ADRIANA ZABALA, LLC
GREENACRES, FLORIDA

And one must not fail to mention at this point the stellar and wildly wily performance of Adriana Zabala. Heralded by The Wall Street Journal as showing "tremendous stamina and boy-like flair" in her performance of the title role in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove's The Adventures of Pinocchio, Zabala performed Cherubino splendidly. Among the singer actors in this production, she ranks premier as she understood so well the bearing and swagger of a young, arrogant, handsome adolescent boy. Her understanding, in fact, was so spot on that there were times in which I forgot I was watching a female performing in boy�s clothing�Zabala was astounding to watch and marvelous to hear. A true delight. Adriana Zabala is fearless as the lusty Cherubino. �Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, in the trouser role of The Composer, gives a passionate, lithe�and utterly Byronic portrait of the artist as a young egotist. Her vibrant, throbbing, white-hot vocalism is ribbed with steel in the role�s moments of unsurpassed indignation, yet melts into translucent rapture as the character succumbs to the charm and blandishments of the coquette Zerbinetta�the ravishing Zerbinetta/Composer duet that climaxes the Prologue is here rendered sizzlingly memorable via the exquisite vocal chemistry between Haslett and Zabala. �Zabala has the richness of the role to play, a young man whose talent is music and whose inclination is to love sopranos. She gives a strong and healthy impression with her strong mezzo-soprano tones to the firmness, and the finesse, of the unnamed artist. I have always felt that the authors were playing here with their own sense of unreasonable anonymity as creators of a work brought to life by the vocal artists they employ. Zabala brings that very sense of compassion to the role making her voice ring with the occasional hollow tone that expresses the loneliness he feels seeing his Diva and meeting Zerbinetta, queen of the comedians. This is a superb performance.� �Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala took the difficult first act role of The Composer and made it her own. Singing with vivacious expression her voice has a refined quality, so easy on the ear. A great performance, met by wild applause.� �As to Adriana Zabala, the Composer, Nicole Haslett as Zerbinetta and Marcy Stonikas as Ariadne, we cannot imagine, at least last night in that house, greater perfections. Zabala, lithe and trim in the pants role of (a male) composer, sang movingly (with perfect soup�ons of adolescent cosmic angst) in her exquisite mezzo. Exiting the theater, glamorously accoutered as a real star, she confided to us how much she loves this role. Charming and disarming.� The opera�s most finely crafted aria comes from Adriana Zabala as a woman opening her heavy heart to her unfaithful husband. �each of the nine principal characters gets one short aria. Some of them connect: The waltzy �Don�t bother, dear,� sung by Adriana Zabala, forthright as Lucy Talbot�has some heft and feeling. �but Adriana Zabala steals the show with Lucy Talbot�s smoky cabaret blues arietta. As his long suffering wife Lucy, mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala brings unexpected beauty to her aria, torn by her husband's betrayals, yet still in love with him. Another standout performance among this astonishing cast was Adriana Zabala as the hormone-crazed pubescent Cherubino. Zabala brought a delightful and always-welcome stage presence to the proceedings, managing to bring different colors and layers to each moment she was onstage. As Amore, though, Zabala steals every scene she is in, embodying both the vocal artistry and physicality that marks this production. Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, a company favorite, is in her element in the trouser role as the impish Amore, with personality to spare and a vocal boldness and clarity that has characterized her many other roles in St. Paul Adriana Zabala created a sympathetic Carrie whose actions were entirely understandable. Zabala�s warmly-textured lyric mezzo registered enchantingly, with an easy fluidity reflective of her capability in Baroque music, and she resonated to text insightfully. She was given a lovely aria �Everything is Paid For� in which she deftly revealed the girl�s frightened need to find a safe place. Magnificently sung and acted by its two leads, the world premiere of Sister Carrie was presented by the Florentine Opera on Oct. 7 and 9. It is hard to imagine a better Carrie than mezzo Adriana Zabala� Zabala�s posture becomes an acting element, conveying allure, demands, humor � whatever role Carrie has molded herself into� For anyone who might long for the bel canto trills of classical opera, these are provided in rapid abundance during a backstage �mash notes� duet by Zabala and fine soprano Alisa Suzanne Jordheim. Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala gave a dramatically compelling, beautifully sung performance in the title role on Friday. Baritone Keith Phares was strikingly well matched to Zabala in the role of Hurstwood, both in dramatic presence and focused, refined, vocal deliveries. Le Nozze di Figaro with Florentine Opera Company Mezzo Adriana Zabala put on a singing clinic as Cherubino. What a brilliant, clear, utterly controlled voice, unified top to bottom, pristine in pitch and aglow with rich and harmonious overtones. Her phrasing, the opposite of the Countess� sighing, opened expansively to model her dear boy Cherubino�s runaway enthusiasm, his tangle of love, lust and starry, poetic romanticism. She sang thus amid some of the best and most athletic physical comedy you�ll see in an opera. Her Cherubino darts like the mouse in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Giulio Cesare with Florentine Opera Company (Sesto Pompeo) Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala gave a strikingly believable performance in the "pants" role of Sesto. She blended vocal clarity, a youthful emotional directness and a light-footed stage presence to create a highly sympathetic character.