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MADAMA BUTTERFLY – Santa Fe Opera "Ms. Kaduce’s warm and tender
singing conveyed the aching vulnerability of the foolishly trusting
Butterfly. Yet what also came through powerfully was that Butterfly
was in a desperate place: both poor and deeply in love. Under Mr.
Blakely’s direction, there were already hints of an assertive
Western wife in Ms. Kaduce’s Butterfly. The New York Times "As Cio-Cio-San, Kelly Kaduce
brings an amber-tinted soprano, particularly rich at mid-register,
to her deeply felt, dramatically satisfying interpretation. Whether
coming to grips with Pinkerton, warding off suitors and slanderers,
or chastising her maid Suzuki for her lack of faith, Kaduce's is a
full-blooded Butterfly -- strong, stoic, and vulnerable only in
private. She is also a hands-on mother. Singing at full voice, this
Butterfly picks up her son, Trouble (Makai Pope), and carries him
around as she converses with him. Waiting for Pinkerton all night,
she sits erect, motionless, in Zen-like determination before singing
with aching pathos.
The Huffington Post
"Soprano Kelly Kaduce, as Cio-Cio-San
(the "Madame Butterfly" of the title), stood at the head of the cast
in every way. Her singing, never less than impressive, assumed
mounting intensity as the evening unfurled. Still in the dawn of her
career, she boasts a thoroughly realized, uncluttered technique, and
her performance was infused with musical flow and emotive
flexibility. Kaduce's rich lyric soprano voice is endowed with
amplitude; her tone seems headed in the direction of a Tebaldi. Many
singers embrace interpretative abandon before they achieve the vocal
prowess that gives them the right to do so. Here we find the
opposite: disciplined restraint that will blossom tastefully as the
singer moves forward to a career of international stature. This
Butterfly is ready to spread her wings and fly." Santa Fe New
Mexican "But what’s a pit band
without a Butterfly? Soprano Kelly Kaduce may have seemed typecast
as The Asian Heroine at past SFO premieres: Actress/ZiZheng in
2003’s Madame Mao and Princess Lan in 2007’s Tea: A Mirror of Soul.
Santa Fe Reporter "Solidly anchoring
this production is soprano Kelly Kaduce — a powerful, vocally secure
singer. If her portrayal of Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) in the first act
does not convey the full complexity of the adolescent bride's
contradictory emotions, the character's breakdown after she realizes
she has been betrayed comes off as gut-wrenchingly real and moving.
" Denver Post "Soprano Kaduce's Cio-Cio-San is a miracle of transformation, compelling and touching." Durango Herald PAGLIACCI / SUOR ANGELICA – Florida Grand Opeera "Soprano Kelly Kaduce starred in both operas, getting stabbed to death in Pagliacci, then committing suicide in Suor Angelica. She sang Nedda in Pagliacci with a powerful, lush, well-focused tone, and she was an animated presence on stage, whether singing about her desire for freedom or desperately trying to keep the play going as her husband’s threatening intentions became clear … Kaduce sang with no loss of power from her previous performance of the evening. In Senza mamma, her only real aria, she brought out the pathos of a woman overwhelmed by the loss of her child." South Florida
Classical Review PAGLIACCI – Opera Omaha
"Soprano Kelly Kaduce (Nedda) was
without question the best of the singers. She was strong in every
respect. Her voice was as plush as a feather pillow, her tone
golden. Moreover, she created a character that was multifaceted and
believable — her Nedda was both caring and callous."
Omaha-World Herald LA BOHÈME – Portland Opera
"But it was Kelly Kaduce, who sang
Mimi with gorgeous, open lyricism, who made the magic happen. Less
flirty and frail-looking than most Mimis, she combined a beautiful
voice and an instinct for understatement that melted our hearts.
