"Mayes now walks around the whole scene, praising nature, covering hundreds of meters and smiling. He kind of blesses the audience partly through real laying on of hands. At the same time, friendly, humane. His singing: warm, clear, declaiming, sometimes desperate, sometimes excited. A masterpiece that makes you happy." — OpernWelt "The phenomenal Michael Mayes in the marathon title role, a baritone of effortless power with melodies flowing like honey, are no less representative of the musical sensation." — Stuttgarter Nachrichten (translated from German)

"The chief sources of hilarity were the wicked trio of Angelina’s relatives—Patrick Carfizzi as the overconfident stepfather, Don Magnifico, and soprano Katherine Henly and mezzo-soprano Rachel Barg, who perfectly executed Angelina’s mocking, self-obsessed stepsisters. Carfizzi brought vocal flair and lively physicality to Magnifico. Henly threw herself around the stage yet sang with clarity and beauty as Clorinda, while Barg carried herself with amusing overconfidence and sang with wondrous depth of sound as Tisbe." — Opera News

"Miraculous. That pretty much encapsulates my reaction to the staggering accomplishment of Des Moines Metro Opera’s festival production of Bartok’s masterpiece, Bluebeard’s Castle . This taut, barely sixty-minute performance was brimming with outstanding achievements, not least of which was the cast of only two singers. But what singers they were! . . . DMMO favorite, Sara Gartland matches him note for note as the doomed wife, Judith. This is an Everest of a role, and Ms. Gartland meets its every challenge with her radiantly produced soprano firing on all cylinders. She can ravish us with silvery floated high notes, chill us with robust chest tones, and hit us between the eyes with searing, poised, arching declamatory phrases. Her registers are beautifully knit, and she glides seamlessly throughout the demands of the part. Vocally and dramatically, she totally embodies this complex, conflicted character, fearful of what secrets she may discover, but believably grounded in intense love for her husband. When she finally pleads her case near opera’s end, her plaintive singing goes into the ears and heads straight for the heart. This complex performance was deftly delivered, and to boot, her lovely presence is truthfully acknowledged when Bluebeard ultimately says she is the most beautiful of all his wives." — Opera Today

"Julian Close is an outstanding Hagen, whose bass is so rich, firm and powerful that it becomes easy to forget just how much flexibility and prowess is required to deliver his lines with such apparent ease. He skilfully presents Hagen as a figure who has been totally numbed by being born with no love, and with the sole aim of obtaining the ring. He is constantly seen observing all of the action, as he seeks to engineer events, maximise his opportunities and take his moment, and he delivers ‘Hier sitz ich zur Wacht’ as if in a trance. When Alberich, sung well by Freddie Tong, appears to him in his sleep, Hagen is swigging from a bottle, which makes total sense for one who hates his own existence so much. This sets up an interesting dynamic between the disconsolate son and the obsessed father, who has now gone far beyond looking completely dishevelled as he did in Siegfried to appearing entirely gnawed away by envy." — MusicOMH "Julian Close's superb Hagen is one of the two roles anchoring the psychological complexity. Close sang with huge, effortless voice, and from his first appearance, manipulating the marital prospects of Gunther and Gutrune, you never doubted that calamity had entered the Gibichung court. This Hagen embodied wickedness and was magnificent." — Classical Source

