Category: News

Bejun Mehta - Che puro ciel tour

Bejun Mehta’s Che Puro Ciel Tour is off to a spectacular start this season, enjoyed by enthusiastic audiences in Prague for Collegium 1704’s opening concert, and with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin at Liege’s Opéra royal de Wallonie and Brussels’ Palais des Beaux Arts.

Mr. Mehta continues with the Che Puro Ciel Tour later this winter at the Auditorio de Tenerife on January 11, the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus in Gran Canaria on January 13, and the renowned Grand Théâtre de Provence, on January 15.

Read on for Bejun’s recent critical acclaim for the Che Puro Ciel tour and album:

Bejun Mehta - Che puro ciel tourPrague

“Mehta . . . works perfectly not only with the melody, but also the text and its contents . . . this first concert . . . was one of the biggest (and in the field of early music, probably Europe and the world) artistic experiences this year.”

Michaela Freemanová – Harmonie Online

“(A) brilliant opening with Bejun Mehta and the Collegium 1704, the sold-out Rudolfinum was redolent with euphoria . . . He expresses the extreme affects of Baroque opera heroes, on subjects from classical mythology – amorous desires, virtue, generosity, contrition, forgiveness, and also the horrors of agony, condemnation, cruel fate, and loneliness.”

Helena Havlíková – Operaplus.cz

Brussels

“The concert . . . offered an interesting confrontation between the young Mozart, which occupies the entire first part, and peers of the previous generation, Hasse, Gluck and Johann Christian Bach. All the works proposed date at almost exactly, the third quarter of the eighteenth century, a period that experienced significant stylistic changes and where Italian music set the tone, especially in opera.

The success of the evening held well on the high quality of the performers, with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, brilliantly led by Bernhard Forck and Bejun Mehta, the star of the day . . . From the first experience of Bejun Mehta’s voice . . . the tone is powerful, well-marked . . . the voice is perfectly free . . . he gives elegance and character to everything he sings. His determination, his sense of the text that follows each air is like an opera, with a clear idea of the dramatic situation of the moment. Added to this are a flawless virtuosity, a taste for contrasts (widely reflected in the orchestra), and a real personal charisma, warmly applauded by the Brussels public . . .”

Claude Jottrand – ForumOpera.com

Reviews for the Che Puro Ciel Album

Mr. Mehta’s original Che Puro Ciel recording received several awards and noticies, including “Le Diamant d’Opera” from Opéra Magazine and a “CHOC de CLASSICA” award from the French Magazine Classica, in addition to rave reviews from critics worldwide:

“ . . . the most enjoyable, intelligently planned countertenor recital to have come my way in years.”

Richard Wigmore – Gramophone

“Mehta is on strong form, providing a fine emotional drama and some vocal fireworks.”

Robert Hugill – Planet Hugill

“Here as elsewhere, his variety of attack, musical phrasing and precision in dynamics compel admiration.”

David Shengold – Opera News

“Hearing the music with Mehta’s precise and moving countertenor . . . is like hearing this era as never before. The performances are exceedingly wondrous, lush yet with the intimacy of the era that we rarely hear today. The music sounds much more exotic, more alien, older than the standard readings of this period, plus these are some very rare gems to behold and appreciate.”

Grego Applegate Edwards – Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

“Bejun Mehta here presents an intelligent survey of early classical arias . . . maybe it’s a consequence of the artificiality of the falsetto technique but with so many counter-tenors currently on the scene there is a risk of them starting to all sound the same. Thankfully, that is not the case here.”

Warwick Arnold – Limelight Magazine

“Mehta is fully in his element, no technical or expressive stone going unturned.”

The Arts Fuse

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