| Cleofide (Pacini's Allessandro nell'Indie) | Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) |
| Laurie (The Tender Land) | Lucia di Lammermoor |
| Rossignol | Teresa (Benvenuto Cellini) |
RECORDINGS
DVD - The Rake's Progress
"L'elisir d'amore (Lausanne 1997-8)"Il ruolo di Adina era invece affidato al soprano texano Laura Claycomb che, in possesso di una voce non estesissima ma pulita e corretta, nonché di un´espressività gestuale significativa, è sicuramente destinata ad interpretare i ruoli maggiori del melodramma ottocentesco dopo aver finora cantato per lo più il repertorio settecentesco, Rossini e Donizetti."
- L´OPERA - febbraio 1998 - Giacomo Di Vittorio
"Adler Fellow Laura Claycomb, who grows in assurance and vocal skill with each appearance, rounded out the act as a fetching Giannetta."
- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman - September 21 1992 (San Francisco Opera)
"Laura Claycomb (Ann Truelove), en amoureuse transie et fidèle dans les épreuves, montre une très belle technique dans un rôle difficile."
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LE FIGARO J.-L.ÊV.
05/03/2008
"Laura Claycomb et Toby Spence possèdent les voix idéales pour Ann Trulove et Tom Rackwell : registres homogènes, aigus éclatants, soin apporté à l'articulation et à la compréhension du texte."
-RESMUSICA.COM
" Laura Claycomb, belle, aussi impavidement pure et obstinée dans son amour qu'une Elisabeth de Tannhäuser, a une fort jolie voix au registre aigu moelleux et facile, capable de mille nuances. C'est une fort convaincante Ann Trulove. "
-ALTAMUSICA.COM
"Laura Claycomb qui chantait Anne Trulove, il y a une quinzaine d'années déjà dans la production demeurée historique décorée par le peintre anglais David Hockney,(sic) reste un miracle de jeunesse, de beauté et de justesse. "
-WEBTHEA.COM 5 mars 2008 - Caroline Alexander
"Soprano Laura Claycomb was a touchingly steadfast Anne. The role lies low for her voice, which lacks substance in midrange, but her rendition of the final ditty in the asylum was moving, and her silvery top register was unfailingly attractive."
- OPERA NEWS - STEPHEN J. MUDGE - LYONS - The Rake's Progress,5/24/07
"Laura Claycomb et Toby Spence possèdent les voix idéales pour Ann Trulove et Tom Rackwell : registres homogènes, aigus éclatants, soin apporté à l'articulation et à la compréhension du texte."
-RESMUSICA.COM Maxime Kaprielian (04/03/2008)
"As Tom's reckless descent into debauchery leads him to marry Baba the Turk, Anne arrives pushing a pram, only for Tom to make love to the bearded lady while retaining eye contact with his former sweetheart - a moment of charged theatricality beautifully played by Laura Claycomb as Anne. Claycomb is an artist of accomplishment, a known vocal quantity, with silvery tone and exemplary musicality... "
-OPERA NEWS - June 2008 , vol 72 , no.12 - Stephen J. Mudge - Opéra de Paris
"Soprano Laura Claycomb, as the faithful Anne Truelove, is subtle and moving, avoiding schmaltz. "
-BLOOMBERG - Jim Ruane - May 4, 2007
"Anne Trulove est incarnée avec une belle justesse des sentiments par Laura Claycomb."
-CONCERTONET.COM - SŽbastien Foucart - 04/17/2007
" Laura Claycomb lent a beautiful, soaring soprano to Amanda"
- OPERA NEWS - December 6, 1997 - Sidney Corbett - Le Grand Macabre (Salzburg 1997)
"Amanda und Amando, das verträumte Liebespaar, stört das alles nicht, sie leben allein für und durch den Sex, was sie offenbar sehr glücklich macht, denn sie singen die schönste Musik der Oper. Laura Claycomb und Charlotte Hellekant entledigen sich ihrer Partien mit ebensoviel Spass wie stimmlicher Souveränität."
-DAS OPERNGLAS - Oktober 1997 - U. Ruhnke - (Salzburg 1997)
"CLAYCOMB, from Texas, might well be the major vocal sensation of the post-Renée Fleming generation."-
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - Wes Blomster - November 5, 2003
"Seductive and sultry, [Claycomb ] slew the audience with vocal theatrics. Her singing was light and transparent, the coloratura breathtakingly effectiveöshe was at her best when fearing the loss of Caesar and suffering the tortures of Ptolemy."
-HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Charles Ward - October 31, 2003
"The clouds part, and fog rolls in, bringing with it a strolling chamber orchestra. Behind the clouds sits an art deco pyramid, striped in black and white. Stepping out of some Astaire-Rogers picture, chorus boys dressed in evening wear with top hats tap the front of the pyramid with the heads of their canes. The triangle breaks apart, leaving a bevy of beauteous chorines holding the pieces. They lightly step out of the way. There -- in a star turn worthy of any queen of the silver screen -- stands the resplendent Cleopatra.
With blond marcelled hair, bangle bracelets and a cape trimmed in marabou, Laura Claycomb's glamorous queen of the Nile is poured into a chevron-striped black-and-white gown that 1930s designers Travis Banton and Adrian would have clawed each other's eyes out to have created. Behind her, marquee lights send off shooting stars, and confetti cascades over the stunning stage design. Caesar, for whom this extravaganza of seduction has been planned, falls over in a giddy swoon. He's been hooked. So have we. ... And who wouldn't chase after Claycomb's Cleopatra? After her dazzling 2001 HGO Rigoletto debut and her equally impressive turn in Lucia last season, she breezes through her demanding fioritura without flaw and outdoes herself as both tragedian and comedian. Claycomb is especially devastating in her legato arias; she's also hilarious when she walks like an Egyptian, jaunting off the stage with hieroglyphic semaphores. This Cleopatra clowns like Carole Lombard, looks like Jean Harlow and sings like an angel."
-HOUSTON PRESS - D.L. Groover - November 6, 2003
"Without exception, the cast of Giulio Cesare skillfully conveyed each character's inner passions in the ornate melodic language of Baroque style, drawing on effusive passages of vocal embellishments, measured trills and other expressive modes inherited from improvisatory traditions of an earlier age. Drawn from the rhetorical principles of classical oration, a character's physical bearing and movements -- of hands, arms, eyes, even eyebrows -- were to convey particular emotion, or"affects,"driving the text being sung. All these musical-dramatic factors converged, for example, in Cleopatra's celebrated aria"Pianger˜ la sorte mia,"to which Laura Claycomb imparted excruciatingly bipolar emotion: grief over fate's cruelty and a determined threat of revenge against Tolomeo.
...Soprano Claycomb, as Cleopatra, honed her instrument to the finest gradations of color and emotion -- from creamy opulence to snarling contempt.
-OPERA NEWS - Cecelia Porter - 2001 (Drotttningholm)
"Countertenor David Daniels (Cesare) and soprano Laura Claycomb (Cleopatra) handled the staging's arch playfulness with jaunty aplomb and tossed off the music's fiendish coloratura with assurance and dash. They also liquidly shaped the slow music, most notably when claycomb floated the poignant"Piangero la sorte mia"while curled up on the floor in the fetal position."
-OPERA CANADA - William Albright - 2003
The Egyptians are oh-so-chic in black and white. Former Dallasite and SMU alumna Laura Claycomb plays that old sexpot Cleopatra as Jean Harlow in a drop-dead zigzag dress and black cape trimmed in black-tipped white feathers.' It doesn't hurt that Ms. Claycomb delivers the goods with the slender good looks of a 21st- century model. And her delicate soprano can flicker, sparkle and glow with apparently limitless nuance. Wow.'
- DALLAS MORNING NEWS - Scott Cantrell - November 4, 2003 -
"Looking like Jean Harlow, acting like Theda Bara and sounding like an angel, Texas darling soprano Laura Claycomb savored every vampish moment as Cleopatra."
- AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATEMAN - Michael Barnes - 2003
Artful Cleopatra takes toytown
"Claycomb is a superb professional, infinitely artful of voice and broad of gesture: an American diva to the core, with a showbiz knack for grabbing her audience's complicitous approval in Cleopatra's extravagances."
- FINANCIAL TIMES - David Murray - July 12, 2001 (Drottningholm Festival)
"The cast was strong from top to bottom led by a staggering performance from Laura Claycomb as Cleopatra - the voice is so open, with a strength throughout the range and a high register that goes on and on. Coloratura was breathtaking and her musical and technical abilitiy is such that she can play around with the colour and nuance of notes throughout her range - I particularly loved the way she hit top notes and pulled away from them to almost nothing. Her"Piangero'"was perfection. What a talent!"
...
"Her performance at Drottningholm this year as Cleopatra was truly memorable, marked by a voice that could melt steel - range, coloratura and acting ability of enviable quality."
- OPERA NOW - Matthew Peacock - November/December 2001 (Drottningholm Festival)
"...Laura Claycomb sang brightly and fluently as a serious rather than sex-kittenish Cleopatra"
-ANDANTE.COM - Hugh Canning - July 7, 2001 (Drottningholm)
"La viole de gambe rehausse la liquidité stellaire des superbes arias de Cléopâtre qu'incarne parfaitement Laura Claycomb" ("The viola de gamba brought out the stellar liquidity of the superb arias of Cleopatra, that Laura Claycomb perfectly incarnates")
-LA MARSEILLAISE - Jean-Christophe et Pierre NICQ - Giulio Cesare (Montpellier, 1999)
"Laura Claycomb est une Cléopâtre charnelle, petite fille et impératrice redoutable..." ("Laura Claycomb is a carnal Cleopatra, little girl and undoubtable empress...")
-MIDI LIBRE - Michele Fizaine - Giulio Cesare (Montpellier, 1999)
"LAURA CLAYCOMB, die die Adèle zum ersten Male gibt, ist von ätherischer Aura und singt hinreißend und mit makelloser Musikalität. Zudem besitzt sie die attractive Linie eines Mannequins und einen köstlichen Humor."
-ORPHEUS - April 1996 - Marcel Louis Chollet/B.H. - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"Sul palcoscenico, la regina della festa è stata la spiritosa Laura Claycomb la quale, oltre a vantare una figura a dir poco splendida, ha interpretato la parte della Comtesse Adèle con tanto di autorità vocale e di musicalità, validamente sorretta inoltre da un timbro purissimo e da un'impostazione della voce invidiabile: la perfezione insomma." ("Onstage, the queen of the party was the funny Laura Claycomb, who, in addition to being blessed with - to say little - a splendid figure, interpreted the part of the Countess Adele with such vocal authority and musicality, validly blessed also with the purest of timbres and an enviable placement of the voice: perfection, in sum.")
- L'OPERA - marzo 1996 - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"La distribution est dominée par la Comtesse de Laura Claycomb; corps de starlette, voix charmeuse et souple, vocalise déliée et pianissimi enchanteurs: tout concourt à faire de ce portrait l'événement musical de la soirée." ("The cast is dominated by the Countess of Laura Claycomb; body of a starlet, charming and supple voice, delicate vocalises and enchanting pianissimi: all together to make this portrait the musical event of the evening.")
-OPERA INTERNATIONAL - Eric Pousaz - February 1996 - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"...la Comtesse (Laura Claycomb, d'une pureté séraphique)..." ("Laura Claycomb, of a seraphic purity...")
- LE MONDE (DE LA MUSIQUE) - February 1996 - Franck Mallet - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"Claycomb's European debut as Bellini's Giulietta two seasons ago in Geneva signalled a bel cantist of immense promise. On the evidence of her Adèle, she is maturing well. Despite her clear, cool timbre, she conveyed warmth and fragility; she is too musical a singer to be a mere vocal machine."
-
FINANCIAL TIMES - 11 January 1996 - Andrew Clark - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"Auf der Bühne tummeln sich anerkannte Rossini-Spezialisten - an ihrer Spitze die wunderschön (und locker-brillant) singende und köstlich spielende Diana Montague als Isolier, die koloraturensprühende und raffiniert-attractive Laura Claycomb als Adele..."
-DER BUND - 6 January 1996 - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
" Eine echte Entdeckung ist die bisweilen pikant gekleidete und agierende amerikanische Sopranistin Laura Claycomb (Gräfin), die mit fabelhaftem Modulationsvermögen und brillanter Koloratur besonders überzeugt."
-AARGAUER TAGBLATT - 4 January 1996 - Roland Seeger - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"Anche vocalmente la distribuzione è eccellente, a cominciare dalle due principali interpreti femminili: Laura Claycomb insinua nei melanconici lamenti della contessa la sensualità piccante della Rosina del Barbiere ." ("And vocally the cast is excellent, starting with the two lady singers: Laura Claycomb insinuates in the melancholy laments of the countess, the fiery sensuality of Rosina of Barbiere .")
-CORRIERE DEL TICINO - 4 January 1996 - Rossana de Simone - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"Auch Gräfin Adele, die Amerikanerin Laura Claycomb, zeigt bald nach ihrem Auftritt auf einem roten Sofa liegend Beine und die Formen ihrer Gestalt dlangvoll, jugendfrisch ihre Stimme, zart, süsse, sehnsuchtsvolle Töne erklingen, dann wieder perlende Koloratur. Sinnliche Akzente geben ihrer Darstellung starke erotische Ausstrahlung. Die lokale Presse bezeichnet sie als Broadwaz ÄStarlet. Ideal verkörpert sie die Rolle einer vernachlässigten Frau und ist der Glanzpunkt im Ensemble"
-AUFFÜHRUNG AN DER OPER LAUSANNE Dr. Gunter R. Gruber (Le Comte Ory)
Egalement idéale, Laura Claycomb dote Adèle d'une silhouette de starlette, d'une musicalité extrême (ah, ces sons filés!) et d'aigus hors pair." (Equally ideal, Laura Claycomb brings to the role Adele a starlet's figure, an extreme musicality (ah, those messa-di-voce!) and incomparable high notes.)
-JOURNAL DE GENEVE - 3 January 1996 - Alain Perroux - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 1996)
"C'est la jeune soprano américaine Laura Claycomb qui incarne la Comtesse Adèle. Sa frêle silhouette et sa voix au timbre léger ont fait un personnage fragile et émouvante." ("It's the young American soprano Laura Claycomb who plays the Countess Adele. Her frail silhouette and her light-timbred voice made the character fragile and moving.")
- LE NOUVEAU QUOTIDIEN - 3 janvier 1996 - Catherine Buser - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"Laura Claycomb est une Adéle fine et charmeuse, à la voix ... d'une grande finesse et intelligemment utilisée." (Laura Claycomb is a refined and charming Adele, with the voice of great finesse and intelligently used.")
- 24 HEURES - 3 janvier 1996 - Alexandre Barrelet - Le Comte Ory (Lausanne 96)
"The company also went to the trouble of hiring a rising star, the exciting young coloratura Laura Claycomb, as Cunegonde. (Lynette Tapia will sing the role Sunday.) Claycomb sang the signature"Glitter and Be Gay"with hilarious ease, and her transformation from sexy silly goose to woman of depth at the end was wonderful. But no one else in the cast was on her level. And so powerful was she at the end that you realized how wasted she was earlier when offered little more than sitcom-level horseplay."
-LOS ANGELES TIMES, March 4, 2004 - - Mark Swed - Candide (Opera Pacific)
"Laura Claycomb brought dazzling bravura flair to Fedra's ravings"
- OPERA NEWS - August 2001 - George Loomis - Ippolito ed Aricia (Opera de Montpellier)
"Laura Claycomb was a fiery Fedra and John McVeigh a beleaguered Teseo. All made light of the considerable musical difficulties of their roles."
-CULTUREKIOSQUE.COM - Joel Kasow (Opera de Montpellier, 2001)
"Une production de très haute qualité... à la Fedra sombre et passionnée de Laura Claycomb..."
