“In the run’s final show on February 4, young Kentucky soprano Amanda Woodbury assumed her first Met leading role with considerable grace — not to mention lovely, pellucid tone far purer than Damrau’s sometimes hectoring timbre. Woodbury’s poised tone and relative calm gave the opera the still center it needed, without Damrau’s well-intended but manic physicality. The audience loved Woodbury, and I would love to hear her as Mozart’s [Konstanze].” - David Shengold

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“Amanda Woodbury sang Leila in the final performance of Bizet’s delicious Pearl Fishers. James Conlon, whose taste in singers is impeccable, has promoted Woodbury at the Los Angeles Opera and also in Cincinnati. Her lovely lyric voice is clear and sweet, but also full of emotion. In her aria, which begins with a prayer and ends on a love note, she comfortably switches between extreme moods.” - Susan Hall

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