These are some press comments on Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" at the Aalto-Theater Essen, September 2000:

And here we can report a happy occasion at the Aalto-Theater. Patrik Ringborg together with Essen Philharmonic, playing fine and delicately, enticed the highest possible elasticity from the score, with equal portions of wit and warmth. Simply amazing!
(NRZ, 18.09.2000)

Hereby conductor, orchestra and ensemble radiate in such an balanced relationship, that the reviewer felt as if he was attending an opera gala - just in that way this wonderful opera can be enjoyed again.
The young conductor Patrik Ringborg motivated the orchestra in an exemplary fashion, above all the ravishing celli and a dreamlike trumpet solo should be mentioned. A consistent, elastic music-making guaranteed for a perfect Donizetti. Happy the house, that may call such a wonderful conductor its own. Ringborg has a perfect grip on everything; he co-ordinates chorus and ensembles ideally and breathes extremely musically while proving sensitive to all singers.
An evening throughout with the most beautiful belcanto brilliance.
(Der Opernfreund, 10.2000)

Finally the conductor Patrik Ringborg should be praised. Already appreciated since last season as an extremely precise, musical conductor, in whose hands not only the orchestra - the Essen Philharmonic in small, delicate setting - is well taken care of, but on whom the singers also can rely.
(Westdeutsche Zeitung, 19.09.2000)

What first strikes you is the conductor Ringborg, who transforms every musical mood in body language, gives exact cues and many impulses, and successfully conjures a velvety, fragrant sound. A most differentiated, sometimes ardent interpretation, with a sense for the fine dramatic scale of levels.
(Ruhr-Nachrichten, 19.09.2000)

Musical pleasure. In the opening of the season the young conductor Patrik Ringborg made himself a fervent advocate of the work. He is a unyielding perfectionist in the musical implementation and brings the art of the Essen Philharmonic to the highest levels;
Delicately polished with contrast colours, rhythmical flexibility, musical gesture and phrasing, especially in the accompagnato declamation, are exemplary united in Ringborg's conducting. The singers are ideally cared for thanks to Ringborg's control of the content. Seamlessly the stage and orchestra are brought together. Every melodic idea by Donizetti is thoroughly shaped and is given individuality as well as plastic analogy to the story. The singers in Essen are his magnificent musical partners.
(Neue Westfälische, 19.09.2000)

Finally the performance of the Essen Philharmonic under Patrik Ringborg should be pointed out, whose interpretation of the overture fully met the idea of a comic opera with descriptive nuances.
(ZDF Morgenmagazin, 18.09.2000)

... the Essen Philharmonic provides a velvety sound. Patrik Ringborg, Essen's Principal Conductor, stood on the podium allowing the score to flourish in all its facets.
(Westfälische Nachrichten, 19.09.2000)

Patrik Ringborg presents with the Essen Philharmonic an elegant resilient melodious Donizetti, feeling committed to precisely plotted ensemble art.
(Westfalenpost, 19.09.2000)

Conductor Patrik Ringborg supervises the witty, soulful score very faithfully with resilient elegance and clear transparency. He cares devotedly for the singers, brought together in agile parlando dialogues and delightfully unconstrained ensembles.
(Westfälische Rundschau, 19.09.2000)

And thus a tiptoeing comedy emerges. Already in the first bars of the overture Ringborg shows the direction. The fine melodies unfold tenderly and elastically, and the Brio-parts get the drive from their intrinsic energy and not from drum beats.
(Westfälischer Anzeiger, 15.02.1999)

The conductor Patrik Ringborg joins the young team, showing a great feeling for Donizetti's elegance, occasionally tickling the winds into somewhat loud levels, but being a good partner for the singers. He animates Essen's Philharmonic to well polished music-making.
(WAZ, 18.09.2000)

Back to the page with press comments