-Crescendo - avril/mai 2001 - 21 février 2001
"Laura Claycomb (autre Américaine, autre soprano) est une Fedra convaincante et bien en situation, face au Teseo de son compatriote John McVeigh, d'une belle prestance vocale."
- Opéra International - avril 2001 - 21 février 2001
"Le couple Teseo-Fedra est une réussite, le héros amer et fatigué de John McVeigh contrastant à merveille avec les coloratures incendiaires de Laura Claycomb."
-Diapason - avril 2001 - 25 février 2001
"Laura Claycomb brought some coloratura sparkle in the brief role of Fiakermilli"
-SACRAMENTO BEE - Wayne R. Anderson - Arabella (San Francisco 1998)
"Laura Claycomb warbled Fiakermilli's truncated number effectively"
-OPERA NEWS - Stephanie von Buchau - March 1999 (San Francisco Opera 1998)
"Laura Claycomb's Fiakermilli was a lively, spirited presence in the second act, but her coloratura lacked the pinpoint accuracy and effortless abandon to make it really distinguished. "
Concerto.net - Kelly Snyder - 09/12/1998
"Laura Claycomb's Gilda was an ideal foil, elegantly phrased, technically adept in spun-out lyrical lines as well as brilliant coloratura. "Caro nome" had all this - plus a sensational high E in the coda - along with a feeling of virginal confusion, while her later narration to Rigoletto conveyed self-blame and shame for events in which she was in fact the victim."
-OPERA NEWS - ROBERT CROAN - December 2005 , vol 70 , no.6 (Pittsburgh Opera)
"Une Gilda aux mille nuances"
"La distribution est largement dominée par la Gilda de Laura Claycomb, très jolie personne à la voix ravissante et si bien menée qu'elle se permet mille nuances en des moments où tant d'autres interprètes ne peuvent que se soucier de faire du son. C'est musical, merveilleux à entendre, avec des aigus tour à tour percutants et suspendus comme on n'en fait plus et une ligne de chant menée sans faiblesse."
-ALTAMUSICA.COM - 2006
"Laura Claycomb, quant à elle, excelle dans les aigus, régale son public de quelques somptueux"piano"filés mais sait avec grâce faire oublier sa virtuosité technique au profit d'un exceptionnel engagement dramatique, incarnant à merveille une Gilda tour à tour ingénue, fragile, fougueuse."
-CHRONIQART - by Carine Khaldi
" It's hard to imagine that any CD could be as thrilling as the live voice of Laura Claycomb, though, as she sails into the demanding arias Verdi created for the tragic character of the love-besotted Gilda, the ill-fated daughter of the title character."
-TORONTO SUN- By JOHN COULBOURN -- Saturday, April 10, 2004
"The outstanding singing came from the debuting American soprano Laura Claycomb, whose Gilda happily embraced the top notes some sopranos duck and provided aural pleasure throughout the evening. Her scheduled return next season as Amenaide in Rossini's Tancredi should be an event worth waiting for."
-TORONTO STAR - April 8, 2004 (Canadian Opera Company 2004)
" Equally good is Laura Claycomb 's Gilda, whose aria Caro Nome, sung with floated, effortless high notes and the intensity of drunken young love, rightly gets the evening's biggest applause."
-NOW TORONTO - Jon Kaplan - April 15-21, 2004
'Rigoletto' superbly cast and focused
"Gilda was sung by Laura Claycomb with a light, lovely voice that carried
well and whose sweetness of tone mirrored the innocence of her character.
Her "Caro nome" aria of rapture over her newfound love had a birdlike
quality of exquisite tenderness which brought waves of applause and
cheers."
-BUFFALO NEWS - April 12, 2004 - By Herman Trotter
" The best performance is Laura Claycomb's as Gilda. This American soprano makes her Canadian debut with this role and what a debut it is! Though not an adolescent visually, her Gilda is an innocent who is desperately in quest of true love, but she is an innocent who is quite capable of wringing our hearts with her sobbing grief, just as she is capable of dazzling us with her coloratura passages. The only character who is given ornamental music, she marks her own youthful isolation from the real world. Miss Claycomb has delicacy and strength. Not only does she look enchanting, she also sounds touching. Her voice is both limpid and large. It is thrilling to have a Gilda that is so stunningly accomplished in every way, and whenever she appears, she lifts the production out of its middling range and transports it to a higher plane. She makes this one Rigoletto that should be seen chiefly for its Gilda."
-STAGE AND PAGE WEBSITE - KEITH GAREBIAN
" The overwhelming reason to see the COC's latest production of Rigoletto is the absolutely sensational performance of American soprano Laura Claycomb as Gilda. Gilda is the innocent daughter of Rigoletto (Alan Opie), hunchbacked jester and pander to the lascivious Duke of Mantua (Giuseppe Gipali). Though Rigoletto tries to shield her from the corrupt court, inevitably the Duke seeks her out as his next conquest. Claycomb is totally absorbed in her character and makes the role's stratospheric vocal demands seem like the completely natural outpouring of a young woman's emotions. Her sublime performance of"Caro nome"in Act 1 is alone worth the price of admission."
-EYE WEEKLY - Christopher Hoile - 04/15/04
"American soprano Laura CLAYCOMB, already a Salzburg star, is a flesh-and-blood Gilda, fully aware of the risk she takes in loving the Duke. Her "Caro nome" is a breathtaking coloratura display. "
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - Wes Blomster - October 30, 2001
"American soprano Laura Claycomb was outstanding as Rigoletto's doomed
daughter Gilda. Gilda's famous Act I aria Caro nome (Beloved Name) had a
thrilling, fragile beauty and a rare control of stratospheric pianissimi,
making it the first high point of the evening."
-GLOBE AND MAIL - April 9, 2004 - Ken Winters
"As it was, the most impressive singing came from debuting American soprano Laura Claycomb, whose Gilda ascended easily to the stratospheric top notes so often rendered by her colleagues as avian eeks."
- OPERA CANADA - William Littler - 2004
"But what makes the production memorable is some first-rate singing, mostly from Laura Claycomb, as Gilda, in her HGO debut. The role tends toward idealization, but Claycomb offered a flesh-and-blood Gilda of passion and spirit. This came across in the soprano's outstanding acting but even more in her singing. With a fresh voice of great musicality, Claycomb covered the role's extended range with nary a break. Her"Caro nome"was breathtaking, full of sensitive phrasing and color. At the end of the aria, instead of staying on the notated E for the extended trill, she ascended an octave in an arpeggio and finished with a perfect trill on the high E. She also excelled in ensembles. In the rousing duet with Rigoletto closing Act II,"Si, vendetta,"Claycomb firmly staked out Gilda's independence. At the final cadence, her leap from a quick G to a high E-flat, so often awkward-sounding, made more dramtic sense, for it seemed to express Gilda's physical struggle to escape her father's painful grasp. Kudos goes to the director, of course, but it takes a good singer-actress to bring it off, and Claycomb rose to the occasion."
- OPERA NEWS - February 2002 - (Houston 2001)
Hvorostovsky, however, is not alone in making this a"Rigoletto"to remember. American soprano Laura CLAYCOMB, already a Salzburg star, is a flesh-and-blood Gilda, fully aware of the risk she takes in loving the Duke. Her"Caro nome"is a breathtaking coloratura display.
- MUSICAL AMERICA - Wes Blomster - October 30, 2001
"...the biggest ovations went to... soprano Laura Claycomb, a Dallas native making her professional debut in her home state. Flouting the legendary Houston-Dallas rivalry, the audience burst in to prolonged applause as the fledgling diva capped Gilda's dreamy exit following"Caro nome", the end of which she sang lying on her back, with the unwritten E above high C indulged in by fellow canarybirds Lily Pons and Roberta Peters. The crowd also greeted her curtain call with an explosive standing ovation...
The enthusiasm was understandable. Claycomb went from girlish innocence (this Gilda still plays with dolls) to tragic selflessness compellingly, and her light, silvery soprano is attractive. ... she can muster thrust when it's needed (the last-act storm scene) , and she spins lovely, thread-thin high pianissimos by the yard."
-OPERA - March 2002 - William Albright (Houston 2001)
"Soprano in 'Rigoletto' steals show
...Laura Claycomb, a European-based soprano making her professional debut in her home state. She brought down the house Friday at the Wortham Theater Center with her musically elegant and vocally thrilling performance of Gilda's familiar aria Caro nome (Dear name).
After astonishing clear scales in the brief cadenza near the aria's end, she finished off with a series of trills on each note of the final chord, climbing methodically but effortlessly to her high E. Immediately, HGO's opening night audience let loose more vocal mayhem than it has in many years. ....Claycomb showed no limits. While singing so beautifully, she inhabited the role completely.....Claycomb's faultless technique.....
- HOUSTON CHRONICLE - October 22, 2001 - Charles Ward - Rigoletto (Houston 2001)
" But Claycomb's Gilda offers the spark that almost blurs any memory of his well-sung"La donna mobile,"the tune that became a hit immediately after the opera opened in 1851. Her limpid, ethereal coloratura achieves a breadth capable of uplifting heavy spirits. Her showpiece aria"Caro nome"brought unceasing applause, and her final bow took the standing ovation."
-HOUSTON PRESS - Cynthia Greenwood Oct. 25, 2001
" Particularmente ha sobresalido Laura Claycomb con una conducción irreprochable en su línea de canto y elegancia en su vocalismo que le han valido un triunfo al final de su"Caro nomme". (sic)" (Laura Claycomb particularly stood out with an irreproachable conducto in her line of singing and elegance in her vocalism that earned a triumph at the end of her"Caro Nomme."(sic)
-CANTOLIROCO.COM - por Ramón Jacques
" Opera lovers wait all their lives for moments like this. The singer, willowy and pale, a stranger to virtually everyone in attendance, barely opened her lips to produce a tiny, incredibly pure sound. As her lilting soprano told of her virtuous love in the aria"Caro nome,"each new note emerged more refined than the last, made even more amazing by her seeming lack of effort. During part of the aria, she reclined on her back, staring dreamily into space, and then rising, she yielded the loveliest silvery trills while strolling offstage, as if nothing extraordinary had transpired.
The singer was Laura Claycomb, a European-based native Texan making her home-state debut as Gilda in Houston Grand Opera's season opener, Verdi's"Rigoletto."While she sang, not a whisper was heard from the full house, and when she finished, the delirious applause seemed to last for several long minutes. ...
Claycomb walked away with the headlines for her five-star performance. Opera fans will be talking about this Texan's Gilda for years to come."
- AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN Michael Barnes, November, 2001
"Côté chant, la maison prouve une nouvelle fois sa capacité à rassembler des distributions solides dans ce répertoire. Celle de Rigoletto est plus crédible théâtralement, bien qu'une seule individualité domine : Laura Claycomb, dont le timbre un peu acide façon Scotto peut irriter, mais qui impressionne par sa maîtrise technique sur toute la tessiture et son raffinement musical. Art de la projection, dynamique fine (des messa di voce jusque dans le suraigu de "Caro nome" et des nuances piano dans le duo final comme on en a rarement entendu dans cette salle), clarté de la diction animent un phrasé d'une pureté de violoniste. " ("One individual dominated: Laura Claycomb, who impresses by her technical mastery throughout the tessitura and her musical refinement. Art of the projection, fine dynamics (some messa di voce all the way to the high note of"Caro nome"and some piano nuances in the final duet as one has rarely heard in this hall), clarity of diction animated a phrasing with the purity of a violinist.")
- LE CONCERTOGRAPHE - Vincent Agrech - Rigoletto (Bastille 1998)
"Laura Claycomb made a sweet, attractive Gilda"
-OPERA NEWS - January 17, 1998 - Enzo Berio - Rigoletto (Chile, 1997)
"Y Leo Nucci tuvo a su lado a la soprano estadounidense Laura Claycomb, que entregó una Gilda excepcional. De físico apropiado, voz perfecta y gran capacidad actoral, ella fue una figura impresionante, notable en la exigente aria Caro Nome, brillante en el dramático segundo acto y sublime en el final (el dúo Lassú in cielo), que no se olvidará." ("and Leo Nucci had at his side the American Laura Claycomb, who played an exceptional Gilda. With an appropriate physique, perfect voice and great acting capability, she was an impressive figure, notable in the demanding aria"Caro nome,"brilliant in the dramatic second act, and sublime in the finale (the duet Lassu in cielo) that will not be forgotten.")
-LA TERCERA - 8 septiembre 1997 - Rene Naranjo - Rigoletto (Santiago 1997)
"American soprano Laura Claycomb was exquisite as Gilda, daughter of the hunchback jester Rigoletto. Sweetly innocent, she sung with an aching tenderness and subtle strength of conviction that had me quite literally sitting on the edge of my seat. I'm not sure I've ever heard anything more enchanting than her performance of"Caro nome"in Act I. Claycomb met the alarming vocal demands of the role without sacrificing an ounce of character."
-ECHOWORLD.COM - May, 2004 - Nr. 5 by Amanda Tower (Canadian Opera)
"Laura Claycomb's Gilda deserved the greatest compliments: her rounded, sweet, almost angelic soprano made the character's tragedy all the greater."
- OPERA - July 1997 - Yossi Schiffmann - Rigoletto (Tel Aviv 1997)
"American Laura Claycomb as Gilda has a lyric, pure and refined soprano....Claycomb - fair, slim, not too tall and showcasing long red hair fitted, for a change, in her looks something angelic which does not belong to the black and corrupt world from which her father tries to save her ... Caro Nome (sang on top of the roof) was a long magical moment, only one of many such moments in which the singers managed to concentrate on the emotional-psychological essence of the characters and enlarge it with sincerity through the music and the direction alike."
-KOL HAIR - April 11, 1997 - Elisheva Regbi - Rigoletto (Tel Aviv 1997) translated from Hebrew
"The greatest revelation is American soprano Laura Claycomb who built Gilda's character with sensitivity and understanding as a singer and actress alike. This is a voice of a nightingale, crystal clear and penetrating. Claycomb is an example of the current American school which teaches vocal technique based not on power but rather on the quality of expression."
-HATZOFE - April 2, 1997 - Ruth Gutman Ben-Zvi - Rigoletto - translated from Hebrew (Tel Aviv 1997)
"La Gilda de Laura Claycomb est très touchant. Sa voix, qui a la juvénelité du rôle, donne parfois une impression de fragilité mais sait trouver des accents angoissés { Ah, cosi parlar d'amore } dans le célèbre quatuor de l'Acte III. Sublimement chanté son Caro nome lui a valu une juste ovation dimanche soir. ("The Gilda of Laura Claycomb is very touching. Her voice, which has the youth of the role, gives sometimes the impression of fragility but knows how to find the anguished accents { ah, cosi parlar d'amore } in the famous fourth act quartet. Sublimely sung, her Caro nome won her a deserved ovation Sunday night.")
-JOURNAL DE GENEVE - 7 mai 1996 - Yves Allaz - Rigoletto (Lausanne 96)
"Laura Claycomb y est sublime." ("Laura Claycomb is sublime in it.")
-NOUVEAU QUOTIDIEN - 5 mai 1996 - Catherine Buser - Rigoletto (Lausanne 96)
"Laura Claycomb, l'inoubliable comtesse Adèle du Comte Ory de janvier dernier, saisit une nouvelle fois l'occasion de faire montre d'un aplomb vocal qui force l'admiration." ("Laura Claycomb, the unforgettable Countess Adele of Le Comte Ory last January, enjoys yet again the occasion to show off a vocal aplomb which forces admiration.")
