BILLEVESÉES FICTION, NON-FICTION, AND NONSENSE FROM AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (SOMETIMES)
by William V. Madison June, 24 2015
Though I first heard her in Verdi, soprano Caroline Worra has over the years earned a sterling reputation for new work, singing in premieres and near-premieres with opera companies across the United States. When Mark Adamo’s Little Women opened at Glimmerglass, there was Caroline Worra, who managed to make Amy (my least-favorite March sister) appealing and sympathetic. When Fort Worth Opera brought Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied to the stage, there was Caroline Worra again, bringing life to a modern-day Penelope whose husband’s long wartime odyssey cost them both all that they shared.I started to count up the contemporary roles in her repertory — The Mines of Sulphur, Lizzie Borden, and Orphée, just off the top of my head, and there are lots of others — but ultimately, it’s not about numbers. To everything she does, Caroline Worra brings clarity: she lets nothing stand between her and her audience, spinning her stories with irresistible immediacy of expression. No matter how difficult or surprising the music, her message comes across.With Opera Saratoga this summer, Worra will sing three roles in another world premiere, Jeremy Howard Beck’s The Long Walk, an adaptation of Iraqi War veteran Brian Castner’s coming-home memoir. From workshops and sing-throughs to opening night, Worra has been involved in The Long Walk at every step: in fact, “The entire cast has stayed with the project for two years, which is incredible,” she says. “We generally don’t get this kind of luxury.”The Long Walk’s cast also includes Daniel Belcher, Heather Johnson, Donita Volkwijn, David Blalock, Javier Abreu, and Justin Hopkins. Two years ago, the company assembled to work through about half the opera, with only piano and an electric guitar for accompaniment. “The next year, it was a little bit longer,” Worra says, “and this past March, we read it again with the full orchestration. To be with a piece for this long, in these crucial stages of existence, has been a treat for all of us.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
OPERA NEWS magazine
Sound Bites: Caroline Worra
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by Timothy Mangan
Caroline Worra is game. Taking the lead role in Long Beach Opera's June production of Handel's Semele, set by director Isabel Milenski in a modern-day Texas of seedy motels and big-money barbecues, the brave soprano set her eyes on Jupiter (Benjamin Brecher in a ten-gallon hat), then sneaked off with him to his parked convertible. To the strains of "Endless Pleasure, Endless Love," the couple got to know each other in the Biblical sense, Worra's silvery rendition of the da capo ornamentation coming across as an expression of her ever-increasing sensual enjoyment."It certainly would have been a lot easier to stand there and sing it," Worra says, laughing. But if a director asks, she'll give it a shot. "I try not to say no to anything, because I think it's just my responsibility to figure out how to be able to do it." This attitude extends to the parts she chooses to sing as well, making her repertoire difficult to summarize. More and more, it's both the old and the new - parts such as the mad Jenny in Richard Rodney Bennett's The Mines of Sulphur (recently released on a Chandos recording), Curley's Wife in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men, Amy in Mark Adamo's Little Women and the title heroines Semele, Arianna and Agrippina. "I think for me it's especially healthy if I can always go back and be singing early music between twentieth-century [works] or between operettas," she says. "Because I think that it always brings it back to make sure that I'm staying on that pure line."After stints in San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera and Pittsburgh Opera's young artists program, Worra cut her teeth singing small roles and covering big ones at Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera. Though she was never asked to go on, the experience of covering honed her work ethic and taught her psychological fortitude. 2006 sees her as Donna Elvira in NYCO's Don Giovanni, as Mabel in Glimmerglass's Pirates of Penzance and in a Weill Hall recital debut (with a fellow University of Missouri alum, tenor Ryan MacPherson).The Wisconsin native, a runner-up in her state beauty contest, intended to be a pianist, and the technique still informs her singing. "When I do lots of fioritura, lots of fast runs, I feel like they're on the piano and I'm just thinking them." She calls a quiet corner in the Bronx home now. The call of regional opera is increasingly taking her away from this idyll, but Worra doesn't mind. She likes the challenges of travel, of unknown companies, new parts and directors asking her to do who-knows-what. "I try to always be a student," she says. "I'm constantly in a state of improving." TIMOTHY MANGAN
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TIME OUT NEW YORK magazine
From "We got next"
by Steve Smith
TONY's favorite artists give a nod to the rising stars they're watching.
The pick: Caroline Worra, operatic soprano, seen above
The fan: Mark Adamo, composer of the operas Little Women and Lysistrata
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What’s the story? Caroline’s an immaculate musician and vocally complete, but that’s only where a singer starts. Her sound is utterly her own—rich, bright, crackling with electricity—and every time I hear her she’s a bolder, more inventive actress.
First encounter? I met her as a Glimmerglass Young Artist, preparing her first Amy in the Little Women production she later accompanied to New York.
Latest sighting? I engaged her to sing Lysia on the demo recording of Lysistrata. I’ve also heard her in The Mines of Sulfur, The Greater Good and most recently in Lance Horne’s terrific Three Lost Chords at the Zipper Theater. In “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” the central scene of Three Lost Chords, her intensity was such, you could hardly draw breath.
