). The audience managed to clap her one more time to the stage to sing “Mercé, dilette amiche” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “The Sicilian Vespers”.  

I sat on the front row, which allowed me to follow Stikhina’s performance from a short distance. I think she was suffering from a slight cold since she was sniffing and coughing a bit between the arias and especially in the beginning her breathing technique was rather peculiar.

I like Stikhina’s voice, so despite the cold, I enjoyed myself. But I do have to admit, that she reached another level in the Russian material on the latter part of the concert. Tatiana’s letter scene is tremendously difficult to sing due to the vast emotional scale it covers from a girlish crush, uncertainty and dreaming to determination and daring. I haven’t heard excellent performances of it that often, but in my opinion, Stikhina’s performance was not bad at all. And the songs by Rachmaninov were excellent. I have always liked the song “Don’t sing my Beauty” (Не пой красавица), so it was my favourite this time, too, but also the song “Spring Waters” (Весенние воды) made you downright hear the arrival of spring. I would have had nothing against hearing even more Russian material.

Stikhina’s accompanist was the pianist Hans-Otto Ehrström, who played in the concert also a few solo pieces: Francis Poulenc’s three improvisations and in addition to them the improvisation “Hommage à Edith Piaf”. A nice sorbet as he called his intermission.