Mary Plazas - soprano
"The undisputed star of the show is Mary Plazas as Analia, as usual acting and singing her socks off. I don’t know what the woman is on, but it certainly works." (Letters of a Love Betrayed/Linbury) Opera Now, October 2009
"The unstoppable Mary Plazas flings herself into the role of Analia with her usual fierce commitment." (Letters of a Love Betrayed/Linbury) Telegraph, October 2009
"Mary Plazas is excellent as the dreamy girl with the inner strength to seize back her life and land in a macho society." (Letters of a Love Betrayed/Linbury) The Times, October 2009
"...especially in the vocally resilient and dramatically assured presentation of Anilía by soprano Mary Plazas." (Letters of a Love Betrayed/Linbury) The Guardian, October 2009
"All the principals distinguished themselves. Mary Plazas...ending as mistress of all she surveyed in a searing cabaletta." (Lucrezia Borgia/Buxton) Opera Magazine, August 2009
“Mary Plazas gave a titanic performance in the title role, negotiating Donizetti’s coloratura sweeps with heroic abandon.” (Lucrezia Borgia/Buxton) Financial Times, June 2009
“But the performance's greatest virtue is a well-matched, well-integrated cast, led by the remarkable Mary Plazas in the title-role…she simply got better and better, rising to tragic heights in the tremendous last scene. Despite her tiny bodily frame, Plazas has extraordinary vocal endurance, and her vivid facial features make her an arrestingly expressive actress.” (Lucrezia Borgia/Buxton) Telegraph, June 2009
“…in her final virtuoso aria, Plazas …yield[ed] a truly magnificent tour de force of Donizettian bel canto.” (Lucrezia Borgia/Buxton) The Times, June 2009
"By the finale she was in quite magnificent estate, and whilst in this variation Lucrezia takes poison herself, we were not denied a superb acted and vocal conclusion from her that was justifiably applauded to the rafters." (Lucrezia Borgia/Buxton) Seen and Heard International, June 2009
"Toby Spence and Mary Plazas hit the bull’s-eye with their solo stints — eloquent expressions of boyish abandon, the wonder of birth and a mother’s grief." (There was a Child by Jonathan Dove/Norfolk & Norwich Festival) The Times, May 2009
“Vocally, close to excellence. Mary Plazas replaces with brilliance Mireille Delunsch, the roles creator.” (Lady Sarashina/Opéra Comique) ResMusica, February 2009
“Mary Plazas, looking a treat 'en déshabille', sang her aria brightly.”
(I Pagliacci/ENO) Opera Magazine, November 2008
“Mary Plazas’s captivating, radiantly sung Nelly delights in the trilly birdsong of her Ballatella.” (I Pagliacci/ENO) Sunday Times, September 2008
“Mary Plazas dazzles as Mr Paxo's flighty wife Nelly (Nedda).”
