

“…Elizabeth Llewellyn’s gorgeously sung, unendurably moving Desdemona.”
Opera | Otello – July 2022
Primadonna/Ariadne, Ariadne auf Naxos
Opera North, UK | February 2023
“The big attraction here is a pair of over-the-top vocal set-pieces: the first for Ariadne, deeply serious and gloriously sustained by Llewellyn”
The Telegraph
“Elizabeth Llewellyn sang her tragic “Es gibt ein Reich” gloriously, and the quality of her gorgeous low register is one of the phenomena of this show that sticks in the memory”
The ArtsDesk
“Thank goodness, then, that Llewellyn is in such fine voice: she has everything for Strauss’s long lines, and her smoky soprano flares with power and vulnerability.” “Leading the opera seria is Elizabeth Llewellyn, every inch the demanding Prima Donna in the Prologue, then, following the interval, seated on a rock and mourning her life in her grandest soprano manner as the abandoned Ariadne. The scale and quality of her singing are outstanding.” “In Part Two, soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Ariadne was exhilarating. Slumped on a large rock, she put hot blood into the veins of a mythical character as she lamented her abandonment in impressive Wagnerian tones, using her full vocal range excellently, waiting for death to come…” Bachtrack
“Llewellyn…was a very human Ariadne, warm and communicative with a lovely opulence of voice rather than the ice maiden. During the commedia dell’arte scenes in the Opera, rather than withdrawing to her cave (there wasn’t one!) or imperiously ignoring the troupe, Llewellyn was wonderfully diva-ish in her furious attempts to shoo them away. In the Prologue, Llewellyn’s Diva was stylish and demanding to perfection, and looking stunning in both her outfits”
The Times
The Stage
Opera Today


Desdemona, Otello
Grange Park Opera, Surrey | June 2022
“There is, thankfully, much human emotion in Elizabeth Llewelyn’s luminous portrayal of Desdemona. Llewellyn’s luscious brandy-and-cream soprano is perfectly produced from the top to the bottom of her voice. She has the vocal heft to ride the huge ensemble at the end of Act Three and still scale down to a poised and heartbreaking ‘Willow Song’ and ‘Ave Maria’ in the final scene as she waits for Otello to come to her bedchamber.”
Culture Whisper
“…Elizabeth Llewellyn’s gorgeously sung, unendurably moving Desdemona.”
Opera
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Desdemona has superb top notes of unearthly directness and purity”
The Telegraph
“Poised between sweetness and dignity, Elizabeth Llewellyn plays a beautifully judged Desdemona.”
Financial Times
“Thanks to Llewellyn’s warm, huge, creamily lush soprano, she never sounded like a timid, girlish victim of hatred and calumny.” “Desdemona, the collateral damage of his scheme to destroy her husband, was Elizabeth Llewellyn, gracious and touching in her brief happy moments, then bewildered, shocked and terrified as her fate unfolded. All these emotions were there in her voice and movement. If her spinto tone was a bit too generous in a small house for the simple Willow Song, almost everywhere else her singing was lustrous, not least in the Act 1 love duet.” “Always dressed in white, Llewellyn initially may appear too stately and noble in voice and posture… Everything changes with her heartbreaking Willow Song and prayer in Act IV: magnificent music magnificently sung, hot on the heels of an Act III ensemble finale of stunning excitements.” “Simon Keenlyside excelled as Verdi’s manifestation of the Shakespearian monster and, as so often happens, threatens to overshadow even the title role. However, with Gwyn Hughes Jones and Elizabeth Llewellyn in scintillating form this was very much a performance with three stars soaring. Elizabeth Llewellyn’s burnished soprano delivered a performance rich in pathos, thrilling and heart-breaking in equal measure. She too had the ability to deliver soaring power and fragility when Verdi demands. While those top notes thrilled, the purity of voice was at its most pleasing in an exquisite Ave Maria.” “Llewellyn is every inch the gracious, then terrified and finally forgiving wife – her innocence mirrored by the image of the Virgin Mary that periodically appears only to be desecrated by Cassio and Iago. Llewellyn’s soprano brings a broad lustre to Desdemona, perhaps too broad in her Act One duet with Jones, but by the Willow Song, where things have moved up several gears emotionally, …a range of colours and shadings emerge: cream at the top, bronze in the middle and copper below. No matter that the timbres don’t match, the effect is glorious and her ‘Ave Maria’ one of the most angelic I’ve heard – its bone-china purity a thing of wonder.” “Our sympathies lie with Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Desdemona and it even more thought-provoking to watch this Otello belittle, bully and abuse her. With just a hint of a vibrato, there was a sincerity, a pureness of tone and a flexibility of phrasing exactly as singing Verdi requires. Alden has Llewellyn’s Desdemona have an inner strength whilst clearly the odds are against her. Llewellyn was at her very best – and angelic in all senses of the word since she was always in white – in Act IV as she recognised her death was approaching, her ‘Willow Song’ was plangent and plaintive and her ‘Ave Maria’ dignified, profoundly moving and emotional.”