Kathryn Lewek marked her 50th performance of Die Königin der Nacht in Mozart's "Die Zauberflöte" with The Metropolitan Opera with rave reviews and much fanfare. Below is a sampling of the press: " The Queen of the Night, her glory reduced to a glimmer, is the white dwarf to Sarastro’s towering sun, a fabulous geriatric in a spangly dress who cannot move without assistance. She draws on reserves of finite, fantastic power, and, in this regard, the soprano Kathryn Lewek was utterly enthralling, emitting richly glowing bursts of notes like a collapsing star in “O zittre nicht.” She careered around the stage in a wheelchair during “Der Hölle Rache,” bringing thrilling drama to a coloratura showpiece so fiendish that sopranos are lucky to get through it when they’re standing stock still." — The New York Times "Kathryn Lewek has become the Met Opera’s go-to Queen of the Night. Of her 44 performances at the Met to date, all of them have been in this role. And while it is easy to play this “villain” in one dimension, Lewek always seems to find shades and colors to explore. This is perhaps her most inspired turn to date. “O zittre nicht” was sung like a plea, full of sorrow and melancholy. Leaning into the Queen’s own frailty, you could feel the weight of the character in Lewek’s tender legato lines. Often, this is framed as a piece of trickery, the Queen emotionally manipulating Tamino into her bidding. But that wasn’t the case here with Lewek using the high-flying coloratura and the ascension up to that high F to express the pain and heartbreak the Queen is feeling. The final “auf ewig dein” were delivered with full throttle, furthering this emotional toll and coalescing beautifully with Lewek’s Queen collapsing into her wheelchair, completely spent. You can’t help but empathize for the Queen here, furthering the emotional conflict that you feel throughout. And that was furthered in the second Act during her big scene with Pamina. Lewek’s approach here was full on aggressive and furious as she instructed her daughter to take the knife and kill Sarastro. This aria is often played for its fury and anger to thrilling effect. And Lewek incorporated that here, but she went even deeper. With the Queen repeatedly attempting to get up from her wheelchair, you could feel an internal tug-of-war between a woman trying to establish her power and control, but also feeling too weak and exhausted to continue fighting, the hope almost dashed out of her – if her daughter, her only hope, can’t save her, then it’s clear that she’s done for. And the resulting rage, frustration, and agony of all this could be felt in Lewek’s singing. This might be classical music and “proper Mozartian style” might call for restraint and certain polish, but it is also opera. And opera is always about messy human emotion. As such, there was something raw and primal about Lewek’s approach here to the aria, her voice weaponized with a razor’s edge as she threw off the high notes; it wasn’t always clean and not all the infamous high Fs came off spotless, but it was exciting and potent. There was aggressive accenting in the singing, but there was also a full-throated intensity in how she delivered those final lines “Hört, Rachegötter, hört der Mutter Schwur!” as if it hurt her to think it, much less sing it. The Queen of the Night thus became less a villain and more a tragic hero using her final card in a battle she knows she may never win. There was no surprise that the audience serenaded her with the longest ovation of the night. It was much deserved." — OperaWire "Finally, there was the star-blazing Queen herself, soprano Kathryn Lewek, who could probably sing the Queen of the Night in her sleep. In this production, she is aged up with crone makeup and delivers a wonderfully physical performance as a frail, frightened woman whose only remaining power is her voice (which is agile as ever..." — The Observer "As a wheelchair-bound Queen of the Night, soprano Kathryn Lewek took on her treacherous coloratura arias, “O zittre nicht” and “Der Hölle Rache” with intensity and flair. Instead of being cast into darkness at the end of the opera, as is done in most Flute stagings, she is reconciled with Sarastro.. . It is hard to imagine a more satisfying and magical operatic experience than this intriguing and inventive production, peopled by an outstanding cast and offering exquisite orchestral playing of some of the finest operatic music ever written." — BachTrack (5 stars)

“Finally, one can't help but understand Wotan […] yielding to the sublime, sparkling bronze singing of Melissa Zgourid i's Erda, an ideally Wagnerian young mezzo, who passionately binds us to her every word ("I know all that was, all that will be"). Coming from the Urwala and messenger of Eternity, her mysterious warning has the superior accentuations of the great tragediennes of the past.” - CHRISTINE DUCQ | FORUMOPERA.COM “Finally, Flosshilde by Melissa Zgouridi -who is also performing Erda this evening-, with a broad, velvety and powerful timbre, stands out particularly for the clarity of her vowels as well as the length of her sentences. In the final scene, the lyricism of her range, as well as the constancy of her projection and the intensity of her vibrato in the treble are particularly noticeable." - AXEL DRIFFORT | OLYRIX.COM “... Melissa Zgouridi , [a] powerful American-Chinese-Brazilian mezzo-soprano [who sang] Erda and Floßhilde…her interventions, tinted with amber colors and projected with fullness, made a strong impression.” - ERIC GIBERT | ODB OPERA “ Melissa Zgouridi ...an enchanting Erda.” - REMY LOUIS | DIAPASON

