Search - Leo Delibes, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky :: Kate Royal

Promising Young Soprano

Steven A. Peterson | Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL) | 10/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a nice first recital album. Kate Royal demonstrates promise, but--as others reviewers note--she needs to grow. She displays a rich, lush lyric soprano voice. However, at this point in her career, she is not fully polished, nor have her skills fully matured. For instance, she tries to trill at a number of points, and while the final effect is not bad, it still has measurable room for improvement. I commend her for her variety of selections here, taking on works that are not common on debut CDs. A couple illustrative cuts:



Debussy's "L'annee en vain chasse l'annee" is richly sung, well illustrating the lush voice that she has. She sings this with apparently considerable confidence.



"Les filles de Cadix" is a playful tune by Leo Delibes. She sings it well, although she appears to be a bit "raw." She displays a semblance of a trill here and there--good enough to be promising, not so good as to identify her with the coloratura sopranos for whom this is well accomplished (such as Sumi Jo or Joan Sutherland). Nonetheless, a nice performance.



From Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," she sings "In Trutina." Again, this is smoothly sung, exemplifying her rich lyric soprano vocal quality.



So, as others note, she has considerable promise and needs to work to develop her talent and technique to move to the next level of accomplishment.

"

A very promising YOUNG singer

Can't sing, but love those who do | Minnesota | 10/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is in part a response to "Santa Fe Listener," whose comments are astute but, I think, miss the mark slightly. At the time of this release, Royal was/is 27 years old. Very young as a singer in other words. She is indeed in the hunt: her diction is very fine, her idiomatic singing of the Strauss lieder is truly accomplished, and a lovely, easily-produced, distinctive tone (more characterful than many "top" sopranos today). To criticize her for not fully inhabiting the operatic repertory is somewhat misplaced. The problem with the Next Big Thing mentality is that it expects, and record labels push, singers to sing beyond their capacity at early stages of their careers. In this recording, Royal wisely resists that misguided course. It's a lovely piece of work by a young, intelligent, and surely soon-to-be distinguished singer."

Going out on a limb....Kate Royal is on the way up!

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having first heard Kate Royal on the DVD 'Tocar y Luchar', a superb visual and aural examination of the success of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, on which she was heard in excerpts from the Mahler Symphony No. 2, this listener's ears perked up: who is this young, beautiful soprano who can float the Mahler lines so effortlessly and eloquently? Finding that the voice belonged to one Kate Royal ended in discovering this recording. Despite the learned comments from the other reviewers it seems that this is a young (27 years) talent who is both in possession of a well trained and enormously beautiful voice, but also an artist of intelligence and dedication to her craft.



The program selected for a debut recording at an early stage in her career is reassuring. No rehash of popular arias that guarantee sales of a CD here, but instead a collection of lesser known, exquisitely lovely and disparate works by a broad range of composers. Yes the voice is young, and right decisions regarding repertoire are being obeyed, and yet Kate Royal is hardly a routineer. Her delivery of three selections from Canteloube's 'Chants d'Auvergne' (especially the 'Baïlèro') has not only the precision of pitch and the elegance of the poetry, but also the earthy sensual sound these songs require. Other highlights for this listener are the Ravel 'Vocalise en forme de habanera' (instead of, say, the overly familiar Rachmaninov 'Vocalise'), the utter ease of delivery and mastery of range she manages with the Anne Trulove selections from Stravinsky's 'The Rake's Progress', the breathtakingly beautiful Granados 'Quejas, o la maja y el Ruiseñor ' from his 'Goyescas', and the radiance she introduces in a too small sampling of the songs of Richard Strauss.



In short, for this listener, yet to witness Kate Royal live on the concert or opera stage, here is an eloquent, intelligent, intensely musical soprano who is comfortable with the coloratura pyrotechniques, but settles them in with a vocal color that is rich, at times appropriately dark, and always beautiful. She is accompanied by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Edward Gardner conducting. She is assuredly a talent to watch. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 08"