Reviews

De Lisette Oropesa conocíamos personajes asociados a ese tipo de vocalidad femenina denominado soubrette. De hecho, su nombre  de pila es el mismo que detenta un perfecto ejemplo de tal categoría sopranil, o sea, la segunda soprano de La rondine, personaje que forma parte de su repertorio además de Sophie (la massenetiana), Nannetta o Susanna. Pero la enorme sorpresa fue encontrarnos con una Gilda de medios suficientes, con un canto donde la expresión se encontraba perfectamente acomodada con la capacidad suficiente para asegurarla, pasando con total comodidad de los dúos con el barítono y el tenor  a un Caro nome simplemente extraordinario. Resolviendo sin problemas las partes que posteriormente le son más exigidas en el final del acto II y en el terceto del III (recordamos aquí que el estricto Toscanini, eligió una spinto, Zinka Milanov, para la grabación de este acto en  1944) y dejando de la escena de su muerte un recuerdo seguramente imborrable, modelo canoro para Gildas posteriores.

—  Fernando Fraga  •  El arte de la fuga

... y la Gilda de Lisette Oropesa. Interpretando de forma delicadísima a la hija de Rigoletto, esta soprano cubano americana consiguió unos cuantos "Brava" con una composición perfecta y profundamente emocionante y por la cual ya merecería la pena el montaje entero.

—  Miguel Gabaldón  •  Notodo

Il vibrato della statunitense Lisette Oropesa fa sì che la sua voce di soprano leggero sia sempre percorsa di una pregevole vivacità; la tecnica vocale compiutissima, la grazia nel porgere, la precisione nei vocalizzi ne fanno un’interprete perfetta del carattere di Gilda: «Caro nome che il mio cor» è la pagina meglio riuscita della recita, soprattutto per l’emissione di trilli purissimi e perlacei, ma si può ricordare almeno l’attacco di «Tutte le feste al tempio», capolavoro di controllo dell’emissione e della mezza voce. L’unico difetto della Oropesa è un piccolo sfasamento di timbro tra le note di passaggio e il registro acuto, il cui colore è un poco sbiadito rispetto al resto; ma si tratta di una minuzia, e infatti il pubblico la acclama alla fine di ogni scena.

—  Michele Curnis  •  GB Opera Magazine

Notable la encarnación de Lisette Oropesa, una voz de lírico-ligera con cuerpo,  impecablemente proyectada, bien colocada y correctamente apoyada sobre el aire. Buena la coloratura como pudo comprobarse en una brillante interpretación del “Caro nome” culminada por un trino largo y de buena factura. Estupendo también fue el mi bemol del final de la vendetta. Cierto es que el timbre no es especialmente bello ni singular y que a alguno de los filados que prodigó le faltó un punto de firmeza y posición, pero estamos, sin duda, ante una soprano con los papeles en regla, con control sobre su instrumento, sobre la intensidad del sonido, la respiración y los resortes del canto. Eso sí, en el aspecto interpretativo no es un prodigio de expresividad.

—  Raúl Chamorro Mena  •  Codalario

Für die erkrankte Patricia Petibon übernahm dankenswerterweise kurzfristig Lisette Oropesa die Rolle der Gilda, die sie mit ihrem vollen, leuchtenden, farbenreichen Sopran sehr schön darbot.

—  Martina Bogner  •  Online Merker

To judge from her first attempt at the role (heard Oct. 9), Lisette Oropesa bids fair to be among its great exponents in her generation.

Oropesa manifested secure technical chops—trills, staccati, pinpoint dynamics and—most impressively—a long, sustained line that allowed her to hold the audience breathless in both “Dite alla giovine” and the party scene ensembles. Her quicksilver tone aptly combined appealing girlish purity with lightly charged sensuality.

—  David Shengold  •  Opera News

It will be remembered as a 'were you there the night' soprano Lisette Oropesa made her debut as Violetta in "La Traviata." At the end, when the curtain closed and came back up on Oropesa standing alone on the stage, the whole Academy audience bounded to its feet, shouting and lustily applauding for after her spellbinding performance in one of the most vocally and emotionally demanding roles in all of opera.

—  Lewis Whittington  •  EDGE Pittsburgh

Through a series of stepped vocal shadings over more than two hours, she embraced Violetta's bubbly spirit, infused it with the pale resignation of the dejected lover, and, ultimately - in following one of Verdi's shrewdest emotional zigs - beautifully navigated the last moments of a euphoric consumptive. Oropesa has the instrument for the role, and she has the emotional intelligence.

Her performance grew. If in "Sempre Libera" Friday night her intonation and note placement were pinpoint accurate and her sound commanding, by Sunday afternoon the aria had acquired nuance. With her added lift on the word translating as "free," you felt buoyed.