24 HEURES - 8 mai, 1996 - Eric Pousaz - Rigoletto (Lausanne, 1996)
"Particularmente ha sobresalido Laura Claycomb con una conducción irreprochable en su línea de canto y elegancia en su vocalismo que le han valido un triunfo al final de su"Caro nomme".(sic)" (Laura Claycomb particularly shone with an irreproachable conduct in the line of her singing and an elegance in her vocalism that earned her a triumph at the end of her"Caro Nome"
- WEBLAOPERA.COM - Ramón Jacques
"Lo positivo de la función fue la actuación de la soprano tejana Laura Claycomb, quien interpretó bellamente el papel de Gilda tanto vocal como histriónicamente. Durante"Caro nome"mostró un claro dominio de los pasajes de coloratura intrincada y en los duetos su musicalidad."(The positive in the production was the performance of Texan soprano Laura Claycomb, who interpreted the role of Gilda beautifully vocally as well as in her acting. During"Caro nome"she showed a clear mastery of the intricate coloratura passages - and in the duets, her musicality.
- CANTOLIRICO.COM - November 2, 2001 - Luis Gutierrez (Houston Grand Opera 2001)
"Vocal honors were taken by Patricia Petibon as Dalinda, the misguided lady-in-waiting, and Laura CLAYCOMB as Ginevra."
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - David Stevens - April 27, 2001
"On aime la fragilité préraphaélite de Claycomb, l'intériorité de sa déploration et de son dernier acte"
"(One loves the pre-Raphaelite fragility of Claycomb, the interiorization of the deploration of her last act.)"
- CONCERTONET.COM - Vincent Agrech - 04/17/01 (Opera Garnier)
"... und Prinzessin Ginevra (in jugendlichem Frohsinn wie in tiefern Schmerz Uberzeugend dargestellt von Laura Claycomb)..."
- DEUTSCHLANDRADIO /"Fazit"- Herrn Ulrich Eickhoff - 19.4.2001 (Opera Garnier)
"Rousse et blouclée, comme echappée d'une toile de Burnes-Jones, Laura Claycomb... dans les deuxieme et troisieme actes, offre de bien jolies moments d'émotion."
"(Redheaded and curly haired, as if escaped from a Burnes-Jones painting, Laura Claycomb... in the second and third acts, offers some lovely moments of emotion.)"
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LES ECHOS - Michel Parouty - 19 avril 2001 (Opera Garnier)
"... LauraClaycomb (Ginevra touchante et aux aigus limpides)....""...Laura Claycomb (touching Ginevra with limpid high notes)"
- LA CROIX - J.-L. M. - 19 avril 2001 (Opera Garnier)
"Vocal honors were taken by Patricia Petibon as Dalinda, the misguided lady-in-waiting, and Laura Claycomb as Ginevra."
- INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - David Stevens, April 25, 2001 (Opera Garnier)
"The American soprano Laura Claycomb - a favorite in Paris - sang attractively as Ginevra but she, too, was fettered by Minkowski's snail pace and grotesque pauses in her great lament."
-ANDANTE.COM - Hugh Canning - April 20, 2001 (Opera Garnier)
"Laura Claycomb va donar tota l'emotivitat requerida a la gran escena de la bogeria de Ginevra."
-QUADERN DE MÚSICA - Xavier Cester (Opera Garnier)
"Soprano Laura Claycomb, who should have sung the prima donna instead of the seconda donna, has a bright, agile voice. Rumors from backstage say that she was really improvising her ornamentation rather than learning a set by rote. Personally I think you could hear the difference out front. There was a vivacity to her work, an aliveness that we, the audience rarely encounter."
-SAN FRANCISCO SENTINEL - Bill Huck - April 23, 1992 (San Francisco Opera Center )
"The one singer who demonstrated a real grasp of the mechanics of Handel opera was Laura Claycomb, as Ginevra's double-dealing friend Dalinda. On the other hand, if she hadn't been around to remind the audience how the composer should be sung, maybe we wouldn't have minded everyone else so much."
- ENTERPRISE (Davies, CA) - Bill Collins - April 23, 1992 (San Francisco Opera Center )
"Take, for instance, red-haired coloratura Laura Claycomb as Dalinda, an empty-headed lady of the court with a stunning silvery voice. Unforced, penetrating and lithsome by turns, hers is an instrument of unusual purity and beauty. Claycomb has mastered the art of Baroque ornamentation, too, contributing some of the most stylistically superior interpretations of the evening."
- OAKLAND TRIBUNE - David Gere - April 15, 1992 - (San Francisco Opera Center )
"Laura Claycomb's fluid, finely focused voice was ideal, a sensitive complement in timbre and feeling to the others. The ingenuousness of her portrayal captured the quality of an innocent who is used for her love to betray her mistress unwittingly."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Robert Commanday - April 15, 1992 (San Francisco Opera Center)
"The exquisite combination of Vivica Genaux and Laura Claycomb was no doubt the reason for Pittsburgh Opera to present Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi (seen May 3). The music of Capuleti is bel canto at its purest, and these two singers, as Romeo and Juliet (Giulietta) respectively, essentially defined the term. Though their timbres and techniques are quite different, they blended nicely in Scene 2 duet - the only place in the opera where the lovers get to sing at length together. ...
Giulietta starts out with the opera's most famous extract,"O quante volte,"a favorite audition piece for aspiring lyric sopranos. Claycomb's willowy presence suggested the heroine's youth, but her filigree pianissimo and palette of nuance made the fioritura of the recitative meaningful, while her fine-spun legato in the haunting main melody and her affecting stage demeanor were the work of a mature artist. She was even more poignant in her later aria, imploring her unrelenting father for a final embrace."
- OPERA NEWS - 5/3/08 - July 2008 , vol 73 , no.1 -Robert Croan
"When Genaux and Claycomb sing their big duet -- Romeo unsuccessfully urging the timid Giulietta to run away with him -- their combined sounds are vocal heaven. The melodies are so beautiful in themselves, that Bellini was able to recycle some of them from his now-obscure earlier operas. It's up to the singers to infuse them with new meaning and emotion, and the present duo is expert at that. They provide an evening of gorgeous singing, appealing as pure sound but pertinent to character and drama.
...
Claycomb, at her entrance, has the opera's most familiar extract, the exquisite cavatina, "O quante volte," musing on how many times she has asked heaven for her Romeo. It's a haunting melody, and this remarkable soprano shaped the phrases with infinite nuances of meaning. Claycomb's light soprano is flexible yet penetrating, her technique unfailing in accomplishing her dramatic and musical ends. She was even more moving in the later, less-known aria where she begs her unrelenting father for a final embrace."
- PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE , Monday, May 05, 2008 - By Robert Croan
"Soprano Laura Claycomb gives a must-see performance as Giulietta. Vocally and dramatically compelling, Claycomb seizes the opportunities of bel canto style to evoke our deepest sympathies for her character. The beauty and sorrow of her singing in the recitative and aria that opens the second scene of Act I, where she is alone at her dressing table, by itself would be worth the price of admission.
Claycomb has thrilling vocal agility and beautiful tone throughout her range. Her ornamentation was wonderful. And her high E's (above high C's) during her second act confrontation with her father after taking sleeping potion were penetrating expressions of Giulietta's despair."
-PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW - Mark Kanny - Monday, May 5, 2008
"Laura Claycomb, who sings Juliet (Giulietta), is a soprano on the verge of a major career. She is the rare specialist in Italian bel canto who also has a taste for the modern, having appeared in Peter Sellars' production of Ligeti's"Le Grand Macabre"in Salzburg and on the new recording of it. She was the brilliant last-minute replacement for Dawn Upshaw in the premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen's"Sappho Fragments"at the Ojai Festival in June. She has Botticellian looks, is an affecting actress and pours forth in Bellini touching melodic lines like soft, shiny molten solder."
-LOS ANGELES TIMES - Mark Swed - October 15, 1999 - I Capuleti e I Montecchi - (Los Angeles Opera - 1999)
"... the dignified pathos of Giulietta, sung, compellingly and without undue emotive goop, by Laura Claycomb."
-OPERA NOW - Josef Woodard - January/February 2000 - I Capuleti e I Montecchi - (Los Angeles Opera - 1999)
"Laura Claycomb, a lyric soprano whose high extension lets her revel in Juliet's stratospheric music, can soar with abandon in long, limpid lines - shading her voice in various hues of heartbreak. What's more, she looks and acts the part - wan and willowy.
-NEW TIMES, LOS ANGELES - Donna Perlmutter - October 21-27 - I Capuleti e I Montecchi - (Los Angeles Opera - 1999)
"She floated an amazing number of high pianissimos and interpolated a solid high E at the end of her opening aria in Act II"
-OPERA NEWS - Paul Thomason - February 2000 (Los Angeles Opera - 1999)
"Claycomb first gained international critical notice as Giulietta in a production in Europe, and she has both the vocal agility and youthful good looks to play Bellini's Giulietta, a young woman whose intense love for Romeo at first cannot overcome her family loyalties. She sings with alluring ease at the top of her range, with electrifying agility and a smooth vocal line that caresses every note of Bellini's sometimes elegant, sometimes shearing and powerful score."
- --PASADENA STAR-NEWSJohn Farrell - October 15, 1999 - I Capuleti e i Montecchi - (Los Angeles Opera - 1999)
"Possessed of pure shimmering tones, Claycomb brought both rapture and agony to this demanding role, in spite of the many prone positions she was forced to assume."
-LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN NEWS - Victoria Losseleaf - October 18, 1999 - I Capuleti e i Montecchi - (Los Angeles Opera - 1999)
Laura Claycombe(sic), jeune soprano américaine de 25 ans qui effectue ses débuts en Europe, se joue des aigus filés et des lignes éthérées de Giulietta... fait-elle preuve d'une musicalité exemplaire, parant son"Eccomi in lieta vesta"d'une émotion à fleur de lèvre et conduisant les phrases avec une sensibilité et une rigueur impressionnantes." ("Laura Claycombe (sic), young American soprano of 25 years who makes her debut in Europe, plays with the threaded high notes and the ethereal lines of Giulietta... She is proof of an exemplary musicality, giving her"Eccomi in lieta vesta"an emotion and conducting the phrases with sensitivity and impressive rigor.")
-LE JOURNAL DE GENEVE - Alain Perroux - 7-8 mai 1994 - (Grand Theatre de Geneve 1994)"
"Timbre et aigus flamboyants, Laura Claycomb chante une Juliette pleine de charme et de passion. Elle file ses notes, laisse entendre le moidre pianissimo comme jadis Montserat Caballe." ("Flamboyant timbre and high notes, Laura Claycomb sings a Juliette full of charm and passion. She threads the notes, letting you hear the smallest of pianissimo like Montserat Caballe used to.")
-LE PARISIEN - 8 novembre 1996 - Agnès Dalbard - I Capuleti e I Montecchi (Bastille 96)
"C'est l'explosion du chant de Juliette, dans l'apparition vocale étonnante de Laura Caycomb (sic) qui balaie d'un jet cette sensation de flottement. Une musicienne de cette trempe n'est pas chose si courante dans le monde lyrique. On retrouve avec cette jeune Américaine, qui fait ses débuts européens en remplaçant Cecilia Gasdia victime d'un accident; le chant d'une époque presque révolue: Une voix aux contours purs et au corps plein; d'une mobilité totale de l'aigu au grave; du mezza voce le plus subtil à l'éclat des fortissimos, qui sait retenir l'émotion jusqu'à la limite de l'audible et la libérer sans rien écraser. Une sobrieté de jeu sous laquelle vibre une sensibilité de reine. Giulietta devient avec Laura Caycomb (sic) une grande héroïne romantique sur laquelle peut reposer sans peine l'identification amoureuse féminine de tout temps. Femme à la fois forte et vulnérable, passionée et délicate, perdue et décidée." (It is the explosion of singing of Juliet, in the astonishing vocal appearance of Laura Caycomb (sic) that sweeps us up in this sensation of floating. A musician of this mettle is not so frequent in the operatic world. One finds with this young American, who makes her European debut replacing Cecilia Gasdia, victim of an accident, the singing of a past epoch almost returned: a voice of pure contours and full-bodied; of a total mobility from top to bottom; from the most subtle mezza voce to the burst of fortissimos, that knows to keep the emotion until the limit of the audible and free it without ruining the effect. A sobriety of play under which vibrates the sensibility of a queen. Giulietta becomes with Laura Caycomb (sic) a grand romantic heroine on which the identification of the woman in love of all time can rest. Woman, at the same time strong and vulnerable, passionate and delicate, lost and decided.")
-TRIBUNE DE GENEVE - 7-8 mai 1994 - Sylvie Bonier - I Capuleti e I Montecchi (Grand Theatre de Geneve 1994)
" Jeune, mince et belle, Laura Claycomb est etourdissante, ses suraigus sont toniques et ses pianissimi stupefiants." (Young, slender and beautiful, Laura Claycomb is stunning, her high notes are invigorating, and her pianissimi, stupefying.")
-LE MONDE - 15 juin 1995 - Renaud Machart - I Capuleti e I Montecchi (Paris Bastille 95)
"C'est un véritable miracle! Surtout si l'on tient compte des condition dans lesquelles Laura Claycomb a assumé sa prise de rôle. Elle a en effet dû remplacer à fin avril Cecilia Gasdia, victime d'un accident, interprétant pour la première fois le rôle de Giulietta à la scène.. Car I Capuletti (sic) e i Montecchi est l'oeuvre la plus difficile de Bellini: la voix y est tellement exposée que toute défaillance y est interdite. Certes Giulietta n'est pas un rôle brillant, sa tessiture ne dépasse pas l'ut, mais il exige un contrôle vocal absolu. ... Enfin, obstacle supplémentaire, la partie de Giulietta n'offre pas de feux d'artifice vocaux et la cantatrice doit s'exprimer sans les secours des vocalises.... Jennifer Larmore sait plier sa ligne de chant à l'expression sans jamais la rompre. Tout comme la Giulietta sensible et rayonnante de Laura Claycomb dont le chant est d'une grande beauté, pur et précis à la fois. La voix est admirablement conduite et le timbre chargé d'une profonde sensualité."
("It is a veritable miracle! Most of all if one keeps in mind the conditions under which Laura Claycomb assumed the role. She had to replace Cecilia Gasdia, victim of an accident, interpreting for the first time the role of Giulietta onstage. While Capuleti e i Montecchi is the most difficult work of Bellini: the voice is so exposed in it that any small failings are forbidden. Certainly Giulietta is not a brilliant role - her tessitura doesn't pass high c, but it asks for an absolute vocal control... Lastly, extra obstacle, the part of Giulietta doesn't offer any vocal fireworks, and the singer has to express herself without the help of vocalises... Jennifer Larmore knows how to bend the line of singing to the expression without ever breaking it. Just like the sensitive and radiant Giulietta of Laura Claycomb, where the singing is of a great beauty, pure and precise at the same time. The voice is admirably conducted and the timbre charged with a profound sensuality.")
-LE COURRIER - André Hunziker - 12 mai, 1994 (Grand Theatre de Geneve 1994)
"Beaucoup de grands chanteurs ont vu leur carrière démarrer grâce au remplacement d'une star souffrante. On ne sait encore ce qu'il adviendra de la jeune soprano texane Laura Claycomb, mais ses débuts européens, au Grand-Théâtre, dans le rôle de Giulietta qu'aurait dû chanté Cecilia Gasdia, lui promettent un destin d'étoile. Le public des premières genevoises, qui passe à juste titre pour l'un des plus coincés de la planète, lui a fait une ovation qui l'a presque mise en larmes. C'est dire... Il est exceptionnel, en effet, d'entendre réunies autant de qualités dans une voix aussi jeune. Un timbre de miel, une technique extrêmement solide, des aigus épanouis, vibrants, qui coulent sans l'ombre d'un effort, et qui prennent de l'ampleur à mesure que la voix s'élève, une clarté et une souplesse d'émission à peine croyables, une égalité de registres confondante... Il a suffi de quelques phrases, dans son premier air, pour que Laura Claycomb impose, outre son autorité musicale, la subtilité de ses nuances, et surtout sa connaissance du style si particulier de Bellini, un art du XVIIIe siècle encore, qui demande un legato immense et la capacité de varier les inflexions vocales sur chacun des mots. D'emblée, Laura Claycomb se situe au niveau des plus grandes dans un rôle qui exige aussi bien l'agilité que la"morbidezza.". Ce qui ne gâte rien, elle a une vraie silhouette de théàtre, une présence en scène, plus professionnelle encore que réellement habitée - mais on ne va tout de même pas demander la lune."
