JonathanLemalu

/
Bass
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Press

  • The Magic Flute (Speaker)

    English National Opera
    Feb 2024

  • La Traviata (Doctor)

    English National Opera
    Oct 2023 - Nov 2023

  • Samson (Manoa)

    BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall
    Aug 2023

    • Jonathan Lemalu rarely disappoints, and his portrayal of Manoa (Samson’s father) contains moments of highest beauty (the accompanied recitative ‘Oh miserable change!’). Lemalu’s diction was a dream.

    • ...Jonathan Lemalu putting across the nobility of Manoa.

    • However, once we returned from the interval, the force of the drama started to intensify its grip. As Samson's father, Manoa, the New Zealand-born Samoan bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu marked the shift in tone with his exhortation that his son should "Trust in God!" that he would be freed.

    • As Samson's father, Manoa, Jonathan Lemalu was warm and dignified. Lemalu's approach was quite restrained, even in his opening dramatic recitative, 'Oh miserable change!', but this built throughout the performance, culminating in a finely touching account of 'How willing my paternal love'.

  • Magic Flute (Sarastro)

    Welsh National Opera
    Mar 2023 - May 2023

    • Jonathan Lemalu (Sarastro) provided a deep bass that was wonderful to listen to for its resonance and timbre...

    • Jonathan Lemalu’s Sarastro, a bewigged Enlightenment philosopher, was highly dignified...

    • ...at the lower end of the stave Jonathan Lemalu brought benevolence to a bewigged Sarastro, intermittently filling the stage with his cavernous low notes for the revised text of ‘O Isis und Osiris’ – altered to ‘sun and sky’.

  • Handel Alexander's Feast

    London Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings & London Handel Orchestra
    Feb 2023

    • Revealing a very firm bass, Jonathan Lemalu’s performance was extremely assured...

  • La damnation de Faust (Brander)

    London Philharmonic Orchestra with Edward Gardner
    Feb 2023

    • Nothing here features merely for local effect or comic relief: certainly not Brander’s pub song about the cocky but oven-ready-rat, given a sinister as well as jovial tinge by bass Jonathan Lemalu in a savoury cameo turn.

    • Jonathan Lemalu’s humorous appearance as Brander, he of the poisoned rat, was a terrific moment of comic value and underscored a fine vocal technique.