Photo © Julie Kim

Fidelio: English National Opera

‘Lionel Friend…controlled the score with a good sense of pace and structure.’
(The Daily Telegraph)

‘…intelligently paced and scrupulously moulded.’
(The Guardian)

Wozzeck: English National Opera

‘ENO’s much promised new production of Wozzeck - conducted superbly by Lionel Friend.’ (The Times)

The Plumber’s Gift : (world premiere) English National Opera

‘…the orchestra, working at full intelligence, life and splendour under Lionel Friend.’ (The Times)

The Turn of the Screw: English National Opera

‘Not the least virtue of this revival is the conducting of Lionel Friend who makes the small-scale intimate sound of 13 solo instruments spread itself throughout the large auditorium without sacrificing the incisiveness of musical timbre.’ (The Times)

‘Lionel Friend conducts Britten’s most engrossing score with idiomatic mastery. It is as well paced as the spectacle is spacious… Mr. Friend’s tempi make for the total clarity of Myfanwy Piper’s text.’ (The Sunday Times)

The Turn of the Screw: Grange Park Opera

‘Musically this is a stunning evening. Lionel Friend’s orchestra catches every detail of the scoring to chilling effect: the fateful, muted timpani of the governess’s journey, horrid woodwind tremolos, birdsong, pizzicato passacaglia all played with literally dreadful impact.’ (The Times)

‘Musically, with Lionel Friend conducting the Orchestra of Grange Park, the production is excellent.’ (The Guardian)

‘Grange Park’s Screw is conducted by Lionel Friend and staged by David Fielding, both experienced players regularly overlooked by bigger companies… Words on Sunday were often drowned upstage, through no fault of Friend’s crisp orchestra.’ (Financial Times)

‘This is a powerful staging, and, thanks to Lionel Friend’s experienced conducting, a high-calibre musical performance. The diction of the entire cast is immaculate. The size of the theatre helps, but Friend is a stickler for comprehensibility.’ (The Sunday Times)

‘Musically, the production was in the experienced hands of Lionel Friend – veteran of Jonathan Miller’s ENO production – who may not have been able to get the youthful GPO Orchestra to sound like a crack ensemble, but managed to evoke an eerie sense of impending doom throughout and got immaculate diction from almost all of the singers.’ (Opera)

Volo di notte; Il prigioniero: Oper Frankfurt
‘Zwar hat man Dallapiccola als den melodischsten unter den frühen Zwölfton-Komponisten bezeichnet, doch das Orchester spielt unter der spannungsvollen Leitung von Lionel Friend seine Macht oft genug aus.’ (Frankfurter Allgemeine)

Rusalka: English National Opera

‘Lionel Friend launched the opera in the most thrilling manner, emphasising the rhythms and bringing out all the magic of Dvorák’s score.’ (Opera)

The Makropulos Case: English National Opera

‘Lionel Friend senses the evolution of the music to its white hot climax with an uncanny feeling for its shape.’ (The Times)

Il Seraglio: English National Opera

‘Lionel Friend is clearly a Mozartian of unusual promise. The performance was well paced, the instrumental detail in which the score is so rich emerged with clarity and grace, and light textures were never achieved at the cost of musical substance.’ (Observer)

Die Entführung aus dem Serail: Oper Frankfurt
‘Am Pult des Museumsorchesters sorgt Gastdirigent Lionel Friend für einen modernen, der historischen Aufführungspraxis verpflichteten und schlanken Mozart-Klang.’ (Frankfurter Allgemeine)

Le nozze di Figaro, New Zealand Opera (May/June 2010)

'All credit to conductor Lionel Friend for securing such lively and well-upholstered playing, with some deliciously-delivered wind cameos accompanying some of Mozart’s most beautiful operatic arias.' (Peter Mechen, Middle C, May 15, 2010)

''This ensemble cast of singing actors was led by conductor Lionel Friend, stylishly supported by the Vector Wellington Orchestra. The music is the core of any opera, and Friend truly made it live on the night. A special delight was his insistence on true pianissimos, both from singers and orchestra, which tightened up the emotional intensity of the drama.' (www.theatreview.org.nz)

Madama Butterfly: English National Opera

‘Happily, Lionel Friend, who now conducts the piece, is an urgent and passionate Puccinian. Thanks to him this lovely score’s thrust of emotion, with ravishing sounds from the strings above all, comes over at full power.’ (The Guardian)

The Queen of Spades: English National Opera

‘Lionel Friend obtained a performance of considerable sweep and power from his vocal and orchestral forces, authoritatively pointing the subtlety of the composer’s late orchestral style.’ (The Independent)

‘…the presiding genius of this marvellously vital performance is without doubt conductor Lionel Friend, who brings out not only the bold dramatic strokes of the score but its many lyrical subtleties as well, inspiring some of the finest orchestral playing and thrilling choral singing the Coliseum has heard this season.’ (Punch)

Tannhäuser: New Sussex Opera

‘Lionel Friend’s conducting of the lavish score was magnificent, as was the orchestra. There was a freshness and sparkle about the playing and yet the sound had maturity, a deep rich sound that suggested, however implausibly, a long communal familiarity with the score amongst the players. Lionel Friend made the religious music tell impressively while the Venusberg was both brilliant and gorgeous. His pacing of the score was lyrically expansive, touched with an inevitability and rightness in the style of Reginald Goodall, and it was instructive to read in the programme both of Friend’s association with Goodall and that the performances were dedicated to Goodall’s memory.’ (Wagner News)

‘Lionel Friend draws from the NSO a very committed response which takes up the full challenge of Wagner’s lush, sumptuous sound. Not only the full orchestral palette with its wide range of colours registers but individual contributions too.’ (Mid-Sussex Times)

‘Lionel Friend drew some ravishing playing from his orchestra, and also handled the big public scenes with style and assurance.’ (Opera)

Tristan und Isolde: English National Opera

‘Mr Friend favoured broad, flowing tempos, allowing the music to develop its own momentum.’ (Opera)

‘Lionel Friend’s control of tension was admirable and the playing of the orchestra superb with fine, burnished string tone.’ (The Guardian)

‘The broad tempos were faithfully maintained and passionately swept up in moments of ecstasy, the climaxes to each of the three acts searingly effective within such an expansive but coherent context.’ (The Daily Telegraph)

Götterdämmerung: Perth International Arts Festival

‘Lionel Friend is a meticulous conductor, with a keen sense of focus and balance. He allowed the singers plenty of space, and kept the band from excessive bombast.’ (The Australian)

‘Under the guidance of British conductor Lionel Friend the orchestra delivered a stunning coup after a tentative start – virtuoso playing, gathering in strength and authority, throughout this long score…In choosing Friend to lead this project, Seán Doran was engaging the not inconsiderable skills of a musician whose craft has been forged through long years of background preparation for other, starrier maestros. Friend’s Wagnerian vision follows the philosophy of the legendary Reginald Goodall – a pace allowing time for the music to breathe but crucially affording utmost support to the singers.’ (Financial Times)

Parsifal: English National Opera

‘Lionel Friend makes an impressive job of it, conducting a reading that is both melodically spacious yet tautly defined rhythmically…The concentration Friend induced was considerable.’ (The Guardian)

‘Lionel Friend manages to imprint his own personality upon events with a good deal of success…the playing had a depth and richness of tone that is totally appropriate.’ (The Times)