June 3, 2023 | The New York Times Cheers to Zoe Zeniodi who appears in the documentary film, La Maestra, which premieres at the Tribeca Festival this month! Here, the film is featured in this The New York Times article and interview with the film's director! The director of “Maestra,” Maggie Contreras, discusses making the documentary and the challenges faced by women in classical music. “Girls can’t do that.” That’s what 9-year-old Marin Alsop was told by her violin teacher when she expressed interest in a conducting career. Today, she’s one of the world’s best-known conductors , and she remembers that exchange in a scene from “Maestra,” a documentary directed by Maggie Contreras that’s premiering at the Tribeca Festival , which runs Wednesday to June 18 in New York City. The documentary spotlights a profession — conducting — which historically has all but excluded women. It tracks five candidates vying for the top prize in La Maestra , a female conducting competition co-founded in 2019 by the French conductor Claire Gibault , and held in Paris every two years. In the film, Ms. Contreras, 39, a documentary producer making her directorial debut, delivers an up-close-and-personal portrayal of the contestants as they rev up for a competition whose judges include Ms. Alsop and Ms. Gibault. The five contestants profiled in the film were from France, Germany, the United States, Greece and Poland. In a recent video interview, Ms. Contreras recalled the making of the movie and the challenges faced by women on the concert podium. The following interview has been edited and condensed. . . How important was it that you were a woman making this movie? I don’t think I’m ever going to be the filmmaker who chases social issues. The feminist themes that are critical to this story and critical to our societal conversations are a byproduct of audiences being sucked in by the story, of being superentertained. Could a man have directed this, persuaded the five women to open up and express themselves as quickly as I was able to? I would question that, and would like to think not. This is why representation is so important when it comes to nonfiction storytelling. There was a sense of safety. I was sitting there with a camera in people’s bedrooms while they slept. In one of my favorite scenes, you see the conductor Zoe Zeniodi in the tiny little kitchen of a crummy Airbnb in Albuquerque eating a boiled egg. There are these preconceived notions about what a conductor’s life looks like, and the reality is the exact opposite. Conductors are eating boiled eggs in a very inexpensive Airbnb. . . " Read full article.

Get the Album: It's You I Like When John and I met as young artists in Virginia Opera’s education and outreach troupe back in January 2012, neither of us truly realized the particular brand of funky, long-lasting friendship gold we’d lucked into! Fast forward 11 years, we’re still best friends and collaborators, both successful itinerant musicians, but that has often come at the price of missing our home and families. Then the pandemic hit, putting our lives on pause and bringing all that time spent apart from loved ones into laser focus. Yearning for deeper connections and embracing the sing for fun spirit 150%, we set out to create a musical project that our entire family would enjoy, focusing first on the youngest members– no other motive but love and sharing ❤️ Meg Marino Dedications: “It’s You I Like” the song, album concept and sing for fun spirit for Meg’s first major voice teacher & mentor, the late, great Ellen Chickering; “Baby Mine” for Mike Mayes for being there for us both when it really matters; “Slow March” for our beloved family pets Vito, Pete, Ziggy, Ding, Glad & Buster Scruggs who have crossed the rainbow bridge. And BIG thank yous to: Enzo & Marcelo Marino, Roman Riesen and Lucia Benham for lending your voices to our featured “Do-Re-Mi” kids chorus; John & Jonathan for lending your big kid voices & whistling; Luis Infantas of Sam Ash Manhattan for remedying our melodica debacle; Brady Sansone of the Kurt Weill Foundation; our families (bio & found) for the inspiration, love and support to keep going and engaging in meaningful projects. ​

May 30, 2023 | Rochester City News While Eastman Opera Theatre’s 2023-24 season will mark the end of an era, it will also be a continuation of Eastman School of Music’s commitment to new operatic works and diverse stories. Current EOT Music Director Timothy Long, who has held his position since 2018, will begin his first season as Eastman Opera’s artistic and music director, a dual role he’ll assume after outgoing Artistic Director Steven Daigle retired in spring 2023. Long’s history with Eastman Opera Theatre began in the early 1990s, when he was a graduate assistant playing the piano for opera rehearsals under the late director Richard Pearlman and conductor David Effron. “It's just such an unexpected pleasure to be able to return here and to lead the program,” Long said. “I just never in my mind thought that would ever occur.” Under Long’s direction, Eastman Opera Theatre will continue to emphasize 20th- and 21st-century opera alongside recognizable and iconic works, as well as a focus on bringing into the opera spotlight diverse perspectives that have previously been in the shadows. . . Read full article.