Early on, she showed her vocal strengths in the famous “They call me
Mimi” aria, blooming into lovely sound as if someone had suddenly
turned up the volume. With the words “But when spring comes,” a hint
of desperation crept into her voice – she knows she is ill, perhaps
terminally – realizing that she needs the sun like any flower.
The Oregonian SALOME – Opera Theater of St. Louis "Kaduce’s Salome pushed the singer well into the realm of a triple threat. In a part that famously requires the singer to look 13 and sound 30, Kaduce fits the bill and would be an entirely believable Salome even in high-definition. Not only are her looks and singing thrilling, Kaduce’s acting reflects the psychology of Strauss’ score in captivating detail. In the moments after Jokanaan is put back into the cistern and before the party of Herod and Herodias enters, Kaduce sits downstage and transforms from a petulant teenager to a dangerous woman using only her face." Opera Today "Kelly Kaduce is always an
affecting performer, a superb singer and committed actress. As
Salome, she also demonstrated grace as a dancer. Kaduce’s portrayal
of the Princess of Judea was complex and fully developed, gradually
revealing the monstrous nature of the girl’s obsession with the
prophet Jokanaan. St. Louis Post-Dispatch "As Salome, Kaduce must sing her character through a lot: teenage tantrums; the successful seduction of one of Herod's guards; the attempted seduction of John the Baptist; fending off her stepfather's incestuous advances and her stepmother's mean mouthed jealousy, followed by an athletically sensuous rendering of the notorious Dance of the Seven Veils that climaxes with a brief moment of total nudity. And all that is just the warm-up for a blood-drenched necrophilic tryst culminating with Kaduce in shuddering orgasm astride the severed head of John the Baptist. Through it all, her darkly luminous voice wrings every nugget out of the serpentine score." St. Louis Riverfront Times LE NOZZE DI FIGARO – Florida Grand Opera "As his restless spouse, Kaduce offered the best command of Mozartean style in the principal quartet. The musical summit of this night's performance was her Dove sono."
Opera News OTELLO – Kentuky Opera "Vocally, soprano
Kelly Kaduce's Desdemona carried away the evening's highest honors.
In a brief curtain speech, KO general director David Roth told the
Whitney Hall audience that Kaduce would sing despite having a sinus
infection. If she was still suffering, however, it wasn't apparent
in her lusciously inflected account of the Act Four Willow Song,
and in the clean, unforced way she spun out her phrases earlier in
the performance." Louisville Courier-Journal SUOR ANGELICA – Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Chile "Receiving an ovation, Kelly Kaduce was divine. Her singing was secure, displaying a rich and warm center. As an actress: perfect, in her looks and in her development. Her acting grew until achieving fullness after 'Senza mamma'. From there to the suicide, with the tormented 'Salvami' with which the protagonist asks the Virgin for the salvation of her soul, her Angelica embodied the 'dolce dolore' without which Puccini does not exist." El Mercurio "The soprano Kelly Kaduce properly took on the role of Suor Angelica. With a clear lyric register she launched into her great scena with professionalism, offering a moving Senza Mamma and Ah! Son dannata! which was heartwrenching." La Tercera "Kelly Kaduce's work was outstanding offering not only impeccable singing but in addition a dramatic portrayal that was complete with great emotion in the grand final scene." Tiempo Libre "Kelly Kaduce, in the role of Suor Angelica, delivered a very accurate interpretation both vocally and with her vision of the role. With a lyric voice of great power and pleasing timbre she sang without any hint of shrillness and stayed within the 'Pucinnian' confines respecting the musical score." La Segunda MADAMA BUTTERFLY – Opera Theater of St. Louis "In the title role, Kelly Kaduce showed why she is a St. Louis favourite, singing with shining tone and portraying both fragile beauty and gutsy determination." London Sunday Telegraph "It's hard to imagine a more sympathetic Cio-Cio San than Kaduce, though. Her voice is warm, beautiful and evenly produced throughout its wide range, and her high notes soar effortlessly. The arc of her character development was perfect, from the shy 15-year-old of the first scene to the woman who chooses to die with honor in the last. This was a performance to cherish." St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Soprano Kaduce brings a finely honed and fully formed portrayal, rich in detail, to an elegantly conceived production that has had all its kinks worked out... Those who've seen Kaduce in her previous St. Louis appearances — won't be surprised at her magnificent searing performance... Kaduce walks a fine line, carefully growing Cio-Cio-San from naive child to worldly wise woman. Her lusciously mellow, warmly radiant voice embraces, then releases Puccini's gorgeous, Japanese-derived melodies and makes them soar. Her acting is as refined as her singing." River Front Times RUSALKA – Minnesota Opera
"As the water nymph smitten love for a mortal, rising American soprano Kelly Kaduce was a waif-like Rusalka, vulnerable despite her determination to follow her heart. Although a role debut, it was with the Song to the Moon that Kaduce once won the Metropolitan Opera competition."
