John Saeyong Ra photo
Art Times Online
Concert at Salmagundi Arts Club with Francisco Roldán, Guitar and Alexander A. Wu, Piano
...The “icing on the cake” for the evening of my visit was to sit in this gallery — surrounded by these light-filled canvases — to listen to the talents of soprano Gretchen Farrar, accompanied by guitarist Francisco Roldán and pianist Alexander Wu...
Raymond J. Steiner
Münchner Merkur
Her First American - A Concert/Reading
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
From review entitled “One Wanted to Listen for Hours”
Light-footed and sensitively, technically more than brilliant and with a very individual voice, the soprano Gretchen Farrar performed well-known and less well-known songs: “Hit the Road to Dreamland,” from Harold Arlen, “Steppin’ Out with My Baby,” by Irving Berlin or “I’ve Heard that Song Before” by Jule Styne – an overall elegant tightrope-walk between charming entertainment and profound quality, to which Dan Franklin Smith accompanied her supremely well as a virtuoso.
Katja Sebald
Times-Herald Record
Dialogues des Carmelites, Hudson Opera Theatre
Lyric soprano Gretchen Farrar, in an altogether different and innocent way, flashes a pleasant disposition in her role as the fun-loving Soeur Constance...
Marcus Kalipolites
The New York Times
Eighth Annual Guitar Festival with Francisco Roldán, Guitar
Mannes College of Music, New York, New York
Gretchen Farrar, a soprano, and Nan-Maro Babakhanian, a mezzo-soprano, gave passionate, shapely performances of seven of Mr. Cordero’s songs.
Alan Kozinn
Münchner Merkur
Discoveries
Music-Literary foray through the Lahr/von Leïtis Archive
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
Molding her earlier contribution with vocal power, Gretchen Farrar interpreted Egon Lustgarten’s Schlaflied after Ludwig Tieck somewhat “guardedly” - at the same time with great emotional presence.
Thomas Lochte
Münchner Merkur
The Cry for Life - Passionate Exiled Voices
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
Soprano Gretchen Farrar also shone with the singing technique of the musical modern, especially with the fascinating Moon Song by the composer Komitas.
Andreas Bretting
Münchner Merkur
On a Foreign Continent – Songs and Texts of North American Slaves
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
Special attention is due to soprano Gretchen Farrar. It was unusual to hear spirituals out of the voice of a white opera singer. The American began the roughly 1938-composed “Li’l Light of Mine” lightly and sweetly loving, then built up to a celebratory opera coloratura “Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine.”
Andreas Bretting
Süddeutsche Zeitung
On a Foreign Continent – Songs and Texts of North American Slaves
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
…Walter Gratz’s conception and direction allowed little staginess and reminded Farrar to be restrained. Only words and melodies were her means to give form to hope in the lethargy of loss. With “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child,” “Give Me Jesus” or “He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands” the opera singer, who also sounded out the boundaries of serious music, had rich material for subtle differences well in hand. Escalations and compressions across inner reduction with unspectacular gesticulations made the human dimension perceptible and tangible.
Reinhard Palmer
Concert at Salmagundi Arts Club with Francisco Roldán, Guitar and Alexander A. Wu, Piano
...The “icing on the cake” for the evening of my visit was to sit in this gallery — surrounded by these light-filled canvases — to listen to the talents of soprano Gretchen Farrar, accompanied by guitarist Francisco Roldán and pianist Alexander Wu...
Raymond J. Steiner
Münchner Merkur
Her First American - A Concert/Reading
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
From review entitled “One Wanted to Listen for Hours”
Light-footed and sensitively, technically more than brilliant and with a very individual voice, the soprano Gretchen Farrar performed well-known and less well-known songs: “Hit the Road to Dreamland,” from Harold Arlen, “Steppin’ Out with My Baby,” by Irving Berlin or “I’ve Heard that Song Before” by Jule Styne – an overall elegant tightrope-walk between charming entertainment and profound quality, to which Dan Franklin Smith accompanied her supremely well as a virtuoso.
Katja Sebald
Times-Herald Record
Dialogues des Carmelites, Hudson Opera Theatre
Lyric soprano Gretchen Farrar, in an altogether different and innocent way, flashes a pleasant disposition in her role as the fun-loving Soeur Constance...
Marcus Kalipolites
The New York Times
Eighth Annual Guitar Festival with Francisco Roldán, Guitar
Mannes College of Music, New York, New York
Gretchen Farrar, a soprano, and Nan-Maro Babakhanian, a mezzo-soprano, gave passionate, shapely performances of seven of Mr. Cordero’s songs.
Alan Kozinn
Münchner Merkur
Discoveries
Music-Literary foray through the Lahr/von Leïtis Archive
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
Molding her earlier contribution with vocal power, Gretchen Farrar interpreted Egon Lustgarten’s Schlaflied after Ludwig Tieck somewhat “guardedly” - at the same time with great emotional presence.
Thomas Lochte
Münchner Merkur
The Cry for Life - Passionate Exiled Voices
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
Soprano Gretchen Farrar also shone with the singing technique of the musical modern, especially with the fascinating Moon Song by the composer Komitas.
Andreas Bretting
Münchner Merkur
On a Foreign Continent – Songs and Texts of North American Slaves
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
Special attention is due to soprano Gretchen Farrar. It was unusual to hear spirituals out of the voice of a white opera singer. The American began the roughly 1938-composed “Li’l Light of Mine” lightly and sweetly loving, then built up to a celebratory opera coloratura “Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine.”
Andreas Bretting
Süddeutsche Zeitung
On a Foreign Continent – Songs and Texts of North American Slaves
Elysium – Between Two Continents, Bernried, Germany
…Walter Gratz’s conception and direction allowed little staginess and reminded Farrar to be restrained. Only words and melodies were her means to give form to hope in the lethargy of loss. With “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child,” “Give Me Jesus” or “He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands” the opera singer, who also sounded out the boundaries of serious music, had rich material for subtle differences well in hand. Escalations and compressions across inner reduction with unspectacular gesticulations made the human dimension perceptible and tangible.
Reinhard Palmer