(I Pagliacci/ENO) Telegraph, September 2008
“Mary Plazas is more than equal to the not inconsiderable demands of Nedda”
(I Pagliacci/ENO) Independent, September 2008
"Mary Plazas in charming voice was ideally cast as the Blue Fairy." (Pinocchio/Opera North) Opera, March 2008
"Playing the Blue Fairy...is the exquisitely voiced and perfectly cast Mary Plazas." (Pinocchio/Opera North) The Stage, January 2008
"Mary Plazas is a vision of sweetness and light as the Blue Fairy." (Pinocchio/Opera North) Financial Times, December 2007
"Mary Plazas brings special vocal allure and charisma to the Blue Fairy’s appearances." (Pinocchio/Opera North) Sunday Times, December 2007
"The casting throughout is impressive .... Mary Plazas as the Blue Fairy, shimmering in every sense." (Pinocchio/Opera North) Independent, December 2007
"The star of the show for me was another Opera North regular Mary Plazas, who sang exquisitely in the role of the Blue Fairy." (Pinocchio/Opera North) Musical Opinion, December 2007
"Mary Plazas a charming and graceful Blue Fairy." (Pinocchio/Opera North) Telegraph, December 2007
"Mary Plazas...is a Mimi who experiences gut-wrenching horror at her illness and imminent death, and galvanises a glorious inner strength to farewell her friends in Act 4. Plazas' singing is esquisitely phrased; she lingers beautifully over Mi chiamano Mimi and delicately controls the extreme high notes. Her Act 4 duet with Rodolfo is laced with fragility and firded with resolve." The West Australian, October 2007
“… there were two stars in Buxton Festival's Roberto Devereux. Mary Plazas sings Elizabetta, displaying her versatility as a singing actress in this bloody tragedy...Plazas successfully (and seemingly effortlessly) negotiates her virtuoso role with its range, ornamentation and – in the closing "Vivi, ingrato" – expansive yet restrained emotion.” (Roberto Devereux/Buxton) The Independent 2007
"Mary Plazas....gave a fiercely dramatic and effective performance." (Roberto Devereux/Buxton) Opera Magazine 2007
“Elizabeth was nothing if not a self-styled diva, and Mary Plazas’s scintillating coloratura becomes an explosive expression of the queen’s histronics….the outstanding Plazas is supported by a strong cast…”
(Roberto Devereux/Buxton) The Guardian 2007
“…it makes for riveting music drama, especially when it is sung with such fervour as here, by a cast that any of our national opera companies would be proud to field. Mary Plazas’s feisty Elizabeth, Susan Bickley’s passionate Sara and David Kempster as the Duke of Nottingham are thrilling in their angry confrontations.” (Roberto Devereux/Buxton) The Sunday Times 2007
“…the redoubtable Mary Plazas wins through by virtue of the sheer ardour of her singing, warmed by imaginative phrasing and sensitive musicality.”
(Roberto Devereux/Buxton) The Telegraph 2007
“The strength of Mary Plazas’s Mimì is in her very simplicity. The truthfulness and clarity of detail in her performance has a power to move that creeps up on you almost unnoticed.” (La Bohème/ENO) The Times 2007
…the best revival this coolish staging has had, thanks to its believably youthful lovers – Mary Plazas and Peter Auty….” (La Bohème/ENO) The Sunday Times 2007
“This was a fine ensemble performance, led by Mary Plazas as Mimi. Her doll-like fragility combined with vocal stamina make her a figure of true pathos.”
(La Bohème/ENO) Evening Standard 2007
“On an emotional level it's a curiously neutral work, but its portrayal of the Duchess didn't seem quite as heartless as it might - partly because of the dignity in soprano Mary Plazas's exemplary performance.” (Powder Her Face/LSO) The Guardian 2006
“She’s a laser-bright foil to the dark sensuality and wounded dignity of Mary Plazas’s Duchess who powerfully re-creates the pain of an aristocracy stranded in a fractured society.” (Powder Her Face/LSO) The Times 2006
“It's well sung, with Leonardo Capalbo (Juan) and Mary Plazas (Juanita) on exceptional form.” (Arms and the Cow/Opera North) The Guardian 2006
“That lovely and courageous soprano Mary Plazas transcended the glitzy artifice of the production with heartfelt and beautifully judged singing as Butterfly….”
Michael Kennedy in Opera Magazine, January 2006
“Madam Butterfly stands or falls by its heroine, of course, and in the title role, the diminutive Mary Plazas triumphs…her Cio-Cio San is emphatically a “piccola Butterfly”: delicate, fragile, supremely musical and, finally, gut-wrenchingly truthful. Even if Minghella’s production were less watchable than it is, Plazas would be unmissable.”
Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times, November 2005
“Mary Plazas triumphs in the title role. Though slight enough to look convincingly like a child-bride, she sings as well as most who tackle this role today; she is both feisty and very touching.”
John Allison in The Sunday Telegraph, 13 November 2005
“…Mary Plazas makes a beguiling Butterfly, singing beautifully...”