(Many singers saw their careers take off replacing a suffering star. No one knows what will come of young Texan soprano Laura Claycomb, but her European debut at the Grand-Theatre de Geneva in the role of Giulietta tht should have been sung by Ceclilia Gasdia, promise her the destiny of a star. The public of Geneva's premieres, with the reputation as one of the most bored audiences on the planet, gave her an ovation that nearly had her in tears. That's to say.... It is exceptional, in effect, to hear so many qualities reunited in a voice so young. A honeyed timbre, an extremely solid technique, vibrant, blooming high notes, that float away without the shadow of an effort, and that become more ample as the voice rises, an unbelievable clarity and suppleness of emission, a confounding equality of registers... It took only a few phrases in her first aria for Laura Claycomb to impose, other than her musical authority, the subtlety of her nuances and above all her knowledge of the style so particular to Bellini, an art of the XVIIIth century, that demands an immense legato and the capacity to vary the vocal inflections on all the words. In this, Laura Claycomb situates herself at the level of the greats in a role that asks for as much agility as morbidezza. What does not hurt, she has a true stage presence, more professional still than really embodied, but one can't ask for the moon.")
-LE NOUVEAU QUOTIDIEN - Jean-Jacques Roth - 9 mai 1994 (Grand Theatre de Geneve 1994)
" Laura Claycomb dispatched the role of Ilia with brilliance and sensitivity, excelling in her coloratura moments and showing off her considerable lyric expressivity in her first aria, the lament ''Padre, germani, addio!'' "
-OPERA NEWS - (Marcia J. Citron)- 2005 (HGO)
"Laura Claycomb's supple soprano boasted limpidly floated high notes and blended well with Graham's voice in the Ilia-Idamante love duet."
-OPERA CANADA - (William Albright)- 2005 (HGO)
"Princess Ilia doesn't have much to do except look good, be nice and sing sweetly; [Laura] Claycomb does this to perfection, with her ethereal soprano wafting upward."
-HOUSTON PRESS - D. L. Groover - February 3, 2005
"Indeed, for those who have known"Idomeneo"as a series of piecemeal"numbers,"this production is a revelation, both for Oxenbould's staging and for the casting. Susan Graham now includes Idamante among her signature roles, and she had a perfect partner in the Ilia of Laura Claycomb."
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - Wes Blomster - February 2, 2005
"Matching Texans Laura Claycomb and Susan Graham as Ilia and Idamante was a stroke of genius, since their voices, alone and intertwined, are among the loveliest and most expressive in the business."
-AUSTIN STATESMAN - Michael Barnes - January 31, 2005
"As Ilia, [Laura] Claycomb had the hardest moment in the opera: beginning it with a long scene that lays out, mostly in recitative, the political and personal conflicts of the story. She did that with all the dramatic finesse HGO audiences have come to expect and then went on to etch the Trojan's dilemma - loving the son of her father's enemy - with a brilliant sound that has matured since her last visit."
-HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Charles Ward - January 31, 2005
"Two former Texans are pretty fabulous leading ladies. ... It's hard to imagine a finer Idamante than Susan Graham's. (Raised in Midland and educated at Texas Tech, Ms. Graham recently sang"Bless this House"at the presidential inauguration.) In this case, calling her singing"virile"is a compliment, but there's wonderful pliancy as well as density. Laura Claycomb, who grew up in Highland Park and graduated from Southern Methodist University, is a tender Ilia, with a soprano that can do just about anything except make a loud noise. Her previously light voice seems to be thickening a little - not a bad thing - but without losing its amazing suppleness."
-DALLAS MORNING NEWS, January 30, 2005 - Scott Cantrell
"Guyer kon vanwege een opkomende verkoudheid bij de premiere in Gent niet bekoren, Claycomb doet dat wel. Zij bregt de ari's vlekkeloos, inclusief de moelijke loopjes en versieringen met korte noten.""As a result of coming down with a cold, Guyer can not please, which Claycomb does. She performs the arias flawlessly, including the difficult roulades and decorations with short notes."
-ZONE 3 - January 9, 2002 - E.V. (Vlaamse Opera 2002)
"Ce soir là, Laura Claycomb"dépannait"(et inaugurait dans son chef) le difficile role de Constance. Cette attachante chanteuse s'en est bien tirée, apportant une utile note d'intensité."
-FLUTE DE PAN - January 11, 2002 (Vlaamse Opera 2002)
"Laura Claycomb gibt die Partie der Konstanze mit wacher Koloratur..."
- RHEINISCHE POST - Wolfram Goertz - January 11, 2002 (Vlaamse Opera)
"De sopranen Laura Claycomb als Konstanze was ronduit onweerstaanbaar en Cyndia Sieden was een Blondchen om van te snoepen. Zij gaven hun aartsmoeilijke aria's ten beste met een virtuositeit die ons op het puntje van onze stoel bracht."
-OPERA GAZET - G.M. 10 januar 2002
"Houston Grand Opera continued its"Year of the Diva"with an extraordinary performance by Laura Claycomb in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. A crowd-pleaser from last season's production of Rigoletto, Claycomb thrilled the audience with her dramatic and musical protrayal of Lucia. This challenging role gave the soprano a better chance to develop a character than did Rigoletto's Gilda, and she did so with great conviction and sensitivity. In addition to her flexible coloratura and subtle pianissimos, Claycomb, like the best stage actors, knows how to move, in a variety of natural and not-so-natural positions - - lying on her back, sitting on one leg, crawling, crouching - - that she might have assumed in a Broadway musical or modern dance."
- OPERA NEWS - Marcia J. Citron April, 2003 (Houston Grand Opera, 2003)
Soprano gives `Lucia' a strong voice to follow
"The question at Thursday's opening of Houston Grand Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor was simple and the answer emphatic. Would American soprano Laura Claycomb create as big a stir in Donizetti's tale of a bride gone crazy as she did last season in Verdi's Rigoletto? She did. This time, people knew what to expect. So perhaps Claycomb's brilliant work, from first note to last, didn't have the wow factor that comes with hearing someone for the very first time. But in a bravura mix of compelling acting and breathtaking singing, Claycomb sealed her status as a soprano with a major future. Buzz certainly was about. Houston Symphony musicians with a night off, senior arts administrators from other local groups, opera aficionados and out-of-town fans partly made up for the absent patrons who left the orchestra level less full than it should have been, especially after intermission. Claycomb was the primary reason for the interest, but another important draw was tenor Vinson Cole, who sang Edgardo, lover of Lucia and enemy of her brother, Enrico.
...
From her first scene, where Lucia secretly meets Edgardo, Claycomb sang with crystalline tone and brilliant coloratura. She had the communicative skill of a stage actor. Changes in mood didn't simply reside in the sung text; they were physically visible. She made some of her colleagues seem like zombies. Summers and Claycomb rethought the Lucia traditions. They shed most of the arbitrary slowdowns heard in her first aria, and rewrote the Mad Scene cadenza with flute. The new version was brilliant, exploiting Claycomb's skill and reinforcing the decaying of her mind. Here, Claycomb's work was the most sensational and the applause the most ferocious."
- HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Charles Ward - Lucia di Lammermoor (Houston Grand Opera, 2003)
" Last season, Texas-bred soprano Laura Claycomb made a startling operatic debut with Houston Grand Opera. Virtually unheralded in her home state, Claycomb had earned a sterling reputation in Europe before returning to sing Gilda in HGO's"Rigoletto."By the time she unfurled the last, lapidary note of"Caro nome,"she was no longer a stranger, but a universal sensation greeted by lavish reviews and adoring fans. ...The title role in Gaetano Donizetti's"Lucia di Lammermoor"is twice as showy and demanding as Gilda, plus Claycomb, with her pale, wiry features and persimmon mane, already looks the part of the Scottish heroine made to marry against her will. ...Thursday, Claycomb did not disappoint. As she had earlier this season in San Francisco Opera's"Ariadne auf Naxos,"she commenced without fireworks, saving her strengths for the peak arias. Playing the winsome, secretive lover, then the astounded sister bullied into a political marriage and finally the madwoman who kills her husband, Claycomb squeezed every nuance out of Lucia. ...Despite her fine acting and lovely voice, well placed in the stunning sextet"Chi raffrena il mio furore,"all was in waiting for the Act 2 mad scene. Claycomb entered upstage center in a blood-tinged gown. She cheerfully menaced the courtiers who had just learned of her grisly crime, but eventually succumbed to the realization that her own life was over. Singing"O giusto cielo!"Claycomb trilled and spilled like nobody's business, but her most breathtaking moments were of absolutely controlled micro-notes that hushed the audience, before cries of"bravissima"and extended applause. ...But we were in Houston for one reason and one reason only: Claycomb, who might very well be the greatest operatic artist Texas has ever produced."
-AUSTIN STATESMAN - Michael Barnes, January 19, 2003
" Being in love can seem breathless, but in opera love is sung, full voice. How can a character seem excited, speechless and delightfully incoherent while singing an aria at the top of her lungs? For soprano Laura Claycomb, it's all between the notes. She is the uncontested star of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Houston Grand Opera this month, not only for her high E-flat, or for her dramatic flair, but also for the time she takes to let one note breathe before tumbling into the next string of acrobatic arpeggios. She gives Lucia a soul, and the audience something to go absolutely mad for in Claybomb's portrayal of Lucia.....Did I mention that she's amazing?
For y'all homegrown Texans out there, here is one of your own. Laura Claycomb hails from Dallas, but her vocal gymnastics, drama and thick red mane have won her roles all over Europe and the United States. I remember being stunned in my seat at HGO's Rigoletto last year, when she seduced the opera crowds as Gilda. I admit there was a tinge of that Olympic Figure Skating sensation in the air at the Wortham Center Sunday afternoon, as Houston opera buffs sat still in their seats, anticipating her first aria. Here comes the first cadenza, folks - an octave jump, followed by a double arpeggiation with chromatic grace notes, all while lying on her back in center stage - and she executes it beautifully! A perfect landing into the cadence!
If opera ever become a spectator sport, please give me a knife from the props table. Thank goodness there are artists like Laura Claycomb for whom technical wizardry is not without poise and exquisite timing. Her Lucia was well paced and three-dimensional, a promising performance by a new artist still near the beginning of her career. ...
This season is the HGO's"Year of the Diva,"and Laura Claycomb steals the stage. For Donizetti and bel canto, it doesn't get much better than this."
-RICE THRESHER - Caroline Shaw, January 23, 2003
-" Dallas native Laura Claycomb makes her first U.S. appearance in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor and literally catapulted the opening night audience to its feet with her creativity and versatility. Bel canto operas like Lucia feature cadenzas that allow artists like Claycomb to improvise her solos much like jazz solos of today, and she seized the opportunity admirably."
- HOUSTON VOICE - Don Moser January 30, 2003
Bloody Brilliant
HGO's Lucia di Lammermoor leaves no one untouched
"Texas native Laura Claycomb sings Lucia, the doomed bride, brilliant from her first giddy notes to her last gasping breath; ....Claycomb uses her angelic voice to good effect in the love arias, where her voice climbs along with her illicit passion. Her singing is matched only by her dramatic interpretation of a woman who is tricked by her own brother into renouncing her true love and marrying another. ...The famous mad scene is both grisly and unbearably beautiful. Lucia emerges from her wedding chamber smeared with blood and clutching the hem of her red-splattered wedding dress as though it were a bouquet of roses. Here, in a cadenza created by the HGO musical staff from several different versions of the mad aria, Claycomb's vocal talents really shine. In an unusual twist, she ends the scene by slashing her own throat with the sword."
-HOUSTON PRESS - Marene Gustin - January 23, 2003
"This is the year's greatest surprise in music! On stage stands Laura Claycomb(Lucia) a gorgeous ravishing redhead, and from her throat pours a soprano which hovers easily to amazing heights. The colorful richness of the voice is simply amazing. What a great Lucia!
- YEDIOT AAHARONOT - Hanoch Ron - Lucia di Lammermoor (New Israeli Opera, 1999) in translation from Hebrew
And she scorns all the technical difficulties. Each note is pure music. Everything is stylish. What marvelous Donizetti is released from her. And the climax is the mad scene: such exquisite beauty has not been heard here for a long time. Claycomb is one of the few excellent Lucias in the world today. Astounding."
" We can deliver numerous accolades to this production in which everything is very beautiful for the eyes and ears alike. The green garden scene which descends from the heavens and eventually turns into Lucia's fatal prison, is unforgettable both aesthetically and singing wise. .... We have here a striking, amazing production. Laura Claycomb left no doubt in the mad scene that she is an amazing soprano in both the way she portrays the fragile heroine and sings in a most tender voice."
- MAARIV - Ora Binur - Lucia di Lammermoor (New Israeli Opera 1999) translated from Hebrew
" The real discovery though, is Laura Claycomb who is an enchanting Lucia. In her mad scene she is really hypnotizing and this indeed is a dramatic climax of a singer who is also an actor, fragile and moving. Do I exaggerate when I say that such a production has never been seen at the New Israeli Opera?"
-MAARIV - Elyakim Yaron - Lucia di Lammermoor (New Israeli Opera 1999) translated from Hebrew
" As Claycomb warmed up, her performance improved, and no one could fault the brilliance of her rendition of the regimental song in Act I or the music-lesson scene in Act II, despite the distracting stage business that went on around her (much of it featuring silent comic servants). Claycomb, an acclaimed Lucia at HGO in 2003, seemed much more in her element during Marie's more Lucia-like moments: her distress at parting from Tonio in"Il faut partir"was palpable, and the aria cascaded from her with great beauty and pathos in a way that had not yet been heard that evening. Similarly, her Act II"Par le rang et par l'opulence"was heartfelt and gorgeous."
-OPERA NEWS - Walter B. Bailey - January 2008 , vol 72 , no.7 (Houston Grand Opera, 10/26/07)
"That said, should we assume that all the epochs of great performances of this work are behind us, and what we have now is a pale shadow of what went before? As a witness to a reasonably large sample of live operatic performances by Sills (including the role of Marie), Pavarotti, Sutherland and Bonynge (no live performance of "Fille", regrettably, for the latter three), I can testify that there are contemporary performances that rise to (and, perhaps, occasionally exceed) the standards these incomparable artists set.
One such performance was the opening night of Houston's "Fille". Several artists can be said to have had personal triumphs that night, all of which unquestionably helped advance careers already on a rapid rise.
An important part of Laura Claycomb's operatic training took place at the San Francisco Opera where I am a subscriber. Thus, I had seen her in several smaller roles before her successful appearance as Zerbinetta in the 2003 San Francisco Opera producton of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos". Claycomb was invited by the Houston Opera to write a tribute to Sills for their opera program. She described Sills' voice as "silvery with an agility that boggles the mind, with high notes that spun, shimmered and hovered over you". ...
Now, three or four decades later, there seem to some to be fewer "name" singers, in the way that a few dozen opera recording artists of the 1950s through 1970s were name singers. But this does not mean that there are not great opera singers whose performances should be cherished.
