|
Tulsa Opera, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Carol Crawford, General Director,
April 2007
Porgy and Bess, Gershwin
“Gwendolyn Brown brings a large helping of sass to the
role of Maria; her face-off with Sportin’ Life is one of the
comic highlights of the opera.”
James D. Watts, Jr., Tulsa World
Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago,
Illinois, November 2006
Alexander Nevsky, Tchaikovsky
Gwendolyn Brown brought a rich contralto voice to the
lament of the Russian girl as she searched for her lover's body
among the battlefield dead.
John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
Yachats Music Festival, Yachats,
Oregon, 2006
Once again Saturday night there were astonishments,
particularly Gwendolyn Brown, a contralto who silenced our
breathing with the celebrated "Samson et Dalila" aria "Mon coeur
s'ouvre a ta voix" ("My heart opens at your voice"). Brown
slowed the phrases down and took breaths in unconventional
places, but her dusky voice inhabited the music so completely,
we were spellbound.
David Stabler - The Oregonian
Yachats Music
Festival, Yachats, Oregon,
2004
"Gwendolyn Brown's turn. This is her second year at the festival, and she's making an impression with her poise and deep contralto voice. She's young, but something about her tone and phrasing makes her voice sound older. She sings Ulrica's great anger aria from Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" ("A Masked Ball"), the aria that Marian Anderson sang in her debut as the first African American in a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955. Brown recalls Anderson's muscular sound: low notes that are dark, almost earthen."
The Oregonian
Yachats Music
Festival, Yachats, Oregon,
2004
". . . positively chilled the warm night air
with the gypsy's fortune teller's aria from Verdi's Un ballo
in Maschera."
South Lincoln County News
(Oregon)
Yachats Music
Festival, Yachats, Oregon,
2004
Verdi never saw the
Pacific Ocean.
But, hearing a young singer
before the rest of the world
discovers her
during a Yachats sunset
matches one of life's
greatest moments."
The Oregonian.
Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble
Rossini - Messe Solennelle
There were many powerful moments for soloists - mezzo soprano Gwendolyn Brown's expressiveness and middle-register authority in the powerfully affecting Agnus Dei.
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Opera Memphis
Menotti - Amahl and the Night Visitors
The mezzo soprano Gwendolyn Brown . . . sang a lyrical rendition of a song questioning whether the three kings knew the simple good life of poor shepherds.
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Menotti -
The Medium
In The Medium, mezzo-soprano Gwendolyn Brown, as a woman who ends haunted by her own tricks, had an arrestingly powerful stage presence and strong, lyrical singing . . . she was at her vocal best in the Black Swan aria. Her dramatic range is wide, from arrogance and rage to self-doubt and remorse.
Memphis Commercial Appeal
|
|
