Maren performed Lansing McLoskey’s One Book Called Ulysses, a tour de force written for mezzo and sinfonietta, with Ensemble Ibis in Miami on Saturday, October 5. This was the second performance of that work, which she premiered with Network for New Music in Philadelphia in 2022, on the centenary of the publication of Joyce’s novel. […]
WHYY sat down to speak with Maren Montalbano and other cast members of Opera Philadelphia’s July performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors in this article. “It’s a story about poverty and generosity. It’s a story of despair and hope, and it’s a story about miracles. You can have that any time of the year. […]
“As a performer, my favorite thing about opera is just dressing up and playing somebody else. The really great thing about opera is everything is over the top. It’s just the tiniest things can be blown way out of proportion. You find these beautiful arias that are basically, ‘oh, I lost a ring.’ I think that there’s something really beautiful, magical about that. Any small moment in anybody’s life can seem like it’s the worst or the best thing in the world. It’s really cool to kind of be a part of that and magnify emotions in that way.”
Maren’s solo in Edie Hill’s Spectral Spirits was called out in this RARB.org review of The Crossing’s 2022 Grammy-nominated album, BORN. Read the full article here. “Soloists Maren Montalbano and Rebecca Myers blow me away…”Montalbano’s mezzo frames many of the choral pieces with short namings of the birds in question, a recitative that has its […]
Ms. Montalbano’s performance of Baltic and Nordic songs in Lyric Fest’s Songs from the Tundra was described as “winning” by the Broad Street Review. Maren Montalbano sang with warmth and expression that added luster to dramatic works like “Det syng” (The Song) by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and “Amidst Weeping,” a fervent nationalistic polemic by Ukrainian Vadym […]
Opera Today had many wonderful things to say about the premiere of Lembit Beecher’s new opera about Alzheimer’s disease, Sky on Swings. Ms. Montalbano was mentioned in her role as a part of a quartet of Elders, which sings throughout the piece. O18: Unsettling, Riveting Sky on Swings by James Sohre September 23, 2018 The quartet […]
The Review The Broad Street Review article was a review of The Crossing‘s second Month of Moderns 2018 concert, titled VOYAGES. Ms. Montalbano sang a solo in the world premiere of Benjamin C.S. Boyle’s Voyages (Cantata No. 2), which was commissioned for The Crossing. Setting sail with the Crossing choir by Gail Obenreder June 19, […]
Melissa Dunphy’s Hervararkviða, which was written for Sea Tangle: Songs from the North, has gotten a second life in Ohio. It was featured on The American Sound on Radio WOSU in March 2018. A Gender-Bending Viking Warrior Claims Her Birthright in Three Songs by Composer Melissa Dunphy By Jennifer Hambrick – March 19, 2018 Philadelphia-based […]
Like trains of cars on tracks of plush I hear the level bee: A jar across the flowers goes, Their velvet masonry Withstands until the sweet assault Their chivalry consumes, While he, victorious, tilts away To vanquish other blooms. His feet are shod with gauze, His helmet is of gold; His breast, a single onyx […]
I shall keep singing! Birds will pass me On their way to Yellower Climes — Each — with a Robin’s expectation — I — with my Redbreast — And my Rhymes — Late — when I take my place in summer — But — I shall bring a fuller tune — Vespers — are sweeter […]