Jennifer Rowley
Soprano
Press Reviews
Musetta in La Bohème (Den Norske Opera & Ballet)
"Musettas store scene i kafeen synges og spilles fremragende av Jennifer Rowley, som til tider truer med a overstrale Mimì vokalt." (Click here for full article.)
- Erling E. Guldbrandsen, Morgenbladet, Jan 31, 2012
(Musetta's great scene in the cafe is sung and played outstandingly by Jennifer Rowley, which at times threatens to outshine Mimi vocally.)
"Jennifer Rowley var djevelsk snerten i nøkkelrollen som Musetta, fristerinnen inn i fortrengningens vidunderlige verden." (Click here for full article.)
- Ragnhild Veire, NRK, Jan 22, 2012
(Jennifer Rowley was infernal in the key role of Musetta, well within the limits of displacement in her wonderful world.)
"Jennifer Rowley amazed as Musetta..." (Click here for full article.)
- Von Jörn Florian Fuchs, Neue Musikzeitung, Jan 22, 2012
Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Savonlinna Opera Festival)
"Young Jennifer Rowley is a movingly sublime Donna Anna, drifting to the borderline of madness and singing dazzlingly beautifully and nobly in her lyrical soprano, which also has a dramatic radiance."
- Hannu-Ilari Lampila, Helsingin Sanomat, July 3, 2011
"Jennifer Rowley's uninhibited spellbinding performance is a rare treat in these waters. Burning with emotions of love and the torment of disappointments and betrayal, her figure dominates the stage regally... Such apt and well-projected gesturing, including flickering of the eyes, is hard to find. Her soprano has strength and breadth, and an indescribable richness of tone."
- Matti Saurama, Uutispäivä Demari, July 5, 2011
"...of a cast made of good performers, among them stood out the complex and fascinating, dramatically and vocally, Jennifer Rowley as Donna Anna..."
- Serenella Gragnani, ArtistallOpera, July 19, 2011
"Jennifer Rowley's soprano (Donna Anna) sounds rich and vibrant."
- Turun Sanomat, July 3, 2011
Title role in Maria di Rohan (Caramoor Music Festival)
"The Bel Canto training program at the Caramoor Festival must be doing something right, if one of its young artists can step in at the last moment to the demanding title role of a little-known Donizetti opera and emerge not just unscathed but a real star... cover artist Jennifer Rowley had just two days and one rehearsal to figure out the vocal pacing and balance, along with the semi-staging of the three-act work, sung without scores. From the biting cry of "Rival! Se tu sapessi" that launches Maria's first cavatina, Rowley revealed a commanding soprano voice, richly colored, with an attractive thrust and full control of trills, roulades and vocal shadings. In addition, her powerful low notes balanced a resplendent top. The audience, prepared to support the understudy politely, seemed amazed at its good fortune, and as the evening progressed, Rowley's poise and authority deepened into a galvanizing vocal and musical portrayal... If all the understudies were as well prepared as Rowley, the future of bel canto singing is in good hands." (Click here for full review.)
- Judith Malafronte, Opera News, October 2010
"The show went on with Jennifer Rowley as her impressive replacement after just one rehearsal... Donizetti denied his heroine the final aria she might normally have been allotted... Still, Ms. Rowley had plenty of other opportunities to shine, as in "Cupa fatal mestizia," her poignantly rendered Act I aria. Throughout, she sang with a fluid, darkly rich voice and expressively conveyed Maria's anguish over her affair with Riccardo and her guilt for betraying her nice-guy husband." (Click here for full review.)
- Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, July 26, 2010
"The evening's unexpected visitor was the soprano who took on the title role as the Countess of Rohan, a noblewoman in the Parisian court of Louis XIII who is torn between love for the tenor and obligation to her baritone husband, Enrico.
When rising star Takesha Meshe Kizart became ill and canceled the day before the performance, her understudy, Jennifer Rowley, stepped in with just one rehearsal.
To say that the young singer from Ohio acquitted herself well would be severe understatement. Rowley proved fully equal to the demands of a role that requires both coloratura dexterity and dramatic power beyond the limits of a lyric soprano. She can sing with melting purity, but her voice also takes on an intriguing, dark-tinged color at times...
Perhaps most impressive of all, given the circumstances, was her involvement in the role dramatically and her ability in a concert performance to make the countess's somewhat implausible plight seem compelling.
At the end, her eyes brimmed with tears in response to the cheers from an audience that had filled the tented Venetian Theater despite oppressive heat and humidity." (Click here for full review.)
