Norina
Don Pasquale
The stand out performance of the evening was Lisette Oropesa in the role of Norina. Her Norina was a cool customer, ready to use her looks in order to secure financial stability and social respectability and with a contemptuous attitude towards the elderly Pasquale. Her handling of Donizetti&r...
There are some voices in opera that are so sublimely expressive that they stand out like a Michelangelo fresco in a black and white film. Pittsburgh Opera’s season finale production of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” features such a voice.
Soprano Lisette Oropesa, no...
...Lisette Oropesa's show-stealing Norina.
The Cuban-American soprano was equal to all her character's skittish bel canto demands. Hilarious, endearing and blest with immaculate timing, she made the cruel challenges of her Act 1 cavatina seem like throwaway lines and single-handedly ga...
Lisette Oropesa is the production’s Norina. She delivered exactly what was expected; perhaps the finest performance of a soprano heard in the Benedum since the last time she was here. She knows how to modulate her large, brilliant voice to the requirements of the part without slighting t...
Vocally, Oropesa was well ahead of the pack. Her command of phrasing of the coloratura is exceptional: she can accelerate into a run and shape the dynamic as she leads up to a high note which she duly nails in the middle, with no vibrato needed to mask any possible inaccuracy. The timbre is al...
How do you brew a great opera experience? Mixing Donizetti and Oropesa is a great start. Operas are not a one-person show, ever. They are the result of many talented, dedicated contributors. So, I feel guilty raving about one team member in particular, but I am going to...
Oropesa doesn’t have a huge voice but it’s a carefully placed one that sits absolutely securely but lightly on the roulades. This was a prima donna performance in every sense, and the foot-stamping accolades Oropesa received were totally deserved. At first there was a slightly hard...
Whilst every singer was good in their part, Lisette Oropesa who played Norina was nothing short of a revelation. It wasn’t just her singing that stole the show but her acting abilities, her last laugh instead of being sung, coming out as a snort, her actions, every movement that Or...
Norina (Lisette Oropesa) dozes at her writing desk. Did her husband die of natural causes? It seems unlikely. All greed, wit and wide, sexy eyes, with a sweet, fast vibrato, trills as neat as pinking shears and a prodigious appetite for the texture and flavour of the Italian language, Oropesa ...