Press
Critical Acclaim | Features
Norma at Washington National Opera (Norma)
“Of the four Normas I’ve heard live in the last ten years, Angela Meade is by far the best.”
— Washington Post “Classical Beat”, Anne Midgette (March 2013)
“When you’ve got two vocal powerhouses like Meade and Zajick, the production doesn’t really matter … you had two women on stage who really know how to sing. …The Act I Norma-Adalgisa scene culminates in the quintessential dueling-sopranos duet (Zajick is a mezzo, but Bellini didn’t necessarily see the role that way), which involves both women repeating the same music, each going up to a high C: Meade offered a stunning, floating pianissimo, and Zajick sweetly responded with another one, which she held out even longer. Opera singing is partly an athletic feat; healthy competition can motivate great performances, and I’d venture that the energy between Meade and Zajick helped them both step it up a notch.”
— Washington Post, Anne Midgette (March 2013)
Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera (Leonora)
“Angela Meade, a rising star at the Metropolitan Opera, rose a notch higher as she stepped into one of the touchstone roles of the soprano repertory, Leonora in Verdi’s ‘Il Trovatore.’ … The young American demonstrated once again that she has all the gifts to be an outstanding spinto soprano — a category between the lighter lyric and the heavier dramatic voice. She filled the house with ample, gleaming tone, and rose to all the technical challenges of the role: Runs, trills and high pianissimos were executed with agility and confidence.”
— Associated Press, Mike Silverman (January 2013)
Verdi Requiem with Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Seguin
“This October 21 concert had a last minute change that will go down as a ‘were you there the day’ occasion. It was announced that soprano Angela Meade (an Academy of Vocal Arts alum) would fill in for Marina Poplavskaya, who performed in the two previous concerts but was bowing out for the last owing to allergies. Meade, who filled in famously at the Met two years ago, stepped in with a flawless and electrifying performance. She made the ending of the ‘Libera Me’ passionate, sonic, and supple; and she was utterly one with the chorus. It was a moment of vocal gold.”
— American Record Guide, Lewis Whittington (January/February 2013)
R. Strauss’s Four Last Songs in Toronto
“[Marco Parisotto] also didn’t hold back with the Strauss Lieder, pushing Meade to blow our hair backwards with her great, big voice. … She displayed all the ingredients of a great operatic singer, including a solid grasp of the dramatic arc of each piece. Although the Strauss songs are operatic in their sweep, the audience was given the opportunity to jump roaring to its feet with a Verdi encore: ‘Pace, pace…’ from La forza del destino.”
— Musical Toronto, John Terauds (January 2013)
Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda at Carnegie Hall
“On Wednesday at Carnegie Hall, some of America’s most talented young singers — including soprano Angela Meade and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton — delivered vocal splendor with technical fireworks in Vincenzo Bellini’s ‘Beatrice di Tenda.’ They followed in the musical footsteps of the late Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, who wowed a Carnegie audience in the same 19th-century Italian opera in 1961. Meade and Barton produced a stream of thrilling, seductive sounds. And they drew a standing ovation from an audience that included top agents, publicists and casting directors in the music business. … The soprano’s full-throttle voice is exhilarating. And her rise to stardom at the Metropolitan Opera and elsewhere is well deserved; she’s won more than 50 vocal competitions.”
— Associated Press, Verena Dobnik (December 2012)
Kennedy Center recital debut
Soprano Angela Meade gives impressive recital for Washington National Opera
“One of the names that has most frequently popped up in next-big-star-in-the-making discussions over the past few years is soprano Angela Meade. No wonder. The singer has the one key element that cannot be faked by any amount of aggressive publicity — a voice. A real, honest-to-goodness, fully formed vocal instrument that has you sitting up to take notice from the first note. As Meade demonstrated locally in 2011 in a stellar performances of the Verdi Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony, and reconfirmed Saturday night at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in an impressive recital for Washington National Opera, that voice is backed by keen musicality. … The soprano easily has what it takes to be a dramatic Verdi soprano — the Terrace Theater could barely contain the sound at full-throttle — but she can also scale back the tone beautifully, even in the upper reaches, where many a singer comes to grief. This flexibility, along with endearing phrasing, served Meade especially well in ‘Depuis le jour’ from Charpentier’s ‘Louise.’… She is already a remarkably satisfying vocal artist who has sent a welcome jolt through the opera-sphere.”
— Baltimore Sun, Tim Smith (November 2012)
I Vespri Siciliani at Wiener Staatsoper (Herzogin Elena)
“We can report on a fabulous revival at the Vienna State Opera, where since Sunday Giuseppe Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani is being presented again. It’s a masterful work that is all too seldom performed, mainly because of the difficulty of casting all the demanding principal parts. Now at the opera house on the Ring four years since its last appearance there, three first-class voices may be enjoyed. Angela Meade portrays the Duchess Elena with her generously endowed soprano, including elegant coloratura and a remarkable range in a memorable house debut.”
— Kurier (September 2012)
NPR Music
Opera News editor-in-chief F. Paul Driscoll on hearing Angela Meade for the first time at the Liederkranz competition:
“I refer to that moment as a ‘five pencil drop’ because all of us were poised to write something and the pencils all dropped and we sat there and just listened. Part of what she has — in addition to the beautiful voice and the beautiful technique — is something about her I find incredibly centered. It’s like I know that if she’s flying my plane, it’s not going to crash. I don’t have to worry about whether she’s going to make it to the end of a phrase. I don’t worry about whether or not she’s going to have enough stamina to make it to the end of the evening. She has a sense of self that reminds me of singers that I saw when I was first coming to the opera. I don’t think she sounds like anybody else; she sounds like herself. But that self knowledge and the confidence is something that is a big blessing for audiences.”
— NPR Music.org – “Future of Opera” discussion (August 2012)
Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom Music Festival
“Conductor Johannes Debus, soprano Angela Meade and tenor Michael Fabiano all made their Cleveland Orchestra debuts at this concert which was a triumph from beginning to end. These performers are on their way to major careers. … Ms. Meade poured out streams of richly produced and focused sound, full in the lower register and powerful in the upper part of her voice, but with the flexibility to float pianissimo high notes. Earlier in 2012 Ms. Meade won the prestigious Beverly Sills Award given by the Metropolitan Opera. In these performances, it is clear that the award was well deserved.”
— Cleveland Classical, Timothy Robson (August 2012)
Saratoga Performing Arts Center debut with Philadelphia Orchestra & Yannick Nézet-Seguin
“In Verdi’s ‘Pace, pace, mio Dio!’ soprano Meade fulfilled her considerable potential with voice, words, and meaning coming together in a fully realized operatic statement. During ‘Ecco: respire appena’ from Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, she floated pianissimos worthy of Montserrat Caballé.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns (August 2012)