Opera Today
"As the hapless Rusalka, bright-toned Kelly Kaduce justified Minnesota Opera's faith in her. Gamely wrestling with the essential tension of her role, she almost accomplished the feat of seeming pallid and passionate at once."
Opera News
LA BOHÈME – Opera Pacific "Kelly Kaduce, Opera Pacific's Mimì, at thirty-three already has more than sixty performances of Bohème under her belt. A veteran of Baz Luhrmann's meticulously theatrical production, she inhabited the role comfortably, neither under- nor overdoing it. Her voice is rich and easy, used with a great deal of expressive (though not excessive) variety and capable of plenty of amplitude when she needed it. Her death scene was especially tender, limned in lovely pianissimo, calm more than desperate, and supported every step of the way by conductor Edoardo Müller." Opera News TEA: A MIRROR OF SOUL – Santa Fe Opera "Baritone Haijing Fu, who created the role of Seikyo and has performed it around the world, sang the prince-monk with a sonic range from petal-soft floating tones to the bronze clangor of virile ardor. Kelly Kaduce’s soprano soared and shone as she scaled Lan’s sky-topping melodic heights with ease. Both acted with good body control and emotional insight, and their scenes together were mesmerizing." Santa Fe New Mexican "Lan, a tricky role requiring plenty of power in its demanding upper range plus plenty of control in its frequent melismatic passages, is taken skillfully in stride by Kelly Kaduce." Santa Fe Reporter "Soprano Kelly Kaduce as Lan and baritone Haijing Fu as Seikyo - are wonderful singer-actors who achieve a compelling rapport." The Denver Post "Kelly Kaduce is a radiant Lan."
Dallas Morning News ANNA KARENINA – Florida Grand Opera / Opera Theater of St. Louis "In a career making role, Kelly Kaduce dominates the stage. With high notes that thrill and a creamy middle range, this gifted young soprano delivers vocal velvet. But she is also a great singing actress. Kaduce brings Anna’s passion and tragedy vividly alive. Her death scene weaves a dramatic display of vocal colors and intense theatricality. This is an authentically great performance."
"Kaduce is an exceptional actress whose performance was as finely modulated dramatically as it was musically. She embodied Ann's shifting personas - warm mother, passionate lover, dying penitent, drug-addicted madwoman - with emotional and physical specificity, and her dark, focused sound was lusty and lyrical one moment, tender and floating the next."
Opera News
"Kelly Kaduce commanded one's attention in the title role. Her luminous voice soared in the lyrical pages and she fleshed out Anna's longings and sufferings with a tragic pathos that reached a gripping climax in her delirious, morphine-fueled 'mad' scene."
Chicago Tribune "The soprano Kelly Kaduce was a terrific Anna, conveying the title character’s passion and despair." The New York Times
"Kelly Kaduce gives a ravishing, lustrously sung performance that captures Anna’s beauty, intelligence and despair."
