Klassik-Blog für Konzertberichte und Opernkritiken aus Berlin, Bayreuth, München etc.

"Die temperamentvolle Donna Elvira von Tara Erraught… …führt einen farbreichen und ausdrucksstarken Mezzosopran von herber Wärme ins Feld. Die feurigen Oktavsprünge in der 1. Arie (Ah, chi mi dice mai) stemmt sie eher athletisch…. Schön die sorgfältigen Piani im mit Verve gesungenen Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata."

"The spirited Donna Elvira by Tara Erraught … …brings a colorful and expressive mezzo-soprano of bitter warmth into the field. Her fiery octave jumps in the 1st aria (Ah, chi mi dice mai) are strong and athletic…. Beautiful, meticulous piani sung with vivacity in Mi tradì quell'alma ingrata." (Staatsoper Berlin, Mozart's Don Giovanni)

"The role of Donna Elvira, a jealous and furious ex of Don Giovanni, is most gratifyingly filled by Tara Erraught. … celebrating great success on international stages, she has a very fresh and girlish mezzo-soprano, which is underpinned by a rather dramatic middle. ... Nevertheless, with her dominant, yet quite appealing juvenile vocal coloring, she succeeds in an impressive and amusing role portrait, whereby not only the dramatic outbursts but also the lyrical and empathetic moments of Donna Elvira should be mentioned. The humor, which Tara Erraught personally contributes to this role, stimulates a smile and testifies to a blazing enthusiasm for the vocal profession.(Staastoper Berlin, Mozart's Don Giovanni)

"As Annio, Tara Erraught displays a mezzo-soprano with a lower center of gravity, contrasting nicely with DiDonato’s. The character doesn’t have much to do other than react, but Erraught’s reactions are always alert and engaged."

"In Munich, the Bayerische Staatsoper offered us a delectably youthful Così, with a winning Despina from Tara Erraught..."

"Tara Erraught was a knock out Despina, singing with bright, full tone, an easy top and judicious ornamentation. She has a magnetic stage presence, emerging for her first recit, grabbing the stage and holding it. Her comic timing is formidable and her sunny mezzo was wonderfully healthy."

"Tara Erraught as Angelina (Cinderella) provides us with a well-pronounced, velvety mezzosoprano that glides effortlessly along with the exceptional live orchestra (Music Direction by Tomáš Hanus)."

"The romantic leads of Tara Erraught as Angelina and tenor Matteo Macchioni i as the prince Don Ramiro have dreamy voices to sit back and enjoy."

"Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, brings a quite innocence to her role as the put-upon Angelina..."

"Erraught makes a worthy La Cenerentola, with her glorious coloratura soprano, and she leads the cast in their final bow to thunderous support."

"Tara Erraught is gently angelic as the neglected Angelina (Cenerentola), her earlier arias glinting with longing and final forgiveness alight with gorgeous vocal flair."

"The Irish mezzo Tara Erraught is ideally cast, and has the personality too to win hearts, the humble kitchen-maid with impossible dreams as she sweeps cinders at the start, liberated in spirit and in the free vocal line at the end."

"The Welsh National Opera production is a tour-de-force, where hilarity and virtuosity go hand-in-hand. In the lead role of Angelina-Cinderella, is Tara Erraught, an Irish soprano .... She brought warmth and grace to a fiendishly difficult rôle, full of embellishments and florid passages of demi-semi-quavers. All of it was carried off with applomb and exquisite taste, and the expression on the face of the Prince (Matteo Macchioni) made it clear that he would fall in love with this nightingale even without any transformation from rags to a grand ball gown."

"Tara Erraught was excellent throughout and her voice had enough, but not too much, weight as well as an impressive top. Whether as the downtrodden (but not dispirited) Angelina at the beginning of the opera, singing her ‘old song’ of the king who married a kind-hearted woman, or in some of the coloratura writing Rossini produces for her later in the opera, she was able to adjust the weight and colour of her voice appropriately."

"This was the first time on the WNO main stage for the Irish mezzo Tara Erraught, as Angelina (Cinderella), but she inhabited it, and the character, as one completely at home. She has sung in this production in America, so is not new to working with the creative team, and indeed has worked with conductor Tomáš Hanus over a number of years. But none of that should diminish the high praise which she deserves for her apparently effortless command of Rossini’s coloratura, and to the spirit and charm with which she invested the role. It was an absolute joy to watch and listen to her."

"...Tara Erraught’s Angelina proves a spirited heroine; down to earth and beautifully clear and agile of voice. In an age when stories of girls needing rescue by princes are rightly subject to challenge, she brings healthy glimmers of female agency to a largely gender-stereotyped role."

"...in Tara Erraught, WNO has a natural Angelina. The Irish mezzo’s voice is warm as smouldering embers, tender throughout, with unfaltering coloratura. She’s down to earth but a dreamer, wise about the world but innocently hopeful. Even in this cartoonish universe, this Cenerentola’s thoughts and feelings seemed real."

"Tara Erraught gave us a gently humane Angelina, whose attempt to reconcile herself with Don Magnifico and her sisters is genuinely touching; so too is her relationship with the actor-mice, where her kindness and empathy for her fellow downtrodden creatures glows warmly. Her voice is richer and smokier than your usual mezzo, with the charcoal shading of the contralto lower down. These darker hues deepen her characterisation as inward, dreamy, even melancholy..."

"Tara Erraught in the central role of Angelina — Cinderella — sings and acts her role beautifully"

"As the title role of Angelina (AKA Cinderella), Tara Erraught is enchanting; a Disney-like princess, exuding ‘goodness’, but with a smooth, agile and rich voice to boot. Difficult passages are tackled with ease, and she is a natural in the role, which could sometimes come across as saccharine by a lesser actress."