Press
Critical Acclaim | Features
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’ Makes a Rare Appearance
WQXR | To broadly paraphrase Shakespeare’s 29th Sonnet, when I all alone beweep the outcast state of parts of the opera world and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, and feel that in what I most enjoy I am contented least, I tend to go to my bookshelf and my well-worn copy of Marilyn Horne’s memoir The Song Continues (written with Jane Scovell) to read the no-nonsense and always perceptive views of an artist who refers to colleagues she esteems as “a real pro.” She knows whereof she speaks.
The Beatrice Generation
Parterre | In the cast Wednesday there will be several names to draw attentive voice fanciers. Singing her first Beatrice will be Angela Meade, who has been thrilling in dramatic coloratura roles from Vienna and Wexford to Caramoor and the Met. Michael Spyres, impressive in virtuoso parts by Rossini and Meyerbeer, among others, will sing Orombello. I got a chance to put a few questions to each of them.
Angela Meade Sings Bellini
Classical TV | Famous for uniting Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, the dynamic duo of Bel Canto opera in 1961, Beatrice di Tenda, Bellini’s penultimate opera premiered in 1833, an operatic gem that has been mysteriously underperformed. Set in fifteenth century Milan and based on a historical figure, the opera tells of the tormented, but saintly wife of the Duke of Milan (soprano Angela Meade), falsely accused of adultery with Orombello (tenor Michael Spyres), and sentenced to death by her husband (baritone Nicholas Pallesen) and his love interest Agnese del Maino (mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton).
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)
The Superconductor Interview: Angela Meade
SuperConductor | “The essence of a great bel canto opera is beautifully written melodies that seem extremely organic.” Soprano Angela Meade should know. In the last five years, Ms. Meade has taken the spotlight as a bel canto specialist, reviving this lost operatic form (the phrase is Italian for “beautiful song”) for a new generation of opera lovers.
“There’s something in a line that’s written,” she says. “You can tell what someone’s soul is saying,” she adds. “It’s not just notes on a page. I think that the essence is those emotions. With singing, I express who I am.”
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)