Anthony Holden in The Observer, 13 November 2005
“Mary Plazas’ Butterfly is extraordinary, the tiny figure disturbingly highlighting the story’s more perverse aspects. She judges superbly the delicate balance between resolve and vulnerability, never plays victim. Vocally, she husbands her resources skilfully never to compromise the power of the ‘spinto’ vocal lines.” (Madam Butterfly/ENO) The Stage, November 2005
“There’s one touching and beautifully observed performance, from the tiny-framed but great-hearted Mary Plazas in the title role.”
(Madam Butterfly/ENO) Richard Morrison in The Times, November 2005
"Mary Plazas…is a lovely singer, who imbued every note with feeling and instinctively musical shape."
(Madam Butterly/ENO) Rupert Christiansen in The Telegraph, November 2005
“..and it is a measure of Mary Plazas’ touching performance in the title role that she too makes the puppet real for us…she is a musician through and through and her wealth of experience brings much that is personal and touching, not least the way cadences melt away, now hopeful, now hopeless.”
9Madam Butterfly/ENO) Edward Seckerson in The Independent, November 2005
“Mary Plazas’ diminutive physique distinguishes her from most interpreters of the title role, and on Saturday she seemed unfazed by its vocal demands.”
(Madam Butterfly/ENO) Andrew Clark in The Financial Times, November 2005
“The outstanding contribution came from Mary Plazas, the Manchester-trained real opera-singing soprano, a favourite of both London and northern audiences and an increasingly frequent visitor to the Hallé platform. We knew she could sing straight classical repertoire beautifully…what was a discovery was how relaxed and vivacious a performer she is in lighter stuff…”
(Hallé/Bridgewater Hall) Manchester Evening News 2004
“Mary Plazas generated quite astonishing power, not to say total commitment, as Salud, eventually donning a wedding dress of her own and dying a gruesomely protracted, self-inflicted death. She is quite fearless in the way she hurls her soprano into the fray, while keeping it under close control.” (La Vida Breve/Opera North) Martin Dreyer in Opera, June 2004
"At the heart of the staging is the heart-rending, glorious Salud of Mary Plazas, one of the truly great opera artists in Britain today....For Plazas's astonishing performance, and Falla's music, La Vida Breve is really unmissable."
(La Vida Breve/Opera North) Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times, April 18, 2004
“…and Mary Plazas in a coruscating performance as Salud, commits the most deliberate, vivid, hard-to-watch suicide you’ll ever see on stage.”
(La Vida Breve/Opera North) Robert Thicknesse in The Times, April 15, 2004
“(I) greatly admired the dignity and plangency that Mary Plazas brought to the role of Salud.” (La Vida Breve/Opera North)
Rupert Christiansen in The Telegraph, April 15, 2004
“Mary Plazas, quite superb." (La Vida Breve/Opera North)
Andrew Clements in The Guardian, April 15, 2004
“..La Vida Breve is sensationally well-acted – by Plazas and Coxon in particular…” (La Vida Breve/Opera North)
Anna Picard in The Independent on Sunday, April 18, 2004
“From happiness she moves to despair. Mary Plazas gives a wonderful performance of this evolution.” (La Vida Breve/Opera North) Anthony Arblaster in the Independent, April 20, 2004
“…Mary Plazas, sensational in all respects as Salud…”
(La Vida Breve/Opera North) Michael Tanner in The Spectator, April 24, 2004
“…Mary Plazas took the house by storm as Salud, singing with rapturous tone.”
(La Vida Breve/Opera North) Michael Kennedy in The Sunday Telegraph, April 25, 2004
“…there’s a truly great central performance from Mary Plazas as Mimì, gloriously voiced and suggesting a woman clinging to the pleasures of life in the face of death.” (La Boheme/RAH)
Tim Ashley in The Guardian February 28, 2004
“The star of the evening was Mary Plazas as a waif-like Mimì. Her full soprano, with gleaming high notes, also makes room for singing of veiled intimacy; and she knows how to make her acting register in this big space.”
