Norina in Don Pasquale, Vancouver Opera
Photo: Emily Cooper
Gregory Dahl as Don Pasquale; Collen Winton as Maid; Stefano Giulianetti as Cook; Thomas Jones as Porter.
"This is no naive ingenue, and Canadian soprano Elizabeth Polese revels in the role. Polese finds all the colours in Norina’s role—lovelorn girl, faux-demure fiancée, conniving vixen, and fearless dragon. You believe her when she sings “I know every trick in the book,” and her buoyant, seemingly effortless coloratura runs fit the production well."
— Stir Vancouver
"Montreal-based soprano Elizabeth Polese plays Norina, the only woman’s role in the piece and one with a plethora of glittering high notes and runs. Not that this was all Polese had to offer; she seemed happy to embrace the comic potential implicit in her role."
— Vancouver Sun
Isabel in Lessons in Love and Violence, Tanglewood Music Center
Photo: Hillary Scott
George Benjamin, conductor; Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra
“Surely no soprano takes on a role written for Barbara Hannigan without fear, but the current Tanglewood fellow Elizabeth Polese made it seem as if she had as the haughty Isabel.”
— New York Times
”As the Queen (called Isabel in the libretto), soprano Elizabeth Polese balanced on the knife edge between sympathetic and sadistic until she plunged to the sadistic side with a smile.”
— The Boston Globe
Opera Canada on “Twenty-Seven”
News: L’Opéra de Montréal’s “Twenty-Seven” brings Gertrude Stein’s salon to life