“In the second half, Llewellyn glowed and even burned. With a soul-searing Willow Song and Ave Maria, she managed to thin out that usually luscious, smoky and velvet-plush sound into a clear, pure beam of innocent sorrow. The spectrum of feeling and intonation in her “Salces” delivered a dramatic-soprano masterclass in itself. As Otello arrived to complete his mad design, her angelic top notes floated heartbreakingly into an abyss of pain.”
The ArtsDesk
Bachtrack
The Times
Opera Scene
Opera Today
Seen & Heard International
Jenůfa, title role
Welsh National Opera, Cardiff | March 2022
“Making her debut in the title role, Elizabeth Llewellyn brought both strong character and immense sensitivity to her portrayal, finding different expressive colours to convey the play of emotions across the opera. Jenufa’s passage from anguished love for Steva to her torment on learning that her baby is dead to her acceptance of a more meaningful love with Laca reflects precisely the humanity to which Hanus had referred, and Llewellyn achieved this with a natural grace.”
Opera
“With Elizabeth Llewellyn in the title role, it is Jenůfa’s intrinsic goodness that emerges so convincingly: her singing had great poise and lyrical line, she coloured the tenderness and compassion of her character, her agony at Stevushka’s loss simply heart-rending.”
The Guardian
“In her first appearance with the company, Elizabeth Llewellyn shines with all the subtleties this lead role asks for, along with the passions and subtle confidences.”
Buzz Magazine
“Making her role debut, Elizabeth Llewellyn brings to the eponymous heroine a vocal depth and dignity that shines through her transformation from spirited lover to battered, bereaved survivor, empowered by her capacity to forgive.”
The Stage
“Thus it is not surprising that the characters lingering in one’s mind at the end of the performance are the female ones: Jenůfa herself, of course, portrayed with profound sensitivity and a limpid, heartfelt vocal delivery by Elizabeth Llewellyn, admirably confronting the far-from simple task of serving as the backbone of the whole narration “ “Elizabeth Llewellyn, the Jenufa pregnant by her cousin Steva, has a wonderfully varied range of delivery, from subtle half-tones to full-throated outbursts of the passion the character so often denies herself.” “[Elizabeth] acts beautifully, bringing out telling detail: the gestures of desperation as she tries to convince her feckless lover Steva to stand by her; the pained movements that suggest the physical trials of being a mother…her rich soprano soars.”
Art Scene Wales
Midlands Music Reviews
The Times


Alice Ford, Falstaff
Scottish Opera, Glasgow & Edinburgh International Festival | July 2021
“Chief among the ladies is Elizabeth Llewellyn, whose rich, opulent voice brings aristocratic warmth to Alice.”
The Times
“Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, whose Mimi illuminated Haine’s La boheme, brings a similarly beautiful depth of expression and emotional intelligence to the role of the Windsor wife Alice Ford.”
The Telegraph
“Elizabeth Llewellyn is a magnetic presence as Alice Ford, vocally voluptuous and gently magisterial in character…”
The Scotsman
“Roland Wood in the title role is a solid presence in the face of the prattling wives, husbands and lovers of Windsor. Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Alice is the natural commander of the situation, an easy equal to his advances. Both provide strong vocal performances – robust but nuanced.” “Comedy is balanced on a sword-edge of tragedy for the women of Falstaff, and Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Alice plays things straight, velvety tone tempering the role’s piquant humour with plenty of breadth.” “The wonderful soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn sings the wronged, but revenged, Alice Ford with great emotional depth and supple versatility.”
