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Karina Lucas
Mezzo soprano
- PLG Young Artists at the Purcell Room
- Hilary Finch 10/1/07 - The Times
“Lucas gave a poignantly sober performance of Anthony Payne’s wonder-filled setting of Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop, with her fine pianist, Simon Lane, activating “all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire”.”
- PLG Young Artists New Year Series
- Richard Whitehouse 7/1/07 - Classicalsource.com
“If it's New Year, it must be PLG! The annual week of performances (this year Sunday to Thursday) that comprises the Park Lane Group's series focussing on young artists and (mainly) contemporary music is a reliable fixture at the start of January, and this pair of recitals (at 6.15 and 7.45, typically) opened proceedings in the strongest way possible...
The main evening slot was, as usual, shared between two groups of performers. The Heath Quartet opened...
Even so, the highlight was Aaron Copland's Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (1950) – given what is a surprisingly rare complete outing, and a performance by mezzo-soprano Karina Lucas and the pianist Simon Lane which brought out a quizzical humour and understated pathos that are as central to Dickinson's verse as to Copland's thoughtfully perceptive settings. Her clarity of diction enabling the nuances of both text and music to be amply savoured, Lucas revealed complete identity with this underrated song-cycle that made for a listening experience both pleasurable and absorbing.
She was equally successful in songs by English composers: Peter Dickinson's Extravaganzas (1969), which sets breezily surrealistic verse by ‘beat’ poet Gregory Corso with no mean imagination, and the same composer's bluesily unorthodox treatment of the Robert Burns evergreen “A Red Red Rose” – separated by Anthony Payne's raptly intense setting of Edward Thomas's “Adlestrop” (1989).
A fine evening's music-making, then, with the only proviso that the next four instalments of this PLG series will be hard put to maintain the interpretative consistency evinced by the performers gathered here this evening.”
- Adès, Carter, Copland and Ligeti
- Peter Grahame Woolf - Musical Pointers
"Karina Lucas' name is one to remember. She entranced us......"
To read the entire review, which was published by Musical Pointers on line, please follow the link shown above
- Tobias and the Angel
- Michael Billington - The Guardian, 12th October 2006
"Karina Lucas's Sara is, touchingly, the archetypal captive princess."
- Dove flies in to christen Young Vic with warmth
- Michael Church - The Independent, 12th October 2006
"And the chief delight is the singing: Darren Abrahams, all airy plangency in the title role; Karina Lucas's bright-toned soprano, counter-tenor James Laing's ethereal Stranger..."
- Tobias and the Angel
- John Thaxter - The British Theatre Guide, 2006
"There are also fine contributions by baritone Omar Ebrahim as Tobit and mezzo Karina Lucas as Sara, future wife of Tobias..."
- National Opera Studio Showcase Queen Elizabeth Hall, London May 2005
- George Hall, 13th May 2005 - The Stage
"The National Opera Studio’s end of term showcase provides a great opportunity to sample the standards of the UK’s most advanced opera students............
Amongst those impressing with honed skills were Karina Lucas as Hansel and Mozart’s Idamante, Eleni Voudouraki as Aurelio in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais..........."
- Cosi Fan Tutte
- Edward Greenfield, 15/7/04 - The Guardian
“Best of all are the two mezzos, Andrea Palk a commanding Despina, who copes well with her arias and her two improbable disguises, and Karina Lucas as Dorabella, using her beautiful voice freely in every register.”