Profile reviews
3“The lead roles in both pieces are performed with great skill and sympathy by soprano Lizzie Holmes and mezzo Emma Roberts… Holmes sings with a flexible soprano as a serene and elegant Euridice. Zanetto is an intriguing curiosity that flirts with melodramatic proper without fully giving into them… it’s actually a surprisingly powerful piece. The moment when the hardened Silvia finds herself able to weep again is imbued with real pathos by Holmes and offers a pleasingly mature conclusion.” ★★★★
“It breaks your heart to see the tragedy that Holmes brings to Silvia’s dilemma… her soprano cut through the heavy early evening air as her tragic fate overtook her… Not for the first time at an opera, you fight the urge to leap forward to intervene and set them on the road to happiness” ★★★★
Past Production Reviews
3“The lead roles in both pieces are performed with great skill and sympathy by soprano Lizzie Holmes and mezzo Emma Roberts… Holmes sings with a flexible soprano as a serene and elegant Euridice. Zanetto is an intriguing curiosity that flirts with melodramatic proper without fully giving into them… it’s actually a surprisingly powerful piece. The moment when the hardened Silvia finds herself able to weep again is imbued with real pathos by Holmes and offers a pleasingly mature conclusion.” ★★★★
“It breaks your heart to see the tragedy that Holmes brings to Silvia’s dilemma… her soprano cut through the heavy early evening air as her tragic fate overtook her… Not for the first time at an opera, you fight the urge to leap forward to intervene and set them on the road to happiness” ★★★★
“A terrific night of opera as real human drama... thanks largely to the luminous singing and sensitive acting of the two principals, Lizzie Holmes and Emma Roberts. Holmes sang Euridice with an impervious, sunlit poise before transforming herself into the all-too-vulnerable Silvia. This time, she was the one left bereft, and while her voice was just as radiant, her acting was even more compelling — she seemed to age before our eyes, through her facial expressions alone.”
