Dennis O'Neill at Rosenblatt Recitals

The Welsh tenor, Dennis O'Neill will be making a recital appearance in London 5 May 2014 at the Wigmore Hall, as part of the Rosenblatt Recitals Series. Accompanied by the pianist Jane Samuel, O'Neill will be performing arias from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, Verdi's Otello, Puccini's Tosca and Cilea's L'Arlesiana along with songs by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Tosti. It provides a rare opportunity to hear one of our greatest tenors in recital.

O'Neill is known for his performances in Verdi, and has in fact sung over 20 over the composer's roles. I can remember his early appearances at Covent Garden singing the tenor roles in early Verdi (I think Macbeth and Attila) and making such a strong impression. And he has given over 200 performances at Covent Garden. But in fact, O'Neill was one of those singers who have been around for most of my opera-going career. O'Neill joined Scottish Opera in the late 70's and I saw him a number of times in Glasgow in lyric roles, generally Italian but also Purcell's Aeneas and Jacquino in Fidelioperhaps most memorably as the Duke in Rigoletto in David Alden's 1980 production and Edgardo in a revival of John Copley's production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Ashley Puttnam as Lucia. A more recent highlight was his performance of Eleazar in Halevy's La Juive in concert with the Royal Opera.