Podles is certainly one. Another is Claycomb. She has vivacity, charm and beauty, acting ability, shimmering legato, and a silvery coloratura that should be recognized throughout the world. Perhaps she will be considered a superstar soon, or late in her career like Sills, or not at all. But her performances should be sought out by those who cherish the coloratura soprano voice in its prime. (I already have made plans to see her in Pittsburgh Opera's production of Bellini's "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" in May 2008.) "
-OPERA WARHORSES BLOG
"Of course, it helps that world-famous coloratura soprano Laura Claycomb plays the flame-haired lead, but it's less her stellar voice than her comic timing that really soars here. Her salute-snap-and-smile is right out of Legally Blonde."
-HOUSTON PRESS- November 08, 2007 -- By Marene Gustin, Lee Williams
"In the title role Laura Claycomb sang the coloratura passages brilliantly and sounded perfect in the plangent moments"
-OPERA - October 1998 - Luigi Bellingardi - La Fille du Regiment (Rome 1998)
" Laura Claycomb a brilliantly agile, irrepressible Morgana"
-THE TIMES - April 18, 2003 - by Robert Thicknesse (English National Opera 2003)
" ...Morgana, is taken by Laura Claycomb, whose curtain aria to Act 1 was dispatched with coloratura ornamentation worthy of a Queen of the Night..."
- THE EVENING STANDARD - April 17, 2003 - by Barry Millington (English National Opera 2003)
" Laura Claycomb, as Alcina's sister Morgana, has fun aping Marlene Dietrich's drag routine from Morroco and doing kinky things with a riding crop to her ex-lover Oronte"
-GUARDIAN UNLIMITED - Tim Ashley - April 18, 2003
" ... Laura Claycomb's brightly sung Morgana..."
-THE TIMES - April 27, 2003 - Hugh Canning
" Laura Claycomb assumed that role and threw off the dizzy coloratura with consummate ease. She looked ravishing as well."
-GAY.COM - Keith McDonnell - April 24, 2003
" To admirable fluidity and lucidity of voice Laura Claycomb adds equally admirable skills as actress and dancer; she is a vibrant presence on stage, so naturally watchable as always to steal the show when she is there."
-ONLINE REVIEW LONDON - AC Grayling
" That role was left in the capable hands of the American soprano Laura Claycomb, who played it quite differently; not just a superb mover, she also brought the house down vocally, decorating 'Tornami a vagheggiar' with the most nonchalantly dazzling coloratura imaginable."
-OPERA JAPONICA.ORG - Ruth Elleson
Island witch to enchant new converts
"... Her former role, Alcina's sexy younger sister Morgana, has gone to Laura Claycomb, whose sexiest and most brilliant aria roused the house. ..."
-FINANCIAL TIMESApr 21 2003, By David Murray
-" Her minx of a sister Morgana - who bursts on to the stage wearing a punk cerise crinoline - is Laura Claycomb, making a late ENO debut after singing in many of the major opera houses of the world. She too is wonderful, tackling the fiendishly difficult (and frighteningly high) arias with nonchalance, even while dancing with the wild spirits of the magic island. Both singers create irresistible characters so that for all their faults, one feels genuine regret when duty and reason destroy their charmed life."
-HTTP://WWW.MUSICOMH.COM - Helen Wright
-" Me hab&iiacute;an hablado mal de Laura Claycomb, pero yo la encontré deliciosa, sexy, magnífica cantante, cantó una Morgana llena de humor, caprichosa, vana, y como meneó las nalgas en Come take me in your arms. Posee una coloratura excepcional y sabe inventar siempre en estilo, no sé como hará otras cosas pero esto fué de primer orden."
- OPERAYRE.COM.AR - Mayo 2003
"...with Laura Claycomb's Morgana very engaging and brightly sung even if not quite obliterating memories of Lisa Milne..."
-S & H OPERA REVIEW - April 26, 2003 - Melanie Eskenazi
" Laura Claycomb, who sang Norina, is a stylish soprano. She throws off Donizetti's decorative passages with ease. She is a graceful actress, comfortable with Mr. Major's comic style."
-THE NEW YORK TIMES - Bernard Holland - October 21, 1997 (New York City Opera)
"Dans un théâtre dont Beverly Sills fut la directrice, Laura Claycomb campe une Norina digne des meilleures créations comiques de son aînée: capricieuse, malicieuse, avec le même instinct théâtral et le même sens de la coloration du mot, sans parler de son trille étincelant." ("In a theater where Beverly Sills was the director, Laura Claycomb plays a Norina worth the best comic creations of her elder: capricious, naughty, with the same theatrical instinct and the same sense of the coloring of the text, without mentioning her sparkling trill.")
-OPERA INTERNATIONAL - fevrier 1998 - Matthew Gurewitsch - Don Pasquale (New York City Opera, 1997)
"Soprano Laura Claycomb faces different but no less difficult challenges as Norina. Her first aria, containing some of the most familiar music, also presents the kind of bravura coloratura passages that stars use for recital encores. Then in an instant she must go from lightness to almost Wagnerian weight and power. Dramatically, Norina is an actress, a chameleon wit a spectrum of emotions, only a few of which are true. All these are accomplished with an authority that appears to come without effort."
-SYRACUSE NEW TIMES - July 17, 1996 - James MacKillop (Glimmerglass 96)
"Laura Claycomb made an eloquent Norina, her coloratura sparkling and on target. That moment when Donizetti's modulations permit the listener to reflect on the unkind joke being played on Pasquale -- when Norina suddenly realizes she may have gone too far -- was beautifully handled. And because Major decided Norina must be an actress by profession, it seemed only natural that her thespian colleagues should help out when she demanded an entourage of servants."
-OPERA NEWS - December 14, 1996 - William D. West (Glimmerglass 1996)
"Soprano Laura Claycomb took Norina/Sofronia to the top, both dramatically and musically, popping out a high D at full throttle. Claycomb sings pretty, soft notes when her voice is under cover."
-TIMES UNION - July 8, 1996 - Peter Haley - (Glimmerglass 96)
"Bass-baritone Kevin Glavin in the title role and soprano Laura Claycomb as Norina/Sofronia took turns stealing the show on opening night. Claycomb has a gorgeous coloratura voice and the control needed to use it playfully, taunting and teasing Don Pasquale with soft, lilting phrases and causing him to cower when she turns up the volume."
-THE DAILY GAZETTE (Schenectady, NY) - July 8, 1996 - Bill Rice - Don Pasquale (Glimmerglass 96)
"Claycomb's Norina is most winning and her lyrical voice with its embellishments is sheer delight."
-THE LEADER-HERALD (Gloversville, NY) - July 11, 1996 - Lillian Pierson-Cohen (Glimmerglass 96)
" Richard Clement...is a very high tenor, all upper partials, but with plenty of power and a very smooth lyricism. He was well paired with Laura Claycomb, whose singing of Norina embodied some of the same qualities. She remained unfazed in the face of high E's above the staff. Her third-act duet with Ernesto"Tornami a dir"was one of the high points of the show."
-THE ITHACA TIMES - July 25-31, 1996 - Mark G. Simon (Glimmerglass 96)
"Assolutamente sublime Ophélie di Laura Claycomb; al di là di una smagliante tecnica, il soprano americano trascina il pubblico in una sconvolgente forza interpretativa senza oscillazioni qualitative, naturalmente conseguendo il parossismo nella scena della follia in cui toglie il fiato e infinitamente commuove con un surreale intreccio di canto, balletto e istrionismo."( Absolutely sublime Ophelie of Laura Claycomb; further than a dazzling technique, the American soprano pulls the public in a involving interpretative tour de force without any fluctuation in quality, naturally finishing the paroxysm of the mad scene in which she takes your breath away and infinitely touches with a surreal weaving of singing, dance and acting. )
- IL GAZZETTINO
"Laura Claycomb è un'Ofelia dalla voce delicata, che ha saputo allargarsi con grande maestria dai toni più accorati e malinconici a quelli più forti e vibranti. Dopo il lungo monologo del secondo atto, ha superato sè stessa nella scena della follia e del suicidio, all'inizio del quarto atto, unendo in perfetto equilibrio profonda espressività e altissima padronanza virtuosistica del mezzo vocale. L' esecuzione di questo difficilissimo pezzo ha entusiasmato il pubblico, che le ha tributato un lunghissimo applauso a scena aperta." (Laura Claycomb is an Ophelie with a delicate voice, who knew how to broaden with great mastery from the most heart-broken and melancholy tones to those most strong and vibrant tones. After the long monologue of the second act, she surpassed herself in the mad scene and suicide at the beginning of the fourth act, uniting in perfect equilibrium, profound expressivity and highest virtuostic mastery of her vocal means. The execution of this very difficult piece enraptured the audience, who paid tribute with a long applause on open scene.)
- TRIESTEOGGI - Ignazio Urso - 21 Jan 2004
"Raccoglie i maggiori consensi, assieme all'americana Laura Claycomb, soprano leggero dalla tecnica indecifrabile, comunque a proprio agio nelle bizzarrie della scena madre ed entusiasmante per la capacità di svettare nella stratosfera."
- IL PICCOLO - Claudio Gherbitz - Jan 22, 2004
"Di esse, la più ammaliante e coinvolgente, anche per la recitazione, quella di Laura Claycomb, Ofelia, soprano di coloratura ed espressione vertiginose che, nella"Scena della pazzia", ha fatto meraviglie decretando il trionfo della serata." (Of these, the most bewitching and involving, even for her acting, that of Laura Claycomb, Ophelie, coloratura soprano and vertiginous expression that, in the"Mad Scene,"created miracles meriting the triumph of the evening.)
-LA VOCE DEL POPOLO - 24 january 2004 - Fabio Vidali
"Laura Claycomb ist eine expressive Ophelia mit perfekter Technik auch bei den diffizilsten Stellen und begeistert vor allem bei der Wahnsinnszene. Beide erhielten vom Publikum zu Recht Ovationen."
- KLEINE ZEITUNG - Helmut Christian - January 30, 2004
"Laura Claycomb, texana dal vasto repertorio, nel ruolo di Ofelia ha cantato con dolcezza soave e morbido rapimento da virtuosa la grande scena della follia, meritando acclamazioni a non finire."
-MESSAGGERO VENETO - Danilo Soli - 22 January 2004
"L'americana Laura Claycomb, Ophelie, ha incantato per temperamento e delicatezza, fuse in una straordinaria interpretazione da soprano di coloritura." (sic)
-VITA NUOVA- 23 january 2004 - Silvia Bertino
Americ(ka koloraturna sopranistica Laura Claycomb u nekoliko je godina vec' ostvarila znac(ajnu me?unarodnu karijeru. Od poc(etne manje nesigurnosti s povremenim reskim tonovima, pravo nadahnuc'e dobila je u najpoznatijem odlomku cijele opere ñ velikoj sceni ludila A vos jeux, mes amis... izvanrednim prikazom psiholoökog stanja, izraûenom igrom oc(iju, gorkim smijeökom, jecajima, eteric(nim zapjevom te kristalno c(istim visinama, izazvavöi buc(no odobravanje na otvorenoj sceni. -----Americka koloraturna sopranistica Laura Claycomb puno nadahnuce ostvarila je u najpoznatijem odlomku cijele opere ñ velikoj sceni ludila izvanrednim prikazom psiholoökog stanja, izraûenog igrom ociju, gorkim smijeökom, jecajima, etericnim zapjevom, te kristalno cistim visinama "
-NOVALIST.HR
"Macvicar's...especially successful with the doll Olympia, hinting that the inventor Spalanzani might be engaging in double-bluff and she's only pretending to be a doll - there's an awful lot of flesh and blood when she's dismembered. She's also sex-mad, and Hoffmann falls unconscious because she's grabbed him somewhere painful. All this, thanks to Laura Claycomb's vivid impersonation, is brilliantly funny and absolutely horrible, the perfect Hoffmann combination."
-THE TIMES - Rodney Milnes - February 16, 2000
"And Laura Claycomb's rendition of the"doll song"in the first act was a breathtaking tour de force."
- THE BULLETIN - Marcel Croës
"De invulling door Francos-Nicholas Geslot van de knecht is unlek. Dat geldt ook voor Laura Claycomb die een weergaloze Olympia neerzet: honderd procent techniek en heerlifk popperig, maar met een glasheldere stem en blijkbaar groot gemak."
-BN/DE STEM - Jeanette Vergouwen - 12 Februari 2000
"Laura Claycomb tisse, avec une technique toute particulière, mais beaucoup d'assurance, les redoutables vocalises d'Olympia." ("Laura Claycomb weaves, with a very particular technique but with lots of assurance, the difficult vocalises of Olympia")
-LA VOIX DE LUXEMBOURG - Jean Lucas - 18 fevrier 2000
" Sterren van de avond waren Laura Claycomb, in spel en zang een geweldige Olympia en vooral Miereille Delunsche als Antonia." ("Stars of the evening were Laura Claycomb, in acting and singing a wonderful Olympia and overall Mireille Delunsche as Antonia")
- TROUW - Peter van der Lint - 15 februari 2000
"Laura Claycomb is de ongelooflijke coloratuursopraan en pop Olympia" ("Laura Claycomb is the unbelievable coloratura soprano and doll Olympia")
-LAATSTE NIEUWS - 14 februari 2000
" ...l'Olympia de l'éblouissante Laura Claycomb...." ("...the Olympia of the amazing Laura Claycomb...")
-LE SOIR - Michel Debrocq - 10 fevrier 2000
" Quant au trois maîtresses d'Hoffmann, elles rivalisent toutes de perfections techniques: les superbes vocalises D'Olympia par Laura Claycomb..." ("... the three mistresses of Hoffmann, they rival all the technical perfections: the superb vocalises of Olympia by Laura Claycomb...")
-LE MATIN - Serge Quoidbach - 17 fevrier 2000
"Laura Claycomb sang with perfect agility as the doll Olympia and raised a delighted laugh as she discovered that she had legs (and other private body parts) for the first time."
-FINANCIAL TIMES - Richard Fairman - February 11, 2000
"Om van te smullen zijn de scenes met het"robotvrouwtje": Olympia, met groot success gezongen door Laura Claycomb."
-GAZETTE VAN ANTWERPEN - Katelijne Theuwissen - 10 februari 2000
"Laura Claycomb (Olympia) and Mireille Delunsch (Antonia) zijn daarentegen prachtig: de eerste uitzonderlijk virtuoos met al die onwaarschijnlijk hoge noten die zij als mechanische pop ten gehore moet brengen, de tweede oorstrelend en deerniswekkend in de rol van de ten dode opgeschreven jonge vrouw."
-HAAGSCHE COURANT - Aad van der Ven - 10 februari 2000
"Opulent is ook de vrouwelijke bezetting met Laura Claycomb als een verbluffende coloratuursopraan Olympia..." ("Opulent also is the women's casting with Laura Claycomb as an unbelievable coloratura soprano Olympia")
-DE MORGEN - Stephan Moens - 10 Februari 2000
"Laura Claycomb was een virtuoos in de hoogste regionen kwinkelerende Olympia met persoonlijkheid." ("Laura Claycomb was a virtuoso in the highest regions twinkling Olympia with personality.")
-HET STANDAARD - Erna Metdepenninghen - February 2000
"Laura Claycomb's high-flying, bright soprano and dramatic concentration made Polissena poignantly memorable, and her interactions with her vicious spouse, Tiridate, were heart-rending."
-THE NEW MEXICAN -Craig Smith 7/20/2008
"The soprano Laura Claycomb sings Polissena with plush sound, agile passagework and nobility, even when Mr. Alden, in this mostly imaginative, elaborately costumed and playful production, treats her character glibly. The degraded queen is rolled up in, and out of, carpets and, in one scene, turned into a pathetic, lovesick drunk. "
-NEW YORK TIMES - ANTHONY TOMMASINI - August 4, 2008
Tiridate, too, has a wife, Polissena, who demonstrates doglike fidelity to her scornful husband but has arresting musical attributes, which Laura Claycomb's soft-grained soprano deals with eloquently. ...
