REVIEWS
June 10, 2019
"Allegra Giagu sang beautiful renditions of parlour songs [...] Her deep voice coupled with ornamentations on the verses reverberated beautifully in the high-ceilinged hall.
[...] As Allegra Giagu sang the encore, I tried to think why this music was so fascinating. For one thing, they transported me back to the world of Jane Austen and early Australian honesteads. But moreover, this music was part of their identity."
April 12, 2018
"Lovers of opera and chamber music will enjoy the concert by Australian mezzo-soprano, Allegra Giagu, who is making a one-off appearance on the coast next week. Organised by Project Music Management"
LIMELIGHT REVIEW | The Tale of Orpheus
September 14, 2017
"Round paper lanterns reference Boëthius’ theory that models the interplay between the music of the spheres, the music of the human body and that made by people. In this production, the allegorical character of Music, performed by Allegra Giagu, binds the action and manipulates the turns and twists of the fable. The energy ... is entrancing."
OPERA CHASER | TRIPLE TREAT | Gertrude Opera serves a Triple Treat in a perky and entertaining romp
September 18, 2017
"... the space bloomed with larger-than-life spiritedness. Mezzo-soprano Allegra Giagu shook the room in sumptuous and dominant style as the elegant haughty diva, Eleonora, making her grand audition a hilarious highlight..."
April 26, 2017
"Dressed in mourning black, the richly centred and emotively well-calibrated mezzo-soprano, Allegra Giagu, mixed radiance with elegance and poise as Charlotte. In a woman she effortlessly showed as kind and dutiful, troubled and empathetic, Giagu's Charlotte also portrayed a love for Werther that felt real despite the picture of incompatibility. In Act III's opening aria, "Werther! Qui m'aurait dit ... Ces lettres!", in which she dolefully reads over Werther's letters, Giagu dug deep with heartfelt voice on every rise and fall and effected a quivering vibrato that mirrored a crushed inner soul - a performance highlight."
June 15, 2017
"A delightful glimpse into the Guerre des Bouffons – "war of the comedians" – which divided mid-18th century Paris over the relative merits of the noble ponderousness of French opera seria and the incisive triviality of Italian opera buffa. [...] As wife to the drunken Anacreon, Allegra Giagu had tonal richness and dramatic distress"
June 19, 2017
"Rameau is a sublime master of multiple soloists and harmonies. His music is elegant yet full of colour and emotion and as sung by Taryn Fiebig, Lauren Zolezzi, Richard Anderson and Allegra Giagu in Anacreon [...] Giagu has developed into a strong and confident performer whose Wife of Anacreon is poignant and beautifully sung."
August 13, 2015
"Having made her Sydney Opera House debut at 11 before casually taking over the world with the aid of her voice and 97 gallon lungs, Allegra Giagu as the Countess owned the audience. There was an inky pavonine complexity to the soprano’s vocals that tapped into the same vein of genuine emotion as her leading couple [...] a potent and complex chemistry that transcended the boundaries of the concert performance into something very real and vital."
June 16, 2017
"One of the great things about Pinchgut Opera is its quest to share new discoveries with its audiences. [...] Three more memorable Pinchgut debuts: David Hidden as the gallery curator, Allegra Giagu in the role of Lycoris and Morgan Balfour in the role of Cephise. Giagu comes to Pinchgut via their partnership with Melbourne Conservatorium of Music."
June 15, 2017
"Bass Richard Anderson is the poet Anacréon (and a wealthy donor in the Art Gallery plot) who argues – in beguiling, resonant tones – that he can be both drunk and in love. His wife is Lycoris (mezzo-soprano Allegra Giagu), is decked with flowers as she gazes out at the audience through an empty picture frame, alternately serenaded and ignored."
April 26, 2017
"While perhaps presented a little too glamorously for twenty-year-old Charlotte, Allegra Giagu nonetheless brings out the sympathetic aspects of a young woman torn between love and duty. Giagu excels in the Letter Scene, opening the third act with an extended period of lovely singing."
OPERA CHASER | Nagambie Lakes Opera Festival excites with a fine festival vintage
September 05, 2016
"Three contemporary Nano-Operas highlighted just how effective opera can beautify and brace simple storytelling [...] Williams's second work, Tuesdays with Pictures (2015) [...] is a story about three para-natural private investigators [...] who believe they can cleanse a couple's house of ghosts (Allegra Giagu and Spencer Chapman). Realised with black and white gothic darkness [and] polished performances."
"In the final work of the weekend, a faultless cast blasted Mitchelton's Underground Cellar with chilling force in a world premiere, The Scottish Opera (2016). Arranged by Peter Stopschinski and directed and designed by Luke Leonard, this 80-minute work is a gripping, shortened and stylised meshing of Verdi's Macbeth."
August 22, 2014
"Musical Director, Peter Keenan had brought together sopranos Catrin Woodruff [Fiordiligi] and Allegra Giagu [Dorabella] […] extremely talented young singers obviously familiar with Mozart’s masterpiece. Their voices ̶ no microphones necessary in the high-ceilinged hall ̶ stunned and thrilled the sell-out audience who gave them a rapturous reception."
July 31, 2014
"The most virtuosic singing is reserved for Donna Elvira, the Don’s former beloved, who pours out her grief in an incredible coloratura, borne out by Australian-born Allegra Giagu’s Italianate virtuosity."
May 01, 2013
"Allegra Giagu sparkled not only in her beautiful singing but in her presence, an enjoyment in itself. She sang Crucifixus with great feeling."
July 24, 2011
"Utterly charming, effervescent and enormously talented, Giagu is an engaging presence on stage. A recent honours graduate from London’s Royal College of Music, her career in fact, started a couple of decades ago, and by the age of 11, she was singing solo in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House."