(La Boheme/RAH)Peter Reed in The Sunday Telegraph February 29, 2004
“The opening night cast was led by Mary Plazas…huge voice and musically unassailable, yet slight enough to be picked up by her lover like a limp rag doll, she went to the heart of this fragile creature.” (La Boheme/RAH)
Fiona Maddocks in The Evening Standard February 27, 2004
“Mary Plazas, a prospect to lift the spirits in this role, found a blend of sparkiness and vulnerability that made the bright, focused singing ring true."
(La Boheme/RAH) Robert Maycock in The Independent March 2, 2004
“Mary Plazas’s poignant Mimì….” (La Boheme/RAH)
Anthony Holden in The Observer February 29, 2004
“Mary Plazas is an unforgettably fragile waif, singing with spellbinding sincerity as Mimì. (La Boheme/RAH) Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times March 7, 2004
“Plazas’s frailty of physique and vulnerability of body language made the last act almost unbearable to watch.” R(La Boheme/RAH) Rodney Milnes in Opera, May 2004
“Mary Plazas as Fiordiligi was outstanding: Come scoglio might be paraodic but here was no doubt that she meant every word, and her Act II accompagnata and arias was sung with a delicacy and involvement that completely reinvented it.”
(Così fan tutte, ENO) The Times September 2003
“Mary Plazas sung best of all. She was a soprano Dorabella – as Mozart’s Louise Vielleneuve was...for once ‘L’amore è un ladroncello’ didn’t seem a number that might well be omitted.” (Così fan tutte, ENO) Opera Magazine August 2002
“The clear-as-a-bell soprano of Mary Plazas is an asset, and she does some beautiful things as Liù.” (Turandot, Chandos Records) Opera Magazine February 2003
“Mary Plazas sung best of all. She was a soprano Dorabella – as Mozart’s Louise Vielleneuve was...for once ‘L’amore è un ladroncello’ didn’t seem a number that might well be omitted.” (Così fan tutte, ENO) Opera Magazine August 2002
“Mary Plazas is a radiant and highly assured Mimì.” (La Bohème, Bregenz)
Orpheus Oper International, Germany 2001
“Mary Plazas’s Elvira is a real spitfire, vocally and dramatically”
(Don Giovanni, Glyndebourne) The Stage 2000
“..Mary Plazas – whose electric flex of a soprano wound itself snugly around Thomson’s melodies.” (Four Saints in Three Acts, ENO) Independent on Sunday, London 2000
“…excellent in delivering it’s intense, declaimed vocal lines and at colouring the voice to work with the sonorities of the orchestra.”
(Shostakovich Symphony No 14, Irish Chamber Orchestra) The Irish Times, Dublin 2000
“Mary Plazas made a beautiful sound and phrased exquisitely…”
(Brahms German Requiem, CBSO) The Guardian, London 2000
“The cast is led by Mary Plazas’s fearsomely predatory duchess; her vocal command is magnificent…” (Powder Her Face, Aldeburgh) The Guardian, London 1999
“Mary Plazas singing sweetly, firmly and with appropriate pathos makes a winning Marguerite.” (Faust, Chandos Records) The Daily Telegraph, London 1999
“…Mary Plazas’s Adina, sweet and unforced in tone and phrased with real musical sensitivity….this soprano is gaining ground with every role she undertakes”
(L’Elisir d’Amore, ENO) Opera Magazine, London 1998
“Singing honours belong to Mary Plazas…she is sweet toned and elegant. Here is real style, a lovely legato and an unerring instinct to dramatic diminuendo.” (Maria, Regina d’Inghilterra, Opera Rara) Opera Magazine, London 1998
“…her pure, agile lyric soprano projects easily into the auditorium in an enormously winning interpretation.” (The Pearl Fishers, ENO) The Times, London 1996
“Mary Plazas is entirely delightful, fresh-voiced and musical as Marzelline.”
(Fidelio, ENO) Financial Times, London 1996