-FINANCIAL TIMES - Aug 05 2008, George Loomis
'Radamisto' voices, visuals dazzle
"Polissena is poignantly portrayed and sung with exquisite nuance by Laura Claycomb, a graduate of Highland Park High School and Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts."
-
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS - SCOTT CANTRELL / August 3, 2008
"The arias are telling and varied, from the heavy anguish of Polissena (Laura Claycomb), who has the misfortune actually to love her tyrannical husband, Tiridate, to the ardent Radamisto, conveyed with fire and mellow sweetness in a performance by Daniels as good as any I have heard from him. "
-WASHINGTON POST - August 4, 2008 - Anne Midgette
"PolissenaÕs doglike fidelity to her husband suggests a more subdued approach, which Laura Claycomb's soft-grained soprano dealt with handsomely."
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - George Loomis - August 13, 2008
"Laura Claycomb was the best of the female cast (see Scott Cantrell's feature article on her), a deranged Pollyanna version of Polissena, who suffered all of Tiridate's humiliations and often danced like a lunatic through her ritornelli. Her entrance with the cavatina "Sommi Dei" was smooth and luxurious, and the interpolated high notes and other embellishments of "Barbaro, partir˜" were breath-taking."
-IONARTS.BLOGSPOT.COM - Charles T. Downey - July 25, 2008
"Laura Claycomb provides a stately, jewel-toned Queen Wealtheow."
-ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER - Timothy Mangan
"Laura Claycomb sounds lovely as the lovely Queen Wealtheow, for whom Grendel lusts ."
-LOS ANGELES TIMES - Mark Swed - June 10, 2006
"But what a pity that audiences get only fleeting glimpses Queen Wealtheow, especially as radiantly sung by soprano Laura Claycomb."
- MUSICAL AMERICA - David Mermelstein - 06/13/2006
"Laura Claycomb is right and delectable as Queen Wealtheow..."
- Long Beach Press-Telegram - John Farrell
"... Queen Wealtheow (sung to perfection by soprano Laura Claycomb)..."
-OPERA NEWS - Arlo McKinnon - 6/08/06
"For the arrival of Queen Wealtheow, Goldenthal writes a long, sustained cantabile, brightly sung by soprano Laura Claycomb, that conveys the ache her beauty inspires in Grendel's soul."
- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman - June 10, 2006
"The soprano Laura Claycomb's Queen Wealtheow floats a gorgeous cantilena."
-FINANCIAL TIMES - Allan Ulrich, June 13 2006
"And when HrothgarÕs new queen, Wealtheow (the sweet-voiced soprano Laura Claycomb), appears, she sings radiant lines through shifting keys with impressionistic orchestral harmonies..."
-NEW YORK TIMES - ANTHONY TOMMASINI - July 13, 2006
"The comedy is greatly enhanced by excellent acting from several performers - most notably Claycomb, who has a vital stage presence, a superb sense of timing and excellent emotional projection."
-THE WASHINGTON POST - January 6, 1997 - Joseph McLellan (Washington DC 1997)
"Laura Claycomb, too, sings with more character and technical control on each outing and her appearance as Serpetta, a maid with romantic aspirations high above her station, fairly sparkled."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman - July 1, 1991 (San Francisco Opera Center)
"Laura Claycomb made a real flesh-and-blood Sophie, without sacrificing anything of the ethereal beauty of her upper range."
-OPERA NEWS - Stephen Hastings - November 2000 (Spoleto Festival, Italy 2000)
"Laura Claycomb, a lively Tytania, dispatched the fairy queen's high-lying, florid passages with ease, sounding utterly enchanting in ''Be kind and courteous to this gentleman.''"
-OPERA NEWS - RUDI VAN DEN BULCK - 2005
"...Laura Claycomb, elegante Tytania..."( ...Laura Claycomb, elegant Tytania..." )
-LA CROIX - 12/20/2004 (Jean-Luc Macia)
"...de virtuoze coloratuursopraan Laura Claycomb als zijn Tytania accentueren de hoge, ijle en geheimzinnige sferen in Brittens suggestieve partituur."
-DE TELEGRAAF - 12/10/2004 (Eddie Vetter) -
"...Laura Claycomb meistert alle Tücken der Koloraturarien der Tytania."
-BRF Klassikzeit 12-8-2004 (Hans Reul)
"Laura Claycomb est une Tytania evaporée, au soprano etheré, ses aigus, vocalises et demi-teintes etant sans failles."
-La Voix de Luxembourg - Luxemburger Wort 12-11 and 14-2004 (Jean Lucas)
"Zinnelijk mooi zong daarentegen de coloratuursopraan Laura Claycomb de rol van Tytania..."
-DE STANDARD 12-9-2004 (Willem Bruls)
"Laura Claycomb als zoet-virtuoze Titania..."
-DE MORGEN 12-9-2004 (Stephan Moens)
"Que de grace dans la Titania de Laura Claycomb: ses aigus s'envolent, charnus, petillants, moirés de nuances..."
-LE SOIR 12-10-2004 (Michele Friche)
"Laura Claycomb, voix souple et aigus lumineux, est une Tytania d'anthologie..."( Laura Claycomb, supple voice and luminous high notes, is a Tytania for anthology..." )
-LA LIBRE BELGIQUE 12-10-2004 (Martine D. Mergeay)
"...la soprano colorature americaine Laura Claycomb, une Titania fabuleusement naturelle...."( ...the American coloratura soprano Laura Claycomb, a fabulously natural Tytania ... )
-RTBF La Premiere - Culture Club - (Nicolas Blanmont) 12-8-2004
"Laura Claycomb, ardente Tytania, lui tient au contraire la dragée haute, légère et frémissante, très à l'aise dans ce rôle ensorceleur."
- RAMIFICATIONS.COM - Isabelle Françaix, Bruxelles, le 18 décembre 2004
"The singing, from top to bottom of a large and varied cast, was beautiful, supple and precise. ... As Zerbinetta, Laura Claycomb returned to the company where she began as an Adler Fellow, now an established star. Her performance was a tremendous blend of coloratura precision and emotional directness, in a role where one or the other too often takes precedence.
She dispatched her monstrous showstopper,"Grossmaechtige Prinzessin,"in full crowd-pleasing mode, flirting shamelessly and successfully with the audience while tossing off flight after flight of perfectly placed ornamentation. But at the same time, there was an undercurrent of warmth throughout that lent credibility to the character's more vulnerable side."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman - September 11, 2002 (San Francisco Opera 2002)
"I had promised you, and myself, to look in on the Los Angeles Opera's Ariadne auf Naxos one more time as Laura Claycomb took on the role of Zerbinetta for the last two performances. This, in a word, was stupendous: more than a flawless vocal performance, a creation of body and voice and spirit so grand in conception as to spread its magic to those around her. Everything worked; the creature of light and air scratched together by Strauss and von Hofmannsthal out of random scraps became a whole new and vital gear in the turning of the drama. Claycomb, who has sung songs of Salonen at Ojai and Bellini's Juliet at the Music Center, became here not just a late-in-the-run replacement but a great and original creative artist. Cherish her."
-L.A. WEEKLY - Alan Rich - OCTOBER 15 - 21, 2004 (Los Angeles Opera, 2004)
"SFO meets most of Strauss's challenges"If I've left Laura Claycomb, the high-flying Zerbinetta, for last, it's because she stole the show. Limber to the point of executing ballet barre exercises, totally relaxed on stage, the former Adler Fellow blew the audience away with her show-stopping aria,"Grossmächtige Prinzessin."Any really good high soprano can sing this piece, but Claycomb's virtue lies in her security. Able to manage the trills, the high Ds and the non-stop twittering without any visible effort, Claycomb was free to act, express and even humanize the tart with the worldly sense of how to get a guy and keep him happy."
- OAKLAND TRIBUNE - Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - Stephanie von Buchau (San Francisco Opera 2002) -
Music, singers shine in tidy Strauss opera
" Zerbinetta (the sexy Laura Claycomb) cheerfully practices her singing and dancing. Nothing fazes her. ..... Zerbinetta and her fellow troupers try to help, and she offers her philosophy of life and love, designed to solve the problems men offer as well as to enjoy the chase. This philosophy takes the form of an absolutely spectacular coloratura solo by Claycomb, so brilliant and good-humored that when it finally subsided, the audience exploded in an ovation. It also succeeds dramatically: It changes Ariadne's attitude."
-SACRAMENTO BEE - By William Glackin - Sep. 12, 2002 (San Francisco Opera 2002)
" On opening night, another former Adler Fellow, Laura Claycomb, in a tour de force as Zerbinetta, a lusty song and dance comedian, literally stopped the show with a comic coloratura that flew into the upper reaches of the musical stratosphere, ascending to a high E. She shot off her vocal fireworks while playing for laughs, clowning around the set, ending up splayed on a rock. The first night crowd ate it up, applauding her aria for so long that she finally had to acknowledge the ovation by blowing the audience a kiss. This is the first time she's sung the role, making her sensational performance all the more remarkable."
-MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL - September, 2002 - Paul Liberatore
" Laura Claycomb was rewarded with a loud ovation for her portrayal of Zerbinetta, leader of the commedia dell'arte group."
-SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS - September 11, 2002 - MIKE GUERSCH
"Soprano Laura Claycomb, another Merola alumna, gave a welcome, fuller-toned account of Zerbinetta than is usually heard. She made tightrope-walking in the stratospheric leger lines seem like the most natural thing in the world."
- CLASSICALVOICE.ORG - Truman C. Wang - Saturday, September 21, 2002 (San Francisco Opera 2002)
"With Voigt, Mahnke and Claycomb in those leads, this Ariadne was virtually a revelation. Rarely have I seen artists in such fine voice, so successfully projecting such multi-dimensional personalities. Claycomb, in particular, became much more than a dazzling coloratura star turn. She seemed a genuine human being."
-SANDIEGO-ONLINE.COM (San Diego Magazine) - October 2002, David Gregson (San Francisco Opera 2002)
" Singing the first Zerbinetta of her career, Laura Claycomb negotiated the show-stopping aria"Grossmächtige Prinzessin"with a light, flexible soprano."
- CONTRA COSTA TIMES - September 11, 2002, Georgia Rowe
"Laura Claycomb's Zerbinetta was a marvel of coloratura dexterity and accuracy, accompanied by a stage presence of witty charm."
-CULTUREVULTURE.NET - September 12, 2002, Arthur Lazere (San Francisco Opera 2002)
" Zerbinetta, confidently sung for the first time by Laura Claycomb (who has chased Ariadne from the stage with her own outpouring of roulades and trills to woo her away from pining), reclines on that same rock in quite a different manner, propounding not pointless fidelity but joyous abandon. A directorial touch no less effective for its obviousness. .... Laura Claycomb demonstrated balletic grace for Zerbinetta's pirouettes, a bawdy physicality, and a knowing take on life. She accomplished her star number masterfully."
-SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE - Stephanie Friedman (San Francisco Opera 2002)
"From Lyric Opera of Chicago came John
Cox's attractive production of Ariadne auf Naxos, beautifully shaped under
newcomer Jun Märkl's baton, and lit by Deborah Voigt's two-edged command as
the imperious Prima Donna and the tragedy-drenched Ariadne, and by the
stratospheric luminosity of Laura Claycomb's Zerbinetta."
- OPERA NEWS 2003 - by Alan Rich (San Francisco Opera)
"Deborah Voigt's splendid Ariadne and Laura Claycomb's stratospheric Zerbinetta sparked director John Cox's unexceptionable take -- first seen at the Chicago Lyric in 1998 -- on the Richard Strauss charmer."
-L.A. WEEKLY - October 4-10, 2002 - Alan Rich (San Francisco Opera 2002)
" Claycomb's unusually warm and human Zerbinetta (against the exaggerated clowning so often ruins the balance), and, again,"everything"hanging together. Another first in my"Ariadne"experience: a believable"unlikely instant romance"between the self-absorbed Composer and the supposedly empty-headed Zerbinetta. When Claycomb reached out to touch Mahnke, even in the middle of their struggle for the top spot for their respective presentations, the often-hidden genuine warmth in the music describing the characters received brilliant visual/theatrical confirmation."
-BERKELEY POST - September 11, 2002 - Janos Gerebens (San Francisco Opera 2002)
OPERA IN CONCERT
"... Yet there are highlights, and, perhaps surprisingly for such a showcase of vocal athleticism, they come at more reflective moments, such as Cleofide's grief-stricken aria, sung by soprano Laura Claycomb with solo cello, and the harp-accompanied quintet near the end."
-THE GUARDIAN - Erica Jeal; Wednesday November 22, 2006
"...If the composers of that era sometimes seem to be measuring their cloth by the yard, Pacini delivers enough here to fit out all of Naples with new curtains - though one nicely-turned ensemble, accompanied at first by a solo harp, offers a morsel of originality just in time for the final curtain. In a lesser performance rigor mortis might soon beckon, but Opera Rara fielded a classy central pair of singers: Laura Claycomb was the soft-edged, supple soprano, who sailed up to Cleofide's high E flats, and Jennifer Larmore's sure and defiant mezzo was ideal for rebellious Poro."
-THE FINANCIAL TIMES Richard Fairman, November 21 2006
"After Act One's opening chorus came a long stretch of music for Cleofide, which sent Laura Claycomb soaring stratospherically in rippling roulades, top notes almost disembodies and ethereal. In both solos and ensembles she gave a winning display: elegant in long, slow phrases and dazzling in coloratura."
-ClassicalSource.com
" Laura Claycomb sings Cleofide, the Indian queen defeated by Alexander the Great, in a clear, assured soprano. She can project a melting legato or strongly etched authority, as the scene requires, and she brings a nice immediacy to her recitatives. Her technical command is impressive: in her Act II scene with the general Gandarte, she leaps up to the soft "speranza" with pinpoint accuracy, blending the floated tone smoothly into full voice as she descends, coloring subsequent lines with a full palette of medium dynamics and half-tones. She has a lovely, pure trill, and if her runs are not quite so seamless as, say, Joan Sutherland's Ñ there's a hint of semi-aspirated articulation much of the time Ñ they sail above the staff and in alt with comparable fluency and freedom."
OPERA NEWS - STEPHEN FRANCIS VASTA - June 2008 , vol 72 , no.12
"Hickox's wife Pamela Helen Stephen and the American soprano Laura Claycomb played Hansel and Gretel respectively. Both sang with unaffected naturalness and a spontaneous radiance of tone, their voices perfectly blending in hushed rapture for a heart-stopping prayer scene."
"The singers were all impeccably cast, and delightful. The roles were characterized, with now nearly compulsory appropriate concert dress, but there was no staging except for some elaborate misbehaviour in the auditorium by the witch and a flying leap exit by the father in hot pursuit. Pamela Helen Stephen (in a striped pants suit that one hopes she got from a bargain bin) and Laura Claycomb were spot on in the title roles, definitely children but aware of the darkness around them and vocally gorgeous."
-
- CONCERTONET.COM - H.E. Elsom - 11/30/2001 -
"The American soprano Laura Claycomb was pure-toned as Laurie, singing with as much passion as the music allows."
-THE TIMES - Rodney Milnes - March 4, 2000
"Despite her cold Laura Claycomb delghted the audience with magical vocal fireworks."
