What a difference three-and-a-half years can make. In mid-February 2020 – the pandemic’s first lockdown only a few unthinkable weeks in the future – Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen made her debut at London’s Barbican with pianist James Baillieu and a heavy-duty late-Romantic programme. Here was, without doubt, a rising star. Her extraordinary voice made an immediate, visceral impact even in the Barbican’s impersonally large concert hall.
Fast forward through both the pandemic and the steady, steep ascent of Davidsen’s star, and the soprano has made her long-awaited debut at the Wigmore Hall, once again with Baillieu. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure the 552-seat hall was going to be the right place to enjoy a voice that proved so show-stopping in Verdi and Wagner at Covent Garden earlier this year.
