Norina
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...
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 ...
Don Pasquale
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...
...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...
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...
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...