- Mike Silverman, The Washington Post (AP), July 25, 2010
"Last night the audience again braved the heat to hear the substitute Jennifer Rowley sing Maria for the first time. And she also triumphed. When she first made her appearance with the words "Stringe l'ora: M'udite" it was clear that this was going to be an exciting evening. She shortly followed with the beautiful "Cupa fatal mestizia" and there was no turning back. She exhibited both power and tenderness. Her high notes were clear and confident. Her cabaletta "Ben fu il giorno avventurato" was particularly exciting as was her Act III prayer (without the cabaletta)... Not surprisingly the crowd cheered her on throughout the evening, culminating in ecstatic applause." (Click here for full review.)
- Lewis M. Schneider, Musicweb International, July, 2010
"Jennifer Rowley... sang with only one rehearsal and deserved every bit of applause received and more for her exceptional and very moving work. Her voice is large and luscious, a truly important instrument wedded to wonderful interpretive powers. She is on the road to a great career with major debuts coming up." (Click here for full review.)
- Alexandra Zalska, Playbill Arts, July 30, 2010
"The severely-pressed Maria was miraculously sung by the cover, Jennifer Rowley, on two days notice... this was a thrilling chance, which Ms. Rowley seized with velveteen outpourings that delighted the already overheated crowd." (Click here for full review.)
- Richard Traubner, MusicalCriticism.com, July 31, 2010
"Jennifer Rowley sang with a handsomely textured and richly resonant soprano. She had the role securely in hand... Maria's prayer, Havvi un Dio, with English horn obbligato, was touchingly done." (Click here for full review.)
- George Loomis, The Classical Review, July 27, 2010
"The intrepid cover, Jennifer Rowley, crowned herself with laurels. Her performance was simply stunning, doubly so given the limited rehearsal time she's rumored to have. She has a gleaming, bright tone, an attractive vibrato (reminiscent of Opera Rara's early diva Janet Price); it's a voice with a lot of color, dark at the bottom, bright and gleaming at the top. Her dramatic ability was absolutely stellar - she made the heroine's plight completely believable without overacting."
- The Donizetti Society Journal, Oct, 2010
Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Opera New Jersey)
"Moments of electricity burst forth when one of the female leads (Jennifer Rowley as Konstanze) planted her feet and declared victory over a welter of notes... Rowley's mid-weight lyric soprano seemed a bit heavy for Konstanze's intricate music, but hearing a voice of that size move so quickly had something of a Joan Sutherland effect."
- David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2009
"Rowley confronts the superhuman demands of Konztanze’s challenging music with aplomb. She fashions a stream of affecting sound in the long lyrical lines of "Traurigkeit" and then negotiates the vocal fireworks in "Martern aller Arten" with a blend of passion and discipline."
- Robert Baxter, ConcertoNet, July 2009
"This year, the breakout discovery is the marvelous Konstanze, Jennifer Rowley. Rowley, an attractive, statuesque young lady, currently a part of the apprentice artists program at the famed Teatro Communale di Bologna, is a find. I haven't heard a Konstanze with Rowley's kind of dramatic metal in the voice since Edda Moser. But her tone quality reminded me of the ruby-like soprano of Carol Vaness, and the deep opulence and smooth power of Christine Goerke. Like Vaness, Rowley has admirable flexibility; she nailed several trills, even in the lowest lying parts of the fiendish vocal challenge Mozart set for this role, in the "Traurigkeit ward mir zum Lose". Rowley sailed through "Martern aller Arten" with flying colors... Rowley is one to keep an eye on."
- James Camner, Opera-L, July 2009
Janiec Opera Company-Brevard Music Center Amphitheatre
"...Ms. Rowley's Zerbinetta stole the show... and after her large aria, graciously accepted her well earned standing ovation..."
- Asheville Citizen-Times, June 2004
Otello Act III in Concert (Indiana University)
"...Ms. Rowley is a soprano with a unique voice of great warmth and beauty... and is to be commended on her intense dramatic interpretation..."
- Peter Jacobi, The Herald Times, 2004
First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Cleveland Opera)
"...Many smaller roles were more strongly cast, especially the three ladies (Jennifer Lyn Rowley, Sandra Ross, Laura Vlasak Nolen)..."
- Donald Rosenburg, Plain Dealer, April 2003
Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffman (Palace of the Secretary of Arts and Culture; Buenos Aires, Argentina)
"The performance featured guest artist Jennifer Rowley... a beautiful, young American soprano with great operatic potential." (translated)
- El Cronista, July 2002