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Cheryl Evans
Selected Reviews
La Traviata
"The American soprano Cheryl Evans is simply extraordinary! Every bar and phrase is imbued with tremendous passion and emotional intensity. Her coloratura singing is stunning! She brings a cascade of vocal colors to the role's musico-dramatic riches. Ms. Evans's beautiful voice and dramatic fervor are what operatic legends are all about. Great bel canto and intensely riveting music-drama… Ms. Evans is a superbly talented rising star!" Lawrence Budmen, THE CORAL GABLES GAZETTE
Rigoletto
"All three principals made role debuts. Cheryl Evans's Gilda was simply spectacular; this gifted dramatic coloratura deserves a higher-profile career. Her unusually full instrument boasted an almost electric charge as it projected easily at all dynamic levels. Her extraordinary upper extension afforded thrilling acuti, including high D and E-flat. [S]he exhibited impressive command of staccati, trills and messa di voce, plus that intangible sine qua non of star vocalism that is impossible to fake — the sheer love of singing. Evans is an attractive woman with a stage-filling smile." David Shengold, OPERA NEWS
"Boheme Opera New Jersey's staging of "Rigoletto" this weekend at Trenton's War Memorial featured some beautiful singing, particularly from soprano Cheryl Evans, a striking vocal talent who should be going places…What made the night totally worthwhile was Evans, returning to the company to sing her first Gilda. Although overly careful in her movements, she conveyed a girl adoring of her father yet itching to get out of the house. Her clear, fresh voice was naturally rhapsodic, the vibrato taut, a warm cushion to the highest notes. The blind-love aria "Caro Nome" (Dearest Name) was beguiling as could be." THE NJ STAR LEDGER, Bradley Bambarger
Frederica von Stade and Friends, Lyric Opera of San Antonio
"Joining von Stade in Lila Cockrell Theater were two young singers of great promise, soprano Cheryl Evans and tenor Stephen Costello...Evans sounded a bit brassy, but impressively accurate and nimble, in the Queen of the Night's aria from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute.' Her somewhat dark, well-marbled vocal color, thrilling top and click-stop agility made a very handsome showing in the climactic solo sequence from Act I of 'La Traviata.' THE SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS, Mike Greenberg
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
"American soprano Cheryl Evans, a last-minute replacement for [another soprano] was an exciting discovery. Her voice has an intriguingly dark timbre beneath its brightness...her enormous range and the sense that she has the reserves to soar even higher than Mozart demands make her a singer to watch. She tossed off Mozart's back-to-back showpieces of "Traurigkeit ward mir zum Lose" and "Martern aller Arten" with aplomb." STAGEDOOR.ORG
"Cheryl Evans was found, a mere five days before the first performance. And she had never sung the role before… Happily, she fashioned an exquisite Konstanze. She had already melted every heart in the house, pouring out her soul in opulent lament, before coming to her show-stopping aria, 'Martern aller Arten,' which duly stopped the show." OPERA CANADA, Hugh Fraser
Il viaggio a Reims
"Rossini's 'Il Viaggio a Reims' was a hit this fall… The female leads--Cheryl Evans, Heather Buck, Allyson McHardy, and Maria Kanyova--were at the heart of the action, working hard to master Rossini's florid style and enjoying themselves immensely in the process." THE NEW YORKER, Alex Ross
Die Zauberflöte
"Getting all those passages right that elude some lighter singers, American soprano Cheryl Evans showed there is more than just coloratura to the Queen of the Night. Both numbers ("O Zitt're Nicht, Mein Lieber Sohn!" and "Der Hölle Rache Kocht in Meinen Herzen") were impressive quite beyond the fancy high vocal fireworks."
SAN DIEGO ARTS, David Gregson
"Tamino is the messenger, if never the minion, of the Queen of the Night (Cheryl Evans, in a glorious company debut), a mysterious figure who only appears to be a force for good. Her plangent opening aria "O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn!" would inspire a mortal as ordinary as Papageno (the thoroughly charming Paul Armin Edelmann) to risk life and limb; a prince, of course, needs little encouragement."
SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE, Jennifer de Poyen
"Making strong debuts with the company are German tenor Rainer Trost as Tamino and dramatic coloratura soprano Cheryl Evans as the high-flying Queen of the Night. Trost has impeccable technique and a warm, sweet color to his voice, while big-voiced Evans muscularly executes the demanding vocal theatrics of the famous aria "Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen." With this season-closing production of "Magic Flute," it's fair to say that San Diego Opera is capping the best-sung season in its 41-year history. Impressive local debuts by a number of acclaimed singers ---- Lawrence Brownlee in "The Barber of Seville," Angela Gilbert in "Lucia di Lammermoor," Marina Domashenko in "Carmen," Ewa Podles in "Julius Caesar in Egypt," and Trost and Evans in "Flute" among others ---- and well-staged and -conducted productions have made each opera as memorable as the one before."
NORTH COUNTY TIMES, Pam Kragen
"Both of the night's big moments belonged to the Queen of the Night. First, she floated earthward from the loft in a huge cradle of crescent moon and cascading bows of purple gossamer (color of eggplant, I thought), like a brooch you would see Zandra Rhodes wearing on an airplane. Later, she sang an aria into which Mozart had inserted a lightning series of notes placed sort of like tiny footstep leaps of faith across a yawning void. Hit them all, he is saying, live to sing another day. Miss just one, just slightly, and down you go, into the void, falling until the end of time. She hit them all. I don't know how. Imagine a hockey goalie, stopping eight shots in three seconds, left, right, up, down, middle. And then doing it again, a couple of minutes later. At the end, she got the night's loudest ovation. It was a heck of an evening. The Met and New York will have to go some to match it."
MICHAEL GRANT - Journalist, author, educator and blogger.
"The Queen of the Night, a mother with a serious grudge, was ecstatically performed by Cheryl Evans, whose gorgeous and seemingly effortless upper register gilded the evening." SAN ANTONIO CURRENT
"Cheryl Evans was most impressive as her mother, with commendably clear diction." William V. Madison, OPERA NEWS
"I must note soprano Cheryl Evans for her work as Queen of the Night. She has featured arias in both Act I and Act II that are so magnificently and acrobatically rendered that I did not want them to end. I have never heard a better voice in any Pensacola Opera production."
Andy Metzger, PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL
"As the wicked Queen of the Night, soprano Cheryl Evans nailed all the ridiculously high money notes and wide leaps in the rampaging aria of the second half"
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS
Don Giovanni
"The Boheme company fared well with the witty score, with soloists who are young, handsome and expressive as well as vocally adept...She (Adina Aaron) and newcomer Cheryl Evans were riveting in their arias, both for stunning voices and artistic portrayal." THE TIMES
The Tale of Genji
"The singing, indeed the vocal characterization among the entire cast, is superb…Cheryl Evans cuts a blazing figure and sings with virtuosity and temperament as the rejected Lady Rokujo." PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, Robert Croan
"Soprano Cheryl Evans, whose singing and acting forward her characterizations extraordinarily, is impressively wrathful as the angry Lady Rokujo. When Evans takes another part, the Lady of Akashi, she is gentle and loving."
THE RIVERFRONT TIMES
"Cheryl Evans exerted formidable power, both sexual as well as social, portraying a contrasting pair of matriarchs." OPERA, Martin Bernheimer
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