Natalie Christie Peluso

But the beating heart of this production was Natalie Christie Peluso, doing double duty as a wonderfully vengeful Ottavia and naïve Drusilla (she also gave voice to Virtù in the opera’s prologue).

"The cast is attractive too: the company's Australian "house" soprano Natalie Christie, shining as never before in Adina's bright coloratura... "

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High Canning - The Times

"In keeping with the action, this is a vocally high-class evening... Natalie Christie's Adina is ideally light and agile but without the hints of neurosis that define her relationship with Nemorino from the start... "

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Robert Thicknesse - The Times

"Natalie Christie as the chambermaid Adele is also captivating, and her performance as a would-be actress in Prince Orlofsky's party is another highlight of the second... "

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Clare Gabriel - BBC News Online

"The upsides are Simon Keenleyside (quite disturbingly sexy as the murderous Don), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (a lithe and immensely likeable Leporello), Natalie Christie (sweet of tone as Zerlina), John Mark Ainsley (a noble Don Ottavio). Above all, there's Sir Charles Mackerras... "

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Anna Piccard - Independent

... Natalie Christie and Darren Jeffery completed one of the best casts Covent Garden has fielded in this opera with their charmingly youthful Zerlina and Masetto."

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Hugh Canning - The Sunday Times

"... and Natalie Christie's Zerlina (another house debut) was almost as enchanting as Rebecca Evan's; praise indeed."

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Nick Kimberley - The Independent

There's also a sonorous Commendatore from Andrea Silvestrelli, a perky Zerlina from Natalie Christie, and a highly promising Masetto from the young Darren Jeffrey. Altogether a fabulous evening musically."

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Andrew Clements - The Guardian

"The whole ensemble, energised by Charles Mackerras's elegant conducting, performs brilliantly. Giovanni's double-act with Leporello, the splendid Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, is hugely funny and never far from violence... Masetto the ox and his little Zerlina - almost as amoral as the Don - are sweetly played by Darren Jeffrey and Natalie Christie... "

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Robert Thicknesse - The Times London

.. Natalie Christie's tiny, adorable Zerlina and Darren Jeffrey's affectionate, highly-promising Masetto steal their scenes perfectly. It's a feast of fine singing."

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Tom Sutcliffe - London Evening Standard

...Marzelline has more to sing in Leonore and Natalie Christie sang it all with abundant charm."

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Rodney Milnes - The Times

"Of course, it helps when your singers also act convincingly. As Marzelline, so lovestruck that she doesn't realise that "Fidelio" is all that he appears to be, Natalie Christie, foregoing the ditziness that often besets the role, reveals a bright, open timbre that nevertheless carries the necessary emotional weight..."

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Nick Kimberley - The Independent

...The young soprano Natalie Christie was an accomplished Pamina...

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Mike Smith - The Western Mail

Natalie Christie deals tactfully with Euridice, who can easily come across as a vain, ungrateful scatterbrain... This is a very serious, infinitely touching, very grown up evening in the theatre. "

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Rodney Milnes - The Times

"I thought the sensation was Natalie Christie as Sophie. She sang radiantly and acted the part better than almost anyone I can recall... "

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Michael Kennedy - The Sunday Telegraph

"... She can scamper about with incredible energy, almost as if she's an incipient Cherubino; just as importantly, however, she's capable of reining in her performance in a millisecond when the scenario requires restraint and seriousness."

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David Gyger - Opera Opera

Christie is irresistibly funny, a tiny little dynamo effortlessly organising all about her. Where many of our young singers seem to rely on their physical performance to give a clue to how their vocal one should be unfolding, Christie offers a seamless marriage of the two. Yes, of course that's the way it should be, but...

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Deborah Jones - The Australian

Buoyant and yielding in the musical interpretation flowing from Jane Glover's elegant baton, The Marriage of Figaro - sung in English and more enjoyable as a result for a theatre full of people in summery mood - also has the distinction of having one of the most congenial performers of the central role of Susanna to appear in this much-revived staging.

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Roger Covell - The Sydney Morning Herald

"Sister Constance, played and sung here with electrifying spontaneity and delicious freshness by Natalie Christie, is surely one of the finds of post-war opera."

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Stephen Walsh - The Independent

"Superb playing from the orchestra under Gareth Jones, a riveting Blanche from Catrin Wyn-Davies and a delightful debut by Natalie Christie as Constance. A magnificent company achievement."

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Rupert Christiansen - The Telegraph

The audience was rightly captivated by a new young star, whose Sister Constance was adorable."

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Michael Kennedy - The Sunday Telegraph

"There were fine performances too... Natalie Christie making an auspicious house debut as Constance."

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Erica Jeal - The Guardian

"Nuns do tend to all look the same, and the great strength of Phyllida Lloyd's direction is that not one is like any other, from Elizabeth Vaughan's aristocratic First Prioress - the only holdover from the Coliseum cast, her death scene as harrowing as before - down to Natalie Christie's cheerful peasant Sister Constance, an especially touching, crisply enunciated impersonation. A profoundly stirring evening."

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Rodney Milnes

The chorus writing is superb, and there's a choice soprano role, Oksana, taken here by a distinct star-on-the-rise, Natalie Christie. "

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Michael White - The Independent

"Stephen Medcalf had a fine cast to work with. The Australian Natalie Christie (Oksana) could march proudly into any of our national companies tomorrow - her soprano is as well-formed as her deliciously diminutive figure."

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Rodney Milnes - The Times

"The new lovers were well contrasted with the sparring second couple: Marcello, personably sung by Terence den Dulk, and Musetta, a dazzling performance by the diminutive Natalie Christie."

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Margaret Davies - Opera

"The Cafe Momus also introduces Natalie Christie's irresistible Musetta. Her voice leaps out of her tiny, tense body like a champagne cork; and the glinting coloratura within is also able to expand into long lines of reflection, which in the last act, still all around her."

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Hilary Finch - The Times