Stolen anything? By definition, I can’t really steal anything from Caroline. But, as Leonard Bernstein once said of Maria Callas, if I could sing like that I’d never write another note again.
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Opera Now Magazine
Agrippina at Boston Lyric Opera
Agrippina opens tonight at Boston Lyric Opera, starring Caroline Worra as Handel's anti-heroine in a production first staged by Glimmerglass and New York City Opera.
The Grammy-nominated soprano is expected to take on Handel’s portrait of an arch female power-monger and manipulative mother with the same compelling confidence that characterised her performances as Elettra in BLO’s Idomeneo last year.A specialist of Handel and Mozart as well as C20th and C21st opera, Worra says that she particularly loves less well-known works because “audiences don’t come to the theatre with pre-conceived notions about what they are about to see and hear.”“Handel opera,” she explains, “is a truly unique experience, as the ornaments are never the same twice. It's like a jazz improvisation, which happens live in the moment for that particular audience on that particular night – anything can happen!”Agrippina runs from 11–22 March at the Citi Performing Arts Center, Boston.
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Review Highlights
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"...Worra was riveting...proving herself one of the finest singing actresses around." (Abigail Borden in Lizzie Borden - Opera News)
"Worra was perfect." (Older Alice in Glory Denied - Broadway World)
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"...Worra brings emotional directness and singing of white hot charisma... she exerts a prodigious histrionic presence even in the context of an audio recording." (Geltrude in Amleto - Joseph Newsome CD review)
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"Caroline Worra deploys flawless technique and sureness of pitch as Ellen Orford...Rarely have I heard 'Embroidery in Childhood' Ellen's haunting and difficult third-act aria sung better." (Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes - Talkin' Broadway)
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"The most cut-to-the-chase, knock-your-black-lace-stockings-off performance was delivered in the second opera, Embedded. Caroline Worra as Sylvia Malow gave a performance that is not to be missed...Her vocal flexibility and intensity carried the role with unearthly ease..." (Sylvia Malow in Embedded from The Poe Project - The Column)
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"At the center of this piece is Caroline Worra, making her Tulsa Opera debut as Blanche DuBois, and she is extraordinary..." (Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire - Tulsa World)
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"Caroline Worra as Queen Geltrude is truly one of the most fantastic sopranos I've heard live." (Geltrude in Amleto - Operagasm)
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"...soprano Caroline Worra took the lead with her customary gusto and witty aplomb; I'm a big fan of Worra..." (Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte - The Hub Review)
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"I have just returned from DC where I saw one of the greatest opera performances in my long, long years. Caroline Worra as Charlotte in Before Breakfast. She was amazing in every way, vocally, musically, and dramatically. She held the audience in the palm of her hand and no one breathed for the forty minutes of her monologue. It does not get any better than this." (Thomas Pasatieri - composer of Before Breakfast)
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"...she had it all - a beautiful voice, dynamic stage presence, tremendous technique and a keen dramatic instinct. Worra's performance was so richly charismatic that her presence was felt even when she was absent from the stage - which is exactly the way Agrippina would have wanted it." (Title role in Agrippina - Opera News)
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"...exquisite Caroline Worra woos us into her world of intrigues while demonstrating the years of vocal training. Every note from her is a gift... She is conniving, enticing, disdainful, and beautiful...What else can we ask for from a diva?" (Title role in Agrippina - Boston Events Insider)
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"...during a previous rehearsal the other night, the orchestra gave Caroline a cheer after that third aria. That doesn't happen too much with orchestras, he said. ...every now and then there is a WOW in an opera. In Idomeneo, Caroline is the WOW! ...Caroline is an exceptional artist, both technically and musically ...She is a consummate professional, a great musician and actress ...She is also a lovely person, and a great colleague - almost too good to be true!" (Elettra in Idomeneo - Conductor David Angus)
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"...I'd hightail it to any performance that Worra got to do if I were you...she reminds me of all of the wonderful parts of Sills...she is such a luminous presence on stage, and such an incandescent artist, that you really should do everything you possibly can to experience this type of artistic communication..." (Knoxville, Summer of 1915 - Opera-L)
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"The revelation in the cast was Caroline Worra as Jenny...who provides the evening's terrifying climax...with a superb soprano and solid technique...she delivered the final twist with fearsome power, landing on a molten high B that produced an almost physical reaction from the audience." (Jenny in The Mines of Sulphur - Opera News)
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"...She caps the show with her emotional delivery and spot-on singing...few will fail to be moved by her final scene ending the season on a haunting but epic note." (Marguerite in Faust - The Commercial Appeal)
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"Caroline's an immaculate musician and vocally complete, but that's only where a singer starts. Her sound is utterly her own - rich, bright, crackling with electricity - and every time I hear her she's a bolder, more inventive actress...her intensity was such, you could hardly draw breath...as Leonard Bernstein once said of Maria Callas, if I could sing like that I'd never write another note again." (Three Lost Chords - Time Out New York - Mark Adamo)