The Stage
The Spectator
The National
Title role, Luisa Miller
English National Opera, London | February 2020
“Alexander Joel …brought the magnificent third act to the boil, fired by the super-charged singing of Elizabeth Llewellyn in the title-role. Llewellyn has been absent from the Coliseum for too long, but she returned in triumph, singing throughout with a full-throated ease that amply filled the auditorium and portraying the character with a vivid naïvety that even the production’s vacuity couldn’t blur.”
The Telegraph
“…in Elizabeth Llewellyn we get a gorgeously-sung Luisa.”
The Independent
“With her compellingly focused voice, Elizabeth Llewellyn is superb in the title role.”
The Times
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Luisa, richly and subtly voiced, still manages to exude passion and sincerity.”
The Stage
“Luisa herself was sung with astonishing sensitivity and vocal range by the sublime Elizabeth Llewellyn. Look out for her entrance aria ‘Lo vidi, e’l primo palpito,’ it will give you palpitations aplenty.” “The line-up of singers on opening night was impressive. Six leads, and Elizabeth Llewellyn, who was singing Luisa, had the most demanding role of all. Act 1, she was the innocent daughter in love with a man she believed to be called Carlo. Act 2, she was blackmailed and abused. In Act 3, she is contemplating suicide. But all of this, especially the last two acts, was handled with aplomb and great intelligence by Llewellyn. She shone on this opening evening, her caressing soprano voice was particularly effective in scenes with her father.” “British soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn returns to the company after far too long a gap in the title role. If Act 1’s bel canto Luisa is a bit of a squeeze for this generous voice, she comes into her own in the later acts, where soubrettish agility gives way to demanding, sustained vocal drama. We get a gorgeous Act III prayer, but best of all a final scene where concept finally falls away…” “If Elizabeth Llewellyn has done anything better than this Luisa, then I regret not being there. Llewellyn’s singing had secure coloratura, fearless top notes, as well as much vocal elan and her acting had both energy and passion. However well she started, she finished even more strongly with a heart-wrenching Act III ‘La tomba e un letto’ and the poignancy of her closing duets with Miller and Rodolfo.” “…Elizabeth Llewellyn’s rich, robust presence in the title role. Her range is enormous, with a deep, full chest voice to complement her convincing coloratura passages.” “The lovely Elizabeth Llewellyn comes into her own in the pathos of Luisa’s final scenes” “Above all this, Elizabeth Llewellyn’s silvery, supple soprano brings out all Luisa’s goodness and pain, …it soars where it counts.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn had a fine evening as Luisa….she has plenty of power up top and managed the perky birthday girl’s coloratura nicely and her lyric soprano soared beautifully in duets. [Sigurdarson] and Llewellyn sang their moving Act 3 duet with tenderness, the emotional high point of the evening.” Bachtrack “The score’s move from pastoral to melodrama and finally to poetic pathos is embodied in its heroine: a vocal problem, since she must embrace the light and girlish at the start of the first act, the dramatic when faced with evil machinations in the second, and an other-worldly resolution in the third. Immensely sympathetic Elizabeth Llewellyn pulled off the early coloratura… and came fully into her own for the masterly final duets.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn was outstanding as Luisa, a young woman who has to grow up quickly and face the real world. She had the flexibility to sing Luisa’s often elaborate vocal writing whilst being able to draw out a strong, shapely vocal line. She also conveyed Luisa’s psychological journey with great intensity, Llewellyn is a singer who is able to convey much with face and with eyes, this was an intense and gripping experience.” “Llewellyn’s descent from giddy, loved-up birthday girl to sacrificial victim of male abuse is both musically and visually powerful, her strong honest soprano rising over the mass of conflicting voices, and her passion and gift for communication that of a soul singer.” “[Alexander Joel] is aided by some outstanding singing: Elizabeth Llewellyn brings a warm, generous tone and touching empathy to the title role… But in Horakova’s production the drama is unfolded…with visceral power, not least in Luisa’s two magnificent Act 3 duets (the first with her father, the second with Rodolfo).” “Elizabeth Llewellyn brought her usual sympathetic understanding to the character of Luisa and her mellow voice was a fine contrast to the men around her.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn is a fabulous singer, secure and lyrical throughout.”