—  Peter Dobrin  •  The Inquirer

In fact, Ms. Oropesa, the dramatic soprano who stars in the staging at the Academy of Music, brings so much gusto, so much soul to her Violetta, that it is sort of a miracle that the entire stage doesn’t blow up at the end of the three-hour show. Yes, she’s that good, and I’ve never seen an Opera Philadelphia audience react with such fervor to a performer in recent memory.

—  Bryan Buttler  •  PhillyMag

It is possible for a lyric singer to be a great Violetta – among recordings, one I treasure is Bidu Sayão from the Met, who imprinted the role with her distinctive prettiness and pathos. It was Sayão I thought of as I heard how easily Oropesa’s voice carried in the large space, and how elegantly she shaped every phrase, always making the words matter. Throughout, there was telling attention to detail, from the little internal trills in “Sempre libera” that hardly any sopranos today bother with, to the gorgeously tapered phrase endings in “Addio, del passato.” And of course, it helps that Oropesa, like Sayão, is ravishing looking – in her 1950s gowns here (see more on that below), she resembled Pier Angeli.

—  David Fox  •  Reclining Standards

...and the outstanding Oropesa brings psychological depth and emotional expressiveness to her sympathetic character, ranging from–and equally masterful at–the ebullient bel canto and decorative coloratura of Act I to the scaled-down drama and poignancy of Act III.

—  Debra Miller  •  phindie

Singing from the heart, the entire ensemble was at its thespian best. Bass-baritones Sly and Pisaroni, both tall and handsome, engaged in convincing combat, and sopranos Sierra and Oropesa were beauteous and appealing.

—  Janos Gereben  •  San Francisco Examiner

As the center of most everything that happens in the opera, a Susanna must convey wit, intelligence and spark. Oropesa does this convincingly, as well as affectingly singing Susanna’s great aria, Deh vieni, non tardar.

—  Williams  •  Opera Warhorses

Lisette Oropesa is a charming Susanna. Her voice has a gorgeous delicate quality to it but still has volume. Her "Deh vieni, non tardar" was unstrained and she managed to do a perfect martial arts flip of Figaro when she loses her temper with him later in the act.

—  Charlise Tiee  •  San Francisco Classical Voice

Soprano Lisette Oropesa was a superb Susanna, singing with both delicacy and quick-witted allure. Her duet with the Count at the beginning of Act 3, in which Susanna pretends to be willing to accept his advances, was a particular high point.

—  Joshua Kosman  •  SFGate

For her own part, Oropesa’s Marie lacked neither virtuosity nor personality. With solid high notes, accurate coloratura and an endless supply of golden-age trills (I stopped counting after five), this endearing artist ran a vocal marathon that might have paralleled the physical feat she was preparing to run in Pittsburgh Marathon the next morning. Apparently untiring, she looked and sounded as fresh at the opera’s conclusion as she had been at her first entrance. With strikingly clear diction, she negotiated with facility not just the role’s vocal fireworks, but also the legato and tenderness of Marie’s slower solos, known in the original French as “Il faut partir” and “Par le rang.” 

—  Robert Croan  •  Opera News

Soprano Lisette Oropesa's Marie was a triumph at the Benedum Center, utterly winning in both the role's vocal challenges and the physical demands of Curran's staging. Her voice is wonderfully suited to the role, warm and rounded in tone but also pure, and sparkling in coloratura. “The Song of the Regiment” started with a lovely vocal flourish, then proceeded with irresistible elan.

Oropesa proved a master of physical comedy throughout, especially in a dance lesson Curran interpolates during the orchestra entr'acte after intermission. In the first act, we meet Tonio, Marie's guy, who joins the regiment to be with her. But at the end of that act the Marquise of Berkenfeld claims Marie as her “niece.”

The second act takes place at the castle of the Marquise, who is providing Marie with lessons to add refinement appropriate for an arranged aristocratic marriage. The choreography for the four dancers gives Marie klutzy moves right out of a routine by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Oropesa offered a perfect lesson in comic gestures and timing.

—  Mark Kanny  •  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Soprano Lisette Oropesa returned to Pittsburgh Opera for her first performances of the title role. She made for a humorous, charming Marie, and, while not the most nimble, her dulcet voice showed shimmers of brilliance in high notes and trills. Her unceasing energy in the role’s dramatic and vocal acrobatics explained her impressive plans to run the Pittsburgh Marathon mere hours after the curtain dropped.

—  Elizabeth Bloom  •  Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Of the singers, natural inclination leads us first to Lisette Oropesa, the silvery-voiced Marie, a world-renowned young soprano who already has over 100 performances with the Metropolitan Opera under her belt, and who last night presented more than adequate proof of her well-earned reputation. Lithe, lovely and agile, she was a delight throughout - vocally, visually, and histrionically. In addition to a remarkable voice of thrilling loveliness, she possesses outstanding talent as a comedienne. In the ballet lesson of Act Two, decked out in a flowing, billowy ballerina costume – and the combat boots she wore in Act One – her achievements were on a par with Lucille Ball’s attempt at learning the classical art of dance in the “I Love Lucy” episode we’ve all seen in reruns fifty times or more. In the pretty arias and ensemble numbers alike, her astonishing flights of coloratura were charmingly delightful. For a brief moment at the beginning of Act One, it seemed as if she might have a slight bit of difficulty in smoothly gliding down from her more florid flights, but this quickly disappeared, and she went on to create quite a sensation which was tumultuously approved by the audience at every opportunity.

