"As his ghostly counterpart, soprano Adriana Zabala as Miss Jessell — who has taken her own life — was chilling in her traumatized, post-mortem neediness and warped affection toward Flora. When Armstrong and Zabala converge on the line that librettist Myfanwy Piper incorporated from W.B. Yeats, “The ceremony of innocence is drowned,” it was one of the opera’s most searing moments."
-NY Classical Review
"And mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala gave poise and desperation to the late Miss Jessel." -BachTrack
"Zabala gave a good turn as Quint’s female counterpart, Miss Jessel, her powerful soprano taking on a deep-blue timbre as she went, making her dead former governess strangely sympathetic. Her scenes with Flora were her best, with her kind glances taking on a malevolent undertone." -Parterre
"Adriana Zabala made a rather more sympathetic Miss Jessell. In a directorial coup, there was a parallel scene with the current Governess and Miss Jessell walking the same pathway in tandem. This added to the gothic element of the storytelling and gave us the shivers. We wondered whether the poor (unnamed) Governess would also die."
-Voce di Meche