London Theatre 1
ArtMuse London
Broadway World
Seen & Heard International
Arts Journal
Financial Times
The Guardian
The Arts Desk
Opera Today
Culture Whisper
The Evening Standard
The Article
Reviews Gate


Title role, Aida
Theater Bielefeld, Germany | November 2019
“Elizabeth Llewellyn chose Theater Bielefeld for her role debut as Aida…and she has given a gift to the theatre! For her interpretation of this role was highly expressive, touching, and vocally of the very highest quality. She was at the centre of this production at all times, even when she had nothing to sing. Her gestures, her body language, were always like a mirror of her interpretation of Aida. Her solo scenes were sung in a grand and penetrating manner, outstanding in the ensembles. The way she used vocal means to express the feelings of the Aida was an experience. A really great debut as Aida, for which she was celebrated by the opening night audience with ovations. BRAVO!”
Das Opernmagazin
“Elizabeth Llewellyn, daughter of Jamaican parents, gave an Aida of enormous dramatic urgency….The highly dramatic British soprano effortlessly outshines the concentrated sound of the choir and orchestra, and has a poignant vocabulary of lamentation – an ideal piece of casting for this Bielefeld staging.”
Neue Westfalischer
“…the great Elizabeth Llewellyn, who has just hurried from her New York debut at the Met to Germany succeeds as an Aida bringing her innermost feelings out. Her soprano has tremendous power and size, but she also masters the delicate, heart-breaking singing.”
Westfallen Blatt
“Jamaican-British singer Elizabeth Llewellyn as a guest, who just debuted as Bess in Gershwin’s opera at the New York Met, sings and plays such a heartbreakingly expressive Aida that it casts a spell on everyone.”
Westfalischer Anzeiger
“With seductive vocal potential and great intensity, guest soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn beguiled.”
Die Glocke
“Elizabeth Llewellyn also succeeds in the title role. Her Aida is initially fearful, uncertain. She is back and forth, torn between her father and her lover. Then she increases to a touching certainty of death, and Llewellyn masters the part with finely graduated soprano that flourishes up to a great fortissimo”.
Theaterpur
“Elizabeth Llewellyn hatte sich das Theater Bielefeld für ihr Rollendebüt als Aida ausgesucht. Und sie hat damit dem Theater ein Geschenk gemacht. Denn ihre Interpretation dieser Partie war in höchstem Maße ausdrucksvoll, berührend, und gesanglich von allererster Güte. Sie war zu jeder Zeit Mittelpunkt dieser Inszenierung, selbst dann, wenn sie nichts zu singen hatte. Ihre Gestik, ihre Körpersprache, waren immer wie ein Spiegel ihrer Interpretation der Aida. Großartig und eindringlich gesungen ihre Soloszenen, überragend in den Ensembles. Wie sie mit stimmlichen Mitteln den Gefühlen der Aida Ausdruck verlieh war ein Erlebnis. Ein wirklich großartiges Debüt als Aida, für das sie vom Premierenpublikum mit Ovationen gefeiert wurde. BRAVO!”
Das Opernmagazin
“Elizabeth Llewellyn, Tochter jamaikanischer Eltern, gab eine Aida von enormer dramatischer Dringlichkeit. Fast hat man das Gefühl, eine dem Elend und der Erniedrigung verfallenen Protagonistin aus “Onkel Tom’s Hütte” zu begegnen. Die hochdramatische britische Sopranistin überstrahlt mühelos den geballten Klangapparat von Chor und Orchester, verfügt über ergreifende Vokabeln der Klage – eine Idealbesetzung der Bielefelder Inszenierung.”
