Carmen
Carmen, Act IV, Auckland Opera 1993. photo: Grey Veredon
Adria Firestone, The Queen of the Palace of Bellas Artes.
Reforma, Mexico City 22 July ‘97
Her performance should start to be ranked as definitive.
The Australian, Australia (on Firestone’s performance of Carmen)
Firestone in the role is an “increadibly rare phenomenon” of a singer combining theatrical ability with musical precision. He compares working with her to the exhilaration directors must have felt working with Maria Callas. “It is one of the most extraordinary performances I’ve ever seen”.
The Australian, Australia (Keith Warner, UK director, on Firestone’s Carmen)
San Diego Opera 1997. photo: ML Hart
She brings with her a reputation as one of the world’s great Carmens and it is hard to imagine a better performance than hers.
The Courier Mail, Australia
Adria Firestone enters the arena… The premiere on July 20, 1997 in Bellas Artes was a total success… Best of all was the performance of the USA mezzo soprano, Adria Firestone as Carmen. The singer showed herself to be a complete artist; in addition she is the possessor of a large, resonant voice, with body. During all of the opera she beautifully adorned the character with her dramatic and vocal gifts… The public gave an ovation to Firestone, who took the afternoon and converted it into the unforgettable.
El Economista, (Erick Zermeño Morales) Mexico City 22 July ‘97
Adria Firestone made of Carmen a history of love sung with a voice of fire…Of fire also was the ovation that the mezzo received from the public that filled the theater (Palacio de Bellas Artes) on Sunday afternoon. An applause that not ony acknowledged the singer, but also the actress and the dancer that come together in this American and that makes her interpretation of Bizet’s gypsy inhibit the fiction of the drama.
Reforma, Mexico City 22 July ‘97
Carmen Act IV, San Diego Opera 1997. photo: ML Hart
She snarls and stalks, she flits down three levels of scaffolding for her first entrance. She sings with power held in reserve to satisfy the demands of the last act. When imports deliver goods of this calibre, long may they mark the bench.
The Bulletin, Australia 10 Oct ‘95
A Wild New Carmen Firestone Gives Staging Its Flair.
Los Angeles Times, USA April ‘92
Slim, with thick, curling black hair, her presence on stage was felt immediately. Firestone’s voice was big, lustrous and dark, with plenty of power and rich, even tone from top to bottom.
Newsday, New York USA
San Diego Opera 1992. photo: Ken Howard
Spoleto, Italy – This year’s festival of Two Worlds included an often disconcerting Carmen, memorable for Adria Firestone’s infinitely provocative performance of the title role…
Opera News, Nov ‘95
The key to the unfolding of Spoleto’s Carmen is mezzo-soprano Adria Firestone…who offers a memorable interpretation. Homogeneously velvet-voiced, very attractive, raven-haired – this singer, who knows how to dance and play the castanets very well, demonstrated with sure, undulating steps all of the sensuality, cruelty, fragility, knavery and the profound lust for freedom that composes a character both complex and fascinating. The result is that it is very difficult to conceive of a protagonist better suited to a production of Carmen that insists on “crazed love” and that continually emphasizes this character…as if she walked right out of the libretto.
El Pais, Spain ‘95
Florida Grand Opera. photo: Debra Hesser