May 2023 | Opera News "bass-baritone Joseph Barron was solid and penetrating as Donner. . . The role of Alberich was enlivened by the deep, agile baritone of native Texan Michael Mayes , who sang and acted with verve, displaying a light comic flair in the opening scene with the Rhinemaidens." Read full review.

"Under the spirited direction of Elizabeth Askren, the resident musicians at the Académie de l'Opéra de Paris and those of the Orchester-atelier Ostinato delivered with palpable happiness the adaptation made by Jean-Francois Verdier for the miniature pit of the Athenaeum." (translated from French) - Le Monde "This team ... benefits from the fine and attentive direction of Elizabeth Askren, present on each line, each silence. . Not as a chef but as a benevolent godmother, concerned about the artistic development of her young godchildren." (translated from French) - La Croix "For this weekend again, we can also point out at the Athénée, with the artists and musicians in residence at the Académie de l'Opéra, the performance of the Scala di seta .... It is also a success, joyful." (translated from French) - L'Humanité : Culture et savoirs " Elizabeth Askren directs the musicians (in residence at the Académie de l'Opéra or from the Orchester-atelier Ostinato) with the blend of spirit and elegance befitting Rossini. So much so that at the end of an hour and a half of show, this Ladder of silk has no difficulty in hoisting us on a small cloud. " (translated from French) - Diapason "The conductor keeps it all together and breathes into it the energy necessary to ignite the fearsome mechanics dear to the swan of Pesaro. We wish young artists (but also the Opera and the public) many shows like this, a real musical and theatrical achievement." (translated from French) - Avant Scène Opera " Elizabeth Askren conducts an orchestra reduced to the strict minimum (composed of musicians from the Orchester-Atelier Ostinato and others in residence at the Académie de l'Opéra) but which she animates with an energetic gesture while being particularly attentive to the singers so that they can give the best of themselves. ...The audience warmly applauds a quality show... " (translated from French) - Olyrix "Elizabeth Askren knows how to animate the bouncy Rossinian grace of her lean and chamber music direction, with a lot of spirit." (translated from French) - Concertonet.com " Because everything is play, movement, bodily energy in this show overflowing with imagination and admirably regulated (even the decor, devilishly clever, becomes an actor at times!) that the nimble and smiling direction of Elisabeth Askren makes even more effective. " (translated from French) - Concertclassic.com " La scala di seta (L'Echelle de sole) is a little - programmed wor k which we had applauded at the Royal Opera of Wallonia-Liege in 2016 - now in a scenic and musical finery of a frank success, at the Athénée Théâtre Louis - Jouvet. ... With instrumentalists from the Opera's Academy and the Ostinato orchestra-workshop gathered in the pit, conductor Elizabeth Askren knows how to preserve the Rossinian flow over time. The harmonic advance ment is built at a cat's pace, in equal proportion to amorous strategies, then quickly finds a clockwork pendulum by the ticking of the modulations." (translated from French) - Opera-Online.com "The direction of the conductor Élisabeth Askren is playful and joyful. Especially in the opening where she introduces each solo instrument with clarity. Her dynamic direction ... does not mean that she forgets the dramatic tension that reigns on these young lovers." (translated from French) - Toutelaculture.com " We will not forget the incredible orchestra that opening night, which was led with an iron fist by New Yorker Elizabeth Askren. ... To sum up, tonight we attended a modern and funny comic opera where the new generation of lyrical singers had a blast, and so did we. An hour and a half of high-dose humor where their communicative joy made our hearts capsize. " (translated from French) - Classiquemaispashasbeen

“The Greek conductor Zoe Zeniodi does not resemble Emmanuele Haim, so we get a different repertoire for her younger age. But, like Haim, Zoe deserves to be called Mrs. Dynamite. Her energy, her obvious ability to lead (this, in an almost military capacity that defines conductors, as well as her physicality), her mature ideas shone in both concerts that we attended. . . Her Schumann’s 4th with the splendid Bogota Philharmonic was more than praiseworthy; the contrast between the thickness of the third movement and the vigor of the finale were a testament to the symphonic mind of this artist whose present is brilliant and whose future appears to be more than promising. In this same concert, Zeniodi and the orchestra accompanied none other than Stephen Hough in Brahms’ Second Piano concerto.” -Scherzo.es Read full review.