-
Nezivisimaya Gazeta
"There was another Lucia backstage, as Ms Claycomb wasn't sure she would be able to sing the performance til the end, but her fantastic professional capabilities plus a couple of bottles of mineral water, as well as the attention of her partners and the wonderful contribution of the conductor let her not only to finish the performance, but to perform the difficult role of Lucia 100%. In this role she has done her best and showed all of her abilities: phenomenal taste, delicately articulated coloratura, fabulous legato, her strength as a ensemble singer and the hypnotic strength of her solo performance and acting. "
-VREMYA NOVOSTEI
"All of the soloists were more than equal to their tasks, though soprano Laura Claycomb went further. She brought dazzling agility, tenderness and shine to the nightingale's songs, confirming the emperor's wise decision finally to favor this bird. "
-THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER - Donald Rosenberg
"... the entire cast of The Nightingale was spellbinding, led by the captivating Laura Claycomb as the Nightingale. Claycomb, who sang in Carmina Burana at the 2003 Blossom Festival, sounded like she was meant for the role of the Nightingale. She piped out her birdcalls with a winning combination of warmth at the bottom and clarity at the top."
-BEACON JOURNAL- Elaine Guregian
"Laura Claycomb gave us not only sweetness, light, laser-accurate coloratura and the most fabulous red hair, but also managed to unearth a sly, knowing wit that filled out her character and made her far more interesting to watch."
-INTERMEZZO.COM - June 30, 2007
"The soprano Laura Claycomb brings an earthy beauty to her performance of Teresa, Balducci's daughter, who loves Cellini."
-NEW YORK TIMES - ANTHONY TOMMASINI - June 22, 2008
"As Cellini's lover Teresa, fellow American Laura Claycomb almost stole the show, carolling sweetly, full of feeling, topping her Act I cavatina with an easy flourish not always achieved by better-known sopranos."
-THE TIMES Geoff Brown
"As Cellini's beloved, Laura Claycomb is a convincingly youthful and vulnerable Teresa"
-THE TIMES (LONDON)Ê- Hilary Finch June 28, 2007
"Outstanding was Laura Claycomb, a luminous Teresa, singing every conventional prayer to the Virgin and worry about her old dad as if she meant it."
- CONCERTO.NET - 08/17/2003 - H.E. Elsom
"
Laura Claycomb sings prettily as his beloved Teresa, with Isabelle Cals debonair as Cellini's sidekick Ascanio and Peter Coleman-Wright squeezing every ounce of comedy from Cellini's rival Fieramosca."
-George Hall: Thursday June 28, 2007: THE GUARDIAN
"Laura Claycomb's heroine was very finely sung, with bright, open tone and
excellent diction: the character does not give a singer much to work with,
but she did all she could to portray this capricious 17 year old: 'Quand
j'aurai votre âge' may not have displayed much vocal colour but the music
was articulated with impressive skill, and 'Mère de tendresse' was beautifully
phrased. Ms Claycomb has real stage presence, too, and she and Ford would
have brought the house down with their blazing 'Quand des sommets de la
montagne' if most of them hadn't been dozing off by that time, not from
any ennui but simply from the heat."
-SEEN AND HEARD ONLINE - Melanie Eskenazi
- 2003 "As the object of his love, the part of Teresa was convincingly rendered by Laura Claycomb who had the right kind of bright sparkling voice. She conveyed the various facets of the character most engagingly and she blended perfectly with Monica Groop in the scene between Ascanio and Teresa discussing Cellini's fate against the background of chanting monks. The audacious harmonies were all the more noteworthy by being perfectly in tune."
- CLASSICALMUSICSOURCE.COM - Timothy Ball
"The star, though, was Laura Claycomb, whose 'Entre l'amour' was extraordinary. It's easy to tire of extreme vocal pyrotechnics of this kind, even if (as here) they are perfectly delivered; but when a singer varies tone and vibrato as sensitively as this, we can suddenly understand the meaning of fioritura. Lucia, Linda di Chamounix and Zerbinetta are in Claycomb's repertoire; in the last of these roles she was dazzling last year at San Francisco. Can those with roles to dispense please take note?"
-
OPERA - September 2003 - (Roger Parker)
"The real discovery of the evening (apart from the music) was Laura Claycomb, who took the role of Teresa, the girl who throws up respectability to elope with the madcap genius. She threw off the show-stopping cavatina in a way that captured all the impetuousness of the character, and with impeccable musicality."
-THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - Ivan Hewett - August 19, 2003
"Als seine Geliebte Teresa konnte Laura Claycomb vor allem durch ihre Koloraturvirtuosität überzeugen"
-PFORZEIMER ZEITUNG - Thomas Weiss - September 16 2003
"Laura Claycomb was prime among them, soaring brightly through high-soprano territory in idiomatic style."
-INDEPENDENT - Robert Maycock
"... in the role of Cellini's beloved Teresa, pretty, sexy redhead Laura Claycomb showed a confident coloratura soprano that got better as it got higher, and sailed through a fiendish cadenza;..."
-FINANCIAL TIMES - Larry L. Lash - August 20 2003
"Laura Claycomb's elegant Teresa and Monica Groop's feisty Ascanio were far more impressive"
- THE GUARDIAN - Andrew Clements - August 19, 2003
"Laura Claycomb zauberte als Teresa lyrisch-weiche Melodiebögen"
-WIENER ZEITUNG - 21/08/03 Rainer Elstner
"Soprano Laura Claycomb achieved what relatively few singers can Ñ the absolutely right, exquisitely radiant, soaring tone that grants transcendent comfort. It's not easy to sit silent as long as she did, and then open your throat to deliver an impeccable stream of heavenly sound... But she did a marvelous job of getting a handle on her voice, and delivered one of the finest renditions of "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" (Ye now have sorrow) that I have ever heard live or on recording."
-SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE - By Jason Victor Serinus - May 21, 2008
"Soprano Laura Claycomb gave a laser-strong account of the solo in "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit," its soothing effect like that of a cold, pure glass of water."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Joshua Kosman- Friday, May 23, 2008
"Soprano Laura Claycomb looked and sounded radiant the only time she stood up to provide a very pure "Ihr habt nun Traurikeit" (You now have sorrow)."
-EPINIONS.COM Stephen O. Murray
"In the program's second example of soprano mastery, the principal solo material was entrusted to Laura Claycomb, who applied a gleaming timbre and creamy agility to every phrase."
-THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER - Donald Rosenberg
"...Claycomb stood out among the soloists. Her bright and powerful sound and technical security were a major asset. She laid on lots of fancy ornamentation in both"Rejoice Greatly"and"I know that My Redeemer Liveth,"giving her performance a momentary operatic air, but her sound was rich enough that one could hardly object."
-CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER - Ribert Finn December 20, 2003 (Cleveland Orchestra, 2003)
"Laura Claycomb lavished a voice of bell- like purity and radiance on the soprano solos."
-PHILADELPHIA COURIER-POST (Philadelphia Orchestra)
"American soprano Laura Claycomb, a Pre-Raphaelite beauty, is a lyric soprano with a dazzling coloratura and surprising power who wowed the crowd with her light, bright, expressive voice in excerpts from La Sonnambula and I Capuleti e I Montecchi."
-OPERA CANADA - Paula Citron
"It makes a joyously ethereal finish to the symphony, and soprano Laura Claycomb gave the vocal part a bright, articulate performance. ... The soprano's pure, creamy tone was a decided asset in Mozart's ecstatic motet -- which, like Mahler's symphony, offers a radiant glimpse of heaven -- and she made light work of the piece's shower of roulades."
-CONTRA COSTA TIMES - Sep. 27, 2003 - Georgia Rowe
"Soprano Laura Claycomb captured this spirit particularly in the slow movement, Tu virginum corona,' spinning elegant lines and floating high notes with the ardor of Figaro's Countess. ...Claycomb negotiates the coloratura of
the famed "Alleluja" with great facility... "
-SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE - Bruce Lamott - 9/27/2003
"...Claycomb gave a shapely and sensual ... reading..
...Mozart's motet "Exsultate, jubilate" made an apt companion piece for
the Fourth, and Claycomb delivered it with plenty of precision and panache...The understated vocal pyrotechnics of the two outer
movements sounded fizzy and fine, but the melodic lyricism of the central
slow movement, "Tu virginum corona," found Claycomb at her most
delightful."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman Sept. 26, 2003
S.F. orchestra enhances Mahler's vision of heaven
SOPRANO HELPS COMPOSER'S SYMPHONY NO. 4 ASCEND
When the San Francisco Symphony reached that big moment Wednesday night,
the doors at the side of the stage flew open. And out stepped the soprano
Laura Claycomb, in a gown of blazing red. She walked straight through the
orchestra to the front of the stage and, in a clear, sure voice that
skipped through the hall, began to sing of a child's joys at life in paradise. The
German verse can be translated this way:
Everything here lives in the gentlest peace! . . .
We dance and leap, we jump and sing!
Claycomb, a last-minute replacement as soloist, was all innocence and all poignance -- just what Mahler ordered. She was a revelation in a night of divinely inclined music, the first of five, through Sunday, in which the symphony and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas are recording Symphony No. 4.
....Only two weeks before the performance, the soprano learned she would replace Christine Schafer, who canceled because of a death in her family. Claycomb is a former Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, who has built a reputation as a high-flying acrobat of a singer, executing everything from bel canto to Ligeti.
She infused Mahler's fourth movement with a child's wonder. This final movement is a song -- ``Das himmlische Leben (Life in Heaven),'' which Mahler derived from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn), the famous collection of German folk-influenced poetry. He wrote the song in 1892, intending for it to appear in his Third Symphony -- which, in fact, ``quotes'' the tune.
But in the end, the song sat in a drawer for years and became the finale to the Fourth: Everything builds toward and spills into it. The sleigh bells return. The soloist sings about the saints and all the good things to eat in heaven: ``Good apples, good pears, good grapes!'' It's a song about exultation, and Claycomb seemed to be living the words:
No music on earthcan compare with ours . . .
The heavenly voices
gladden our senses,
and everything wakes to joy."
-THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS - Sept. 27 - By Richard Scheinin
"There was singing last night at the Davies Symphony Hall, the like of which hadn't been heard at the Opera House across the street since the start of the season. Soprano Laura Claycomb, substituting for the originally scheduled Christine Schäfer, brought a glimpse of the heavens (both Mozart's and Mahler's) with her delightful coloratura and graceful lyricism. .... Ms. Claycomb sailed through the bravura passages in "Alleluja" like a dragonfly dancing on water. The andante movement "Tu virginum corona" found Ms. Claycomb at her best: the meltingly soft high notes, the stylish, graceful phrasing. But the most memorable, I think, was the way she ended the last line "unde suspirat cor" with a perfectly-turned trill joining the cadential notes in seamless legato. To me, that was a nascent sign of greatness.
...Ms. Claycomb's contribution in the fourth movement was pure-toned and
unforced, perfectly capturing the childlike innocence at the heart of the
movement and, indeed, the whole symphony."
-SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE - Truman C. Wang
"Soloist in the "Wunderhorn" song that concludes the Fourth was Dallas-born Laura CLAYCOMB, an alumna of both Merola and Adler training programs at the San Francisco Opera and a definitive Zerbinetta in R. Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos" with the company several seasons ago. Her silvery soprano blended beautifully with the orchestra in the child-like vision of Heaven."
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - Wes Blomster - October 2, 2003
"Adding to the allure of the orchestra's fine finish and subtle phrasing is former Dallasite Laura Claycomb's drop-dead singing of the last-movement soprano solo. The SMU alumna floats the high notes with breathtaking delicacy, but her girlish eagerness elsewhere is quite to the point, too."
-NORTHWEST NEWSScott Cantrell - 04/14/2004
"Laura Claycomb (vue pour la dernière fois dans ce Rake's Progress) entre sur scène alors que l'orchestre a attaqué les premières notes du dernier mouvement : jolie façon d'éviter les applaudissements si l'on ne souhaite pas tre sur scène pendant le début de la symphonie. Sa voix, très épurée, évoque la clarté : elle convient parfaitement au texte de ce mouvement final."
- ParisBroadway.com - 12 janvier 2008 - Laurent
Claycomb's pleasing, agile soprano has just a hint of duskiness, meaning she doesn't quite manage the child-like effect that Mahler specifies, but she reacts joyously to the images revealed in the song, convincing the listener that Heaven must be a wondrous place indeed.
-OPERA NEWS - August 2004 , vol 69 , no.2 - JOSHUA ROSENBLUM
"Soprano Laura Claycomb's voice perfectly suits the innocence Mahler calls for in the last movement, and she sings with a lovely sense of the wistfulness of the lyrics."
- ENJOYTHEMUSIC.COM - December 2004
"Claycomb sings the finale with exactly the right tone of boyish simplicity and charm, exactly as Mahler directs."
- ARKIVMUSIC.COM
"James Westman's pleasingly rich baritone soared through the vast auditorium and Laura CLAYCOMB's beautifully rounded soprano was breathtaking in Dulcissime. "
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - Keith Clarke - July 10, 2003
"... and soprano Laura Claycomb. The former screamed out his aria, but there's not much else one can do with such idiotically high vocal writing; the latter was dignified of stature and limpid of tone. "
-DAVE PAXON
"Texas soprano Laura Claycomb, her ample red hair sprawling like a lion's mane, sang a gorgeous "Stetit puella," with a high note that blossomed so well."
-INDIANAPOLIS STAR - Whitney Smith
"...Laura Claycomb, who rendered her stratospheric soprano lines with delicacy and yet still projected into the audience..."
-BEACON JOURNAL - Elaine Guregian July 06, 2003 (Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom Festival 2003)
Five Images After Sappho (Carnegie Hall)"The soprano Laura Claycomb brought vibrant sound to Mr. Salonen's by turns arching and agitated vocal lines."
-THE NEW YORK TIMES - Anthony Tommasini - December 19, 2000
"The"Sappho"songs, luminously sung here (as at the premiere) by Laura Claycomb . . . reveal a new interest sensual, lyrical vocal writing."
- LOS ANGELES TIMES - Mark Swed - January 8, 2000 (LA Phil/Salonen - UCLA)
"Laura Claycomb sounded simply exquisite as she sang the laconic verses of a young woman's coming of age."
-The LOS ANGELES TIMES, Jeremy Eichler, 20 December 2000
"..: in its first European performance, Five Images after Sappho revealed a glowing warmth not found in his work before. Inspired by fragments of Sappho's poetry, the five short movements for soprano and chamber ensemble go straight to the heart of the matter by conjuring up immediate and affecting images.
Laura Claycomb was the soloist, and in the fourth movement, for instance, she used her bright soprano to conjure up the evening star with her soft, high notes cushioned on the flickering textures of the celesta and strings."
- THE THE TIMES (LONDON) - John Allison - December 14, 1999 (London Sinfonietta/Salonen - Queen Elizabeth Hall)
"...the young American soprano Laura Claycomb--who learned the work on very short notice--sang with radiant and exquisite grace."
-LOS ANGELES REVELATIONS - Carl Byron - (LA Phil/Salonen - Ojai Festival)
" Taken in parts, it proved a small, multi-faceted drama that reflected the words beautifully and, as it progressed, opened one delicate or dramatic vista after another. The solo soprano part, sung with elegant purity by Laura CLAYCOMB, was often submerged into the instrumental texture, but even this was acceptable, adding another thread of color to the entire fabric."
-MUSICALAMERICA.COM - Shirley Fleming - December 22, 2000
"But for true musical splendor concentrated into a one-evening dose,
Saturday's gala was the ticket. San Francisco's own Laura Claycomb (a former
Adler Fellow due to sing Richard Strauss with the Symphony later this month)
took the evening's top honors with a performance of "Caro nome" from Verdi's
"Rigoletto" that brought the house down in torrents of thunderous, somewhat
awestruck applause."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Joshua Kosman - 05/03/2005
HOUSTON GRAND OPERA'S 50TH BIRTHDAY / Glitter packs brilliance / Star-studded golden gala features lineup of showstopping performances
"In terms of firecracker vocal power, soprano Laura Claycomb was another
star in reprising Caro nome from Verdi's Rigoletto. Lying flat on her back,
she poured out the brilliant coloratura end that made such a big impression
in her Houston debut in 2001."