—  George B. Parous  •  The Pittsburgh Stage

Soprano Lisette Oropesa returned home to sing the role of Susanna, bringing an alluring lyricism to the stage. Her rendition of "Deh vieni, non tardar" was especially sweet. Oropesa also is a fine comic actress, capable of raising the buffoonery of it all a notch or two.

—  Theodore P. Mahne  •  The Times-Picayune

As Susanna, Figaro’s bride-to-be, Louisiana-born and -raised Lisette Oropesa was taking on one of the most demanding roles in the soprano repertoire. Being in nearly every scene of a long opera can pose a serious challenge to a singer, but Oropesa rose to it. In her arias as well as in duets and ensemble pieces, Oropesa offered a fine display of vocal versatility, from the lilting coloratura of a young woman in love to the confusion and anger of the object of the lascivious intentions of her overlord, Count Almaviva.

—  Thomas Hammon  •  New Orleans Advocate

As Susanna, Lisette Oropesa pulls of the the notable aria “Venite, inginocchiatevi “ (“Come, kneel down before me”) perfectly. However, Oropesa’s best moments come through her mastery of the physical humor so prevalent in the play. She executes slapstick with the skill of Charlie Chaplin and keeps the audience laughing so hard that the music occasionally feels like lagniappe. Kudos must be given the blocking in the work.

—  Michael Martin  •  NOLA Defender

The arias sung at the start and close of this part introduce the soprano and tenor voices. Ms. Oropesa’s introductory piece, “Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten” (“I shall follow you likewise with joyful steps”), was sung with a nice sense of melodic evenness, emphasizing especially the central line, “mein Leben, mein Licht” (“my life, my light”). Her voice blended well with the double flute accompaniment.

—  Salvatore Calomino  •  Opera Today

Lisette Oropesa brought her limpid, plaintively expressive voice to the two soprano arias.

—  John von Rhein  •  Chicago Tribune

Indeed, she shone as Gilda, showing a beautiful and refined soprano lirico with an adamant high register. She conquered a standing ovation after an immaculate Caro nome,

—  Edoardo Saccenti  •  Opera Click

De show werd echter gestolen door Rigoletto’s dochter Gilda, vertolkt door de Amerikaanse sopraan Lisette Oropesa (vorig seizoen Nanetta in Falstaff bij De Nationale Opera). In haar stemgeluid lagen zowel een warme laagte als een glanzende hoogte besloten, en haar vocale acrobatiek was indrukwekkend. Vooral indrukwekkend was haar ‘Caro Nome’, dat in eerste instantie voortijdig moest worden afgebroken omdat iemand in de zaal onwel werd. Ze eindigde de aria met een prachtige triller waar maar geen eind aan leek te komen.

—  Laura Roling  •  Place de l'Opera

Lisette Oropesa was a ravishing Gilda, her silvery tones and beautiful high range perfectly suited for the role of the young innocent girl. “Gualtier Malté”, that one and only traditionally-constructed aria of the opera, had unfortunately to be interrupted at first, so as to whisk away a member of the audience who was apparently unwell. When the performance resumed, Ms Oropesa sang the aria with elegant phrasing, top notes ringing to the rafters and exquisitely executed trills with which she has deservedly brought down the house.

—  Nicolas Nguyen  •  Bachtrack

Voix légère, Lisette Oropesa n’a rien à craindre de Konstanze, qu’elle nimbe d’une fraîcheur juvénile, plus fragile mais plus raffinée ... les registres s’équilibrent, les vocalises s’égrènent prestement, les lignes se galbent, les aigus peuvent s’émettre pianissimo.

—  Didier van Moere  •  Concerto Net

Ben affiatato anche il duo protagonista, con Lisette Oropesa nel ruolo di Konstanze in luogo della prevista Albina Shagimuratova. Anche lei soprano ancora giovane, al suo debutto a Parigi ma già Konstanze alla Staatsoper di Monaco, la Oropesa è stata premiata dal pubblico grazie a una prova molto convincente. Elegante e misurata in scena come si conviene al personaggio, ha persuaso per la sua capacità di mettere in rilievo anche nel canto gli stati d’animo, ora malinconici, ora rapiti, ora sdegnati che la parte prevede. Da ciò l’ottimo effetto di Welcher Wechsel herrscht in meiner Seele, sospirosa e malinconica, da ragazza più che da donna infelice nella voce della Oropesa, seguita da Marten aller Arten, cantata con accenti incisivi e appassionata recitazione. 

—  Lorenzo De Vecchi  •  Opera Click