Financial Times "Kelly Kaduce's performance in the title role is a tour de force. She captures Anna's every nuance, from frustrated propriety to foolhardy infatuation to morphine-fueled disintegration, all the while singing gloriously. " Dallas Morning News
"As Anna, soprano Kelly Kaduce is strikingly beautiful, dramatically wide-ranging and nuanced: We see why she's loved and how she suffers. Her voice is velvet-covered steel — sweet when appropriate and soaring in big moments."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The superb Kelly Kaduce was not only surrounded by a remarkably well-balanced cast and supported by a skillful conductor (Stewart Robertson), she found herself performing a more dramatically and musically involving opera." Toronto Star
"What Saturday's premiere did have was a stellar cast without a single weak link. Kelly Kaduce is one of the finest actresses one will find on an opera stage today and as Anna she consistently held attention. Kaduce's natural grace and acting made Anna a compelling, three-dimensional character. She rose to the score's most demanding moments superbly, as in her climactic confrontation with Vronsky, and delivered a tour de force performance in the train station scene before Anna takes her own life. " Miami Herald
The Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Carlson, who has two other operas to his credit, wrote the title role with Kaduce in mind, and the soprano gave a brilliant account of Anna's downfall. Several scenes in which Anna steps outside an ensemble to reveal her innermost thoughts were riveting, such as the breakdown she suffers at a race in which her lover is injured in a fall from his horse. The surreal climax is Anna's drug-induced mad scene in the train station." St. Petersburg Times
"Carlson had picked the cast members as he was writing. So it's no surprise that soprano Kelly Kaduce — whom Opera Theatre aficionados will remember for her dramatically charged debut as Sister Angelica in 2004 and her drop-dead wonderful Jane Eyre last season — is a total knockout as the perversely passionate Anna. " St. Louis Riverfront Times THE GRAPES OF WRATH – Minnesota Opera " Kaduce made this spoiled young member of John Steinbeck’s Joad family wonderfully credible and gripping. Indeed, she made Rosasharn a major center of attention in the four-hour work, tracing her development from selfish innocence to the insights that come with her pregnancy and the desertion of her husband with heart-rending conviction. " Opera Today "Kelly Kaduce touchingly enacted the moral growth of the pregnant Rosasharn, setting up the opera's effective (if not quite nostalgia-free) conclusion." Opera News "Rosasharn virtually anchored the story, and Kelly Kaduce’s voice was a pleasure – albeit a heartbreaking one – in every scene in which she appeared."
MusicWeb International MADAMA BUTTERFLY – Boston Lyric Opera "Boston audiences had the great pleasure of welcoming back the
wonderful Kelly Kaduce for the second time in six months. After a
triumphant Thaïs at Boston Lyric Opera last spring, Kaduce presented
another portrayal that was definitively realized, movingly projected
and exquisitely sung in BLO's season-opening Madama Butterfly. Opera News "But of course, the fortunes of any Butterfly ultimately lie with the abilities of its title character, and this production succeeds on the strength of Kelly Kaduce's winning performance. A Boston University-trained singer whose national career is gathering momentum, Kaduce made a well-received company debut last spring in Massenet's Thaïs. Her Butterfly was refreshingly self-possessed -- not a passive, waif-like victim of her surroundings as much as an active author of her own tragic fate... she sang with gracefulness, strength, and an abundance of warm, radiant tone. The audience rewarded her with a well-deserved ovation. Kaduce was the clear standout in this cast." Boston Globe "Soprano Kelly Kaduce was a lightvoiced Cio-Cio-San... But her voice is the kind that carries easily throughout its wide range. And the way she sang her pre-suicide farewell to her child, as if she were talking to her son rather than performing an aria for an audience, will remain with me for a long time. " Boston Herald