-
HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Charles Ward
By CHARLES WARD, EVERETT EVANS
"Also from ``Lakme,'' the showstopping Bell Song did just that when Laura Claycomb sang it under Runnicles's sensitive direction. The former Adler Fellow, who is currently starring as Fiakermilli in ``Arabella,'' has everything one could wish for in Delibes' exotic heroine: a velvet column of sound that was definitely more Sutherland than Robin, unerring pitch and dead- on attacks in coloratura that was as dazzling as it was gentle. "
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Octavio Roca, September 14, 1998
"Soprano Laura Claycomb was the star presence, and indeed it is hard to imagine this particular program being brought off without her. I had not heard Schoenberg's 1911 Herzgewächse (the title means roughly"Foliage of the heart"; the poet is Maeterlinck) before Saturday, and when I did hear it I understood why: the thing is impossible. It's not just the range — the piece does cover almost three octaves, from a contralto's G-sharp to the Queen of the Night's high F, but there are a few other pieces that do the same. No, it's the way the vocal line sits at both extreme positions for unreasonable lengths of time. And the wild intervals it traverses to get from one extreme to the other. Add in that it's only three minutes long and requires a harmonium, a celesta, and a harp for accompaniment, and you might as well dig the piece's grave right now.
And yet what a marvelous, eerie thing Claycomb made of it, almost whispering in the low register and then soaring up a couple octaves like some sort of human theremin, over an accompaniment nearly as uncanny as herself. She performed it twice, back to back, and I don't know who else could have done it as well."
- SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE - Michelle Dulak - June 14, 2003
"The rest of the program was notable primarily for the lustrous singing of soprano Laura Claycomb, especially in Schoenberg's rarely heard Maeterlinck setting"Herzgewachse,"and for the inclusion of two sizable pieces by Toch. ... Herzgewachse,"Schoenberg's three-minute vocal gem, could never be described as humdrum, if only for its extravagant vocal demands or the idiosyncrasy of its orchestration for harp, celesta and harmonium. The piece was performed twice, which gave a welcome chance to savor Claycomb's piquant, beautifully precise singing. The"Siegfried Idyll"was followed immediately by Wagner's"Kinder- Katechismus,"another musical love note to Cosima that was truly cringeworthy. Claycomb and Kevin Fox's Pacific Boychoir conspired to make the mawkish pablum pass as painlessly as possible."
- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman, June 16, 2003
"On June 14, in a program of German works, Laura Claycomb exalted a very mixed bag of Hindemith, Wagner, Schoenberg and Ernst Toch. Claycomb's silvery soprano proved ideal for Herzgewächse, Schoenberg's odd, unforgettable miniature for voice, celesta, harmonium and harp, set to Maurice Maeterlinck auf Deutsch. Claycomb soared through the octave leaps while conveying the requisite sensuality. She then redeemed Die Chinesische Flöte, Toch's 1921 setting of six poems from Hans Bethge's translations from the Chinese. The work is scarcely another Das Lied von der Erde, but the singer's unruffled musicianship and Tilson Thomas's advocacy from the podium made it sound like genuine festival fare."
-OPERA NEWS - ALLAN ULRICH - June 2003
"... there was pure delight as Claycomb -- now an international star but still well remembered locally from her days as an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera -- brought grace and astonishing precision to five of the six"Brentano Lieder."(the songs)... took wing on the strength of Claycomb's incisive diction and effortlessly placed coloratura. The sliding outbursts that erupt in the middle of each phrase of"Ich wollt' ein Sträusslein binden"sounded utterly organic, and the fluttery vocal filigree and impeccable trills of the final"Amor"were simply exquisite."
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman
"Vidal and the similarly stratospheric Laura Claycomb bring elegance to even the most flamboyant vocalism."
-OPERA NEWS - Roger Pines
" too many highlights to choose from, but for starters there's Diana Montague and Mark le Brocq in a winning duet from Les braconniers, Laura Claycomb's peerless vocalism in the haunting extract from Monsieur et Madame Denis, the train journey ensemble from Le Roi Carotte and many more.Ê Indispensible for Offenbach fans."
-BBC Music Magazine - George Hall
"psheer and total delight, over two and a half hours of unalloyed pleasure; buy this album immediately...Laura Claycomb and Elizabeth Vidal are glorious in their stratospheric soaring...It is impossible to single out specific items, as every one of the selections is a gem."
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FANFARE MAGAZINE
"The recording sparkles from start to finish and makes as good a case as any for the reappraisal of Offenbach's operas, which have been unjustly neglected...Some of the performers merit particular attention...Laura Claycomb sings a couple of taxing coloratura arias with astonishing ease."
- (MUSICALCRITICISM.COM)
"Adding to the allure of the orchestra's fine finish and subtle phrasing is former Dallasite Laura Claycomb's drop-dead singing of the last-movement soprano solo. The SMU alumna floats the high notes with breathtaking delicacy, but her girlish eagerness elsewhere is quite to the point, too."
- HTTP://WWW.KVUE.COM - Scott Cantrell, March 14, 2004
"Laura Claycomb gives a shimmering rendition of "Das Himmlische Leben," the Knaben Wunderhorn song that constitutes the fourth movement. Claycomb's pleasing, agile soprano has just a hint of duskiness, meaning she doesn't quite manage the child-like effect that Mahler specifies, but she reacts joyously to the images revealed in the song, convincing the listener that Heaven must be a wondrous place indeed."
- OPERA NEWS - Joshua Rosenblat - August 2004 , vol 69 , no.2
"Soprano Laura Claycomb not only sings expressively and beautifully, but also has the clear, sweet, childlike voice that Mahler calls for. "
-AMERICAN GUIDE TO RECORDS - August 2004 - by Gerald S Fox
"The rest of the symphony fully lives up to these standards, from the ripe, easy-going summer sounds of the opening to the lovely, ever so gently lilting finale, whose text (from Des Knaben Wunderhorn) is sung with poise and due innocence by the soprano Laura Claycomb. "
-THE SUNDAY TIMES - March 28, 2004, Stephen Pettitt
"Soprano Laura Claycomb sings sweetly in the final description of the joys of heaven. "
-SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Joshua Kosman - Sunday, February 29, 2004
"Laura Claycomb sings Cleofide, the Indian queen defeated by Alexander the Great, in a clear, assured soprano. She can project a melting legato or strongly etched authority, as the scene requires, and she brings a nice immediacy to her recitatives. Her technical command is impressive: in her Act II scene with the general Gandarte, she leaps up to the soft"speranza"with pinpoint accuracy, blending the floated tone smoothly into full voice as she descends, coloring subsequent lines with a full palette of medium dynamics and half-tones. She has a lovely, pure trill, and if her runs are not quite so seamless as, say, Joan Sutherland's - there's a hint of semi-aspirated articulation much of the time - they sail above the staff and in alt with comparable fluency and freedom."
- OPERA NEWS - Stephen Francis Vasta; June 2008
"Thanks to their unerring sense of adventure, Opera Rara have uncovered another hidden gem with their latest release, Pacini's Alessandro nell'Indie...Laura Claycomb, fast becoming one of the most accomplished and flexible opera singers on the circuit, is excellent as Cleofide, the queen...she really comes into her own in the fiery duet with Poro and presents as complete a psychological portrayal of this strong character as one could hope for."
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MUSICALCRITICISM.COM
"The opening quartet, a nocturne by Michael Costa, is deliciously performed by Laura Claycomb, Manuela Custer, Bruce Ford and Brindley Sherrat, setting high expectations for all that follows. Claycomb's creamy tone is consistently even and beautiful, from her stratospheric top to low notes that would be the envy of any alto. Add that to spot-on pitch, elegant phrasing and sheer confidence, and Claycomb earns top marks. Her flexible soprano is a marvel in the coloratura showpiece "La Farfalletta," by Mexican composer Melesio Morales, but she's also simple and touching in "All'amante lontano," by Giuseppe Poniatowski, exhibiting ravishing control in the sustained pianissimo repeats of the Verdi-esque phrase "Oh! dimmi tu" and the potentially treacherous ascending line that follows. Her blend with mezzo Custer is divine, from the soupy slides in the Donizetti duet "Predestinazione" to the suspense-inducing staccato arpeggios in thirds that close the lively "La Calabraise" by Vincenzo Gabussi."
-OPERA NEWS - JOANNE SYDNEY LESSNER - August 2004 , vol 69 , no.2
"Laura Claycomb, featured prominently in Il Salotto, Volume Six, is underrepresented here. Still, she shines in two selections by the polymath Prince Giuseppe Poniatowski, including the charming duet "Le Rosier" with Ford, which allows her to flex some dramatic muscle.
-OPERA NEWS - JOANNE SYDNEY LESSNER - October 2005 , vol 70 , no.4
"With a very different vocal color from Vidal, Laura Claycomb offers a splendid rendition of Jòzef Poniatowski's "Cantami, cantami," remarkable in its delicate tone and dynamic control. Equally compelling is her duet of the composer's "Le Rosier" with Ford. Servile offers a solid and powerful interpretation of Gomes' ""Realtà," but in the end, the real stars of the recording are Ford, Custer and Claycomb. "
-OPERA TODAY - 10 February 2005 - Denise Gallo
"La Comtesse is sung by Laura Claycomb, whose vocal prowess impresses me more every time I hear her. There's not a hint of strain in her performance, in spite of the high-lying tessitura, and the vivaciousness of the character is keenly portrayed."
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MUSICALCRITICISM.COM - Dominic McHugh (Opera Rara ORC37)1
"Sébastien Droy delivers his lovesong with honeyed elegance, while Laura Claycomb's Countess pirouettes into the stratosphere with easy grace."
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The Telegraph - Richard Wigmore
"It would be hard to disapprove of this new DVD release from Opus Arte, a release that provides as strong a case for the difficult opera as one is ever likely to see and hear. When shown like this, The Rake's Progress easily asserts its place as one of the greatest music dramas of the last century, alongside Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, say, and Berg's Wozzeck. Robert Lepage's production is simply breathtaking, updating the tale's setting to 1950s America, providing a brilliantly sustained visual aesthetic to complement Stravinsky's narrative...[Laura Claycomb] sings with a crystal clear line and characterises equally formidably, boasting pinpoint coloratura."
-(MusicOMH.com)
"one of the best of 2008: it is both musically and dramatically riveting and makes as strong a case for the opera as you could hope to encounter...Laura Claycomb ensures that Anne Trulove is a character of grit and determination, as well as one of feeling. Her aria at the close of the first act is a coloratura masterclass, but it's the sadness and poignancy of her farewell to Tom which sticks in the memory."
-MusicalCricism.com
"Quant au beau personnage d'Anne Truelove, il est d'autant plus rayonnant que la soprano Laura Claycomb lui prête l'aura d'une actrice de cinéma, notamment dans l'ingénieuse séquence où elle semble conduire, cheveux au vent, une voiture décapotable. "
-Telerama.fr - Gilles Macassar- Telerama n¡ 3030 - 09 février 2008
RECITAL
Claycomb recital bodes well for fall/Soprano will sing in Opera's 'Ariadne' :"Claycomb's recital in Old First Church, skillfully accompanied by pianist Peter Grunberg, was a heartening update on her progress since her memorable days in training here. Her vocal tone, always vibrant and compelling, has grown plusher and more colorful without losing anything in the way of dexterity, and the vivacity and brilliance that always informed her singing seems, if anything, to have grown even more pronounced. The recital also served as a double advertisement for the San Francisco Opera's fall season. Two exuberantly done Strauss songs whetted a listener's appetite for Claycomb's coming appearance as Zerbinetta in the composer's"Ariadne auf Naxos."
Even more exciting was her formidable rendition of Olivier Messiaen's"Chants de Terre et de Ciel"("Songs of Earth and Heaven"), rarely heard repertory that heightened the sense of anticipation around September's U.S. premiere of the composer's"Saint Francois d'Assise."... Claycomb and Grunberg (with help on one song from pianist-page turner Monica Vanderveen) endowed this music with all its vigorous, shimmery beauty. The billowing vocal lines seemed to shuttle between heaven and earth, and Grunberg negotiated the dense piano writing with striking virtuosity. The two Strauss songs,"Cacilie"and"Amor,"found Claycomb limbering up for the charming vocal cascades of her fall assignment. The former burst with ardent energy and the latter -- with its impish, endearing portrait of Cupid -- was pure delight...."
- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - March 26, 2002 - Joshua Kosman (San Francisco)
'All-encompassing"Earth and Heaven"'
"Dazzling display of Messiaen music by soprano, piano" His"Songs of Earth and Heaven,"in a dazzling performance by soprano Laura Claycomb and pianist Peter Grunberg, was the high point of a wonderful celebration of Messiean's work Sunday night in UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall under the auspices of Cal Performances..... ....But it was Claycomb who provided the evening's most radiant moments..... .... Claycomb sounded even more robustly in command of this difficult music than she had in March, when she performed it on the Schwabacher Debut Recitals series. She tossed off the big, arching melodic phrases lithely, infusing the whole set with a sense of excitement and tonal brilliance, and Grunberg delivered the dense piano part with eloquent fervor."
- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Sept. 25, 2002 - Joshua Kosman - (Cal Performances, Berkeley)
" For Sunday evening's Messiaen Celebration' at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall his Quartet for the end of Time seemed destined to be the most important work of the concert. What actually happened was that soprano Laura Claycomb's rendering of the Songs of Earth and Heaven took over. She and Peter Grunberg, at the piano, drove through the bumpy terrain that this song cycle proposes with such delicacy that nothing else mattered. Laura Claycomb is just something else, commanding what seems to be an infinitely expressive voice.
ith the help of impeccable French diction, Claycomb was able to deliver Messiaen's own text (a celebration in itself, of the composer's own family, wife Mi and son Pascal) with precision, to the point of creating a character' that had a life of its own, transcending each individual song. Grunberg was impressive, too, as he responded to the illusion-of-color challenge' that Messiaen proposes to his pianists. His accompaniment was sensitive enough to engage Ms. Claycomb in a dialogue whose conclusion was pure beauty."
- SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE - 9/22/02 - Miguel Galperin
"Statuesque, flame haired coloratura soprano Laura Claycomb is best known for her operatic work, but she is also an exciting, unusually communicative recitalist. She understands and conveys texts with dramatic assurance, becoming a lovelorn Debussy art song character with as much ease she can command a stage in the roles of Gilda or Lucia.....
For her Tuesday Musical Club Artist Series program Tuesday afternoon at Trinity Baptist Church, she revealed a resplendent, agile voice with a hint of copper in its midsection and an iridescent, seemingly endless top range."
-EXPRESS NEWS - Diane Windeler - November 21, 2003
It takes one listen to be smitten with Claycomb
"Let's be candid: I've lost my head for Laura Claycomb. The Texas-born soprano, who makes her Austin debut with cellist Nina Kotova and pianist Jose Feghali at One World Theatre on Sunday, is exactly what every opera aficionado craves. Her lithe features and ever-expanding acting range allow her to play tender ingenues, comic servants and feisty temptresses with equal aplomb. Her impossibly high, unblemished voice elicits swoons of praise from critics and audiences, while her ... "
- AMERICAN STATESMAN ARTS WRITER, Michael Barnes, February 7, 2003
Claycomb's recital a delightful show of ensemble work Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic Wednesday, June 21, 2006 Claycomb's forceful, pure vocal tone and crystalline dict... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/21/DDGAKJGPCT1.DTL&type=printable
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