The Tufts Daily JANE EYRE – Opera Theater of St. Louis "With her superb Sister Angelica two years ago, soprano Kelly Kaduce proved to OTSL audiences that she can deliver the emotional goods, and the company is rewarding her dramatic effectiveness with some plum assignments; she will follow her Jane Eyre this season with the title role in David Carlson's Anna Karenina in 2007. Kaduce has radiant stage presence and is skilled at revealing a character's psychology without any obvious tricks, and her Jane was both childlike and womanly - a wounded, searching, passionate creature." Opera News "Soprano Kelly Kaduce, the leader of a uniformly strong cast, was vocally and dramatically dazzling in the title role. She captured both Jane's matter-of-factness and her anguish at the discovery of Rochester's proposed bigamy. Singing with a large, clear, well-produced voice, she brought the character to life." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Kelly Kaduce was the very personification of Jane's decency, her soprano gleaming and glowing." Dallas Morning News THAÏS – Boston Lyric Opera "Kelly Kaduce's Boston Lyric Opera debut as Thaïs in the company's season finale could be considered a glorious example of perfect casting. Sounding and looking the part of the courtesan driven by impulses of flesh and spirit, Kaduce was a luminous, affecting presence; one could easily believe that she was a woman of legendary beauty. Kaduce sings with bell-like purity and silvery sweetness, and she suspends her legato with an effortless, sensual spin. A born actress, Kaduce is also a masterful illuminator of text. But her choices never seem studied; the impulsiveness of Massenet's writing unfolded as quicksilver inspirations, subtle and spontaneous. Always elegant, Kaduce can also let loose, but her high notes (easy, radiant high D's) are not superimposed vocally, they emerge from the raw emotion of the text. A better performance of this role would be hard to imagine." Opera News "Massenet's Thaïs is not one of the composer's strongest scores, but the title part is one of the great drop-dead diva roles. The soprano gets to spend half the opera in voluptuous sin and the other half in redemptive penance. This is a piece in which you want to experience a star... In Boston Lyric Opera's ambitious new production, Kelly Kaduce has found a role that could carry her far. She has the looks for the part and sings it better than most who have recorded it... Kaduce has a peach of a voice that gains in color and luster as it climbs all the way up to a fearless high D; her singing is both passionate and elegant, and her French is excellent.... In Massenet, as in Puccini, the handling of intimate passages is as important as pouring it on, and Kaduce sounded especially lovely in Thaïs's farewell to the image of Eros and in the first, exhausted duet as she traverses the desert. She conveyed the final moments of redemption with rapture." The Boston Globe
"Rising star Kelly Kaduce, a product of Boston
University’s outstanding Opera Institute, sings the title role.
A glamorous soprano with a large lyric voice, Kaduce has verve
and sex appeal that makes her a perfect match for Massenet’s
exotic heroine."
The Boston Herald LA BOHÈME – New York City Opera "Kelly Kaduce's Mimi paired her character's physical weakness with an appealing vocal strength by way of a large, pure, focused voice that sailed above the orchestra." The New York Times "The star of the show was undeniably the Mimi of Kelly Kaduce... She has an instrument that immediately set her a cut above the rest of the company, and she knows how to use it. " The New York Sun WINNERS CONCERT – Metropolitan Opera Auditions, 1999 "The soprano Kelly Kaduce, who sang last, wrapped up the proceedings with one of the most finished performances and certainly the best dress. In Rusalka’s Song to the Moon and the ‘Jewel Song’ from Faust she showed off a voice at once bright and warm, beautiful in tone throughout the range, true in pitch and happily free of excess vibrato. She is an integrated artist who knows exactly what she is doing and why." The New York Times LA BOHÈME – Baz Luhrmann's Broadway production in Los Angeles "...Kelly Kaduce was a sweetly unaffected Mimì." The Los Angeles Times "...Kaduce's exquisite Mimì. Physically captivating and gifted with a soaringly pure soprano, Kaduce walks the elusive line between fragility and passion, always suggesting the gravity of her illness without milking it. Her acting range enables her to grip and hold our emotions through a death scene often criticized for excessive length." Variety "...Kaduce sings beautifully, with a clarity and melting delicacy in her upper register that is hard to resist..." The Hollywood Reporter suor angelica – Opera Theater of St. Louis "Kelly Kaduce brought uncommonly expressive tone and emotional eloquence to the title role; in the final scenes, the audience was gripped by the shocking realism of Kaduce’s portrayal, as Sister Angelica lives through hallucinations and spiritual torment to achieve salvation." Opera News "Soprano Kelly Kaduce made a superb impression in the title role: quiet and self-effacing in the first scene, finally confronting her aunt and then devastated by the off-hand delivery of the news that her child was dead. Vizioli gave her a mad scene that was over the top in places, but Kaduce handled the physical requirements nicely while singing beautifully and unwaveringly, in a strong, lovely voice with a solid top." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Kaduce’s raw energy and angelic voice cuts through the stillness of the air, roaring and shaking the audience in a way that no other OTSL performer has done this season.” The St. Louis Gateway FAUST – Florida Grand Opera “The attractive Kaduce was perfectly cast as the pure-hearted heroine, her bright, youthful soprano strikingly even throughout its range. Even at a cautious tempo, her Jewel Song was agile and vivacious, and her lyrical singing in the love duet was heartfelt and sensitively shaded. Marguerite’s final prayer in the trio provided the evening’s most thrilling moments.” The Florida Sun-Sentinel REGINA – Bard SummerScape "Kelly Kaduce was appropriately flighty as Oscar's tippling but good-hearted wife, Birdie." The New York Times "Kelly Kaduce lends her gorgeous soprano to the pathetic Birdie." Backstage DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE – Atlanta Opera “...ably partnered by the lovely Pamina of Kelly Kaduce, whose limpid voice and unmannered acting captured the character’s innocence effectively.” Opera News don giovanni – Florida Grand Opera “Kelly Kaduce brought an unhinged intensity and pure-toned vocalism to the rejected yet maddeningly persistent Donna Elvira. The soprano was at her finest in Mi tradi quell’alma ingrata, with a sensitive and subtle recitative and vibrant, brilliantly sung aria.” The Florida Sun-Sentinel Britten’s WAR REQUIEM – Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus “But Kaduce, a 29-year-old BU alumna with star written all over her, had no trouble thrillingly projecting her big, brilliant lyric soprano over the orchestra in this difficult, wide-ranging part. And she delivered the Latin text not only intelligibly, but also with keen understanding.” The Boston Herald “In another class was BU alumna Kelly Kaduce, whose lustrous soprano rang out thrillingly across the wide range of her music... ‘This is a voice with lipstick and rouge on it.’ ” The Boston Globe LA BOHÈME – Florida Grand Opera “A radiant performance by Kelly Kaduce as Mimì. Following her impressive company debut as Marguerite in Faust, Kaduce built on that strong showing with her individual Mimì. This was not the standard weak, innocent waif but a vibrant and even passionate Mimì—instantly attracted to her neighbor and blowing out her candle on purpose to linger in Rodolfo’s flat... Vocally, Kaduce’s pure flexible soprano provided the evening’s finest moments with a sensitive Mi chiamano Mimì and beautiful floated Donde lieta usci. Her portrayal rose in stature with each act, culminating in a heart-breaking death scene, her soft words peacefully ebbing away to the luminous broken string phrases.” The Florida Sun-Sentinel ROMEO AND JULIETTE – Lyric Opera of Kansas City "Almost everything worked like a gem in this production, especially the inspired singing and acting of soprano Kelly Kaduce in the role of Juliette. Kaduce may well be the best singer heard at the Lyric in recent years, displaying a voice with marvelous fluidity and a wide palette of tonal colors. Kaduce was vocally impressive in Je veux vivre, but also proved herself a fine actress. Much of the incredible pathos of the production's second act came from Kaduce's reactions to the rapidly disintegrating dramatic action. Her facial expressions were quite memorable." The Johnson County Sun
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