Neue Westfälischer
“Das gelingt auch Elizabeth Llewellyn in der Titelrolle Ihre Aida ist zuerst ängstlich, unsicher. Sie ist hin- undhergerissen zwischen Vater und Geliebtem. Dann steigert sie sich in eine anrührende TodesgewissheitLlewellyn meistert die Partie mit fein abgestuftem bis hin zum großem Fortissimo aufblühenden Sopran.” Theaterpur
“Mit verführerischem Stimmpotenzial und grosser Intensität betören Gastsopran Elizabeth Llewellyn.” Die Glocke
“… neben der großartigen Elizabeth Llewellyn, die frisch von ihrem New Yorker Debüt an der Met an den Teuto geeilt ist, um als eine Aida zu reüssieren, die Ihr Innerstes nach außen trägt. Die Sopranistin besitzt eine immense Durchschlagkraft und Größe, beherrscht aber die zarten. herzerweichenden Töne.” Westfalen Blatt
“Die jamaikanisch-britische Sängerin Elizabeth Llewellyn als Gast, die als Bess in Gershwins Oper an der New Yorker Met debütierte, singt und spielt die Aida so herzzerreißend ausdrucksstark, dass sie alle in ihren Bann zieht.” Westfälischer Anzeiger
Title role, Manon Lescaut
Opera Holland Park | June 2019
“The announcement pre-curtain that soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn had only recently recovered from laryngitis was inauspicious, and Llewellyn understandably played it safe at first. But, when in the latter stages, reassured that her voice would hold out, she relaxed and released a wonderfully expressive and dramatic flood of glorious colour, the wait was proven more than worthwhile. In fact, the slight frailty at the start was not inapt, capturing as it did some of the innocence of the young Manon (especially as she is not presented here as a young girl being escorted to a convent), and the blossoming of Llewellyn’s soprano in the final two Acts communicated the maturity and growth borne of Manon’s experiences. Llewellyn exploited the full range of her soprano, including a rich chest voice, encompassing a vast emotional spectrum and sensitively capturing Manon’s femininity. As Manon finds herself at the limits of her resilience, so Llewellyn pushed her soprano to its limits, though never sacrificing her creamily smooth legato, with compelling power and effect. As her voice recovers fully, Llewellyn’s performance will be a persuasive reason to see this production.”
Opera Today
“Star-quality comes at last with the elegant and slightly sphinx-like presence of Llewellyn’s Manon, and a bit of moonshine in her first meeting with Des Grieux;…Llewellyn is perfectly poised and now in near-vintage voice.”
The Artsdesk
“…her big aria, ‘Sola, perduta, abbandonata’, proved very moving as well as vocally strong, belying recent illness. Her gorgeous, soft grained timbre is a conventional fit for the character.”
Classical Source
“The redeeming feature of the evening was Elizabeth Llewellyn’s kittenish Manon, sung with a stylistic delicacy and refinement of phrasing.”
The Telegraph
“Llewellyn, once she hits the home straight and knows that her voice will go the distance, gives full rein to her powerful soprano that never loses the crucial fragility it requires to illustrate Manon’s disastrous decision making.”
Broadway World
“Elizabeth Llewellyn also reaches her peak after the interval, her voice blossoming to the full.Throughout, she phrases with artistry and fleshes out Manon’s mercurial, sometimes enigmatic character.”
The Stage
“Llewellyn is moving into more spinto roles, and she was effortless in the role’s demands, producing some wonderfully shaped phrases. She had been announced as having been ill, with her presence at the performance in doubt, but in the event she gave us a truly remarkable performance.”
Planet Hugill
“Elizabeth Llewellyn has an exciting voice for Puccini, silvery and vital.”
The Guardian
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s glamorous Manon at Opera Holland Park… even recent laryngitis couldn’t dampen the beauty and warmth of her singing.”
Sunday Times
“… the singers sound heavenly. Elizabeth Llewellyn (Manon) has a gloriously rich and full tone.”
Metro
“Go for some wonderful singing from two excellent principals: Elizabeth Llewellyn, despite laryngitis, in fine voice as Manon; Peter Auty gives Des Grieux his usual style and panache. Their duets would have raised the roof if OHP’s big tent had one.”
Mail on Sunday
“Llewellyn’s vivacious woman-child Manon… is ermine and pearls, soft but deliciously heavy in the ear.”
The Spectator
“Treading a careful vocal line following her recovery from a throat infection, Llewellyn nevertheless established that her peaches-and-cream soprano and generous phrasing are ideal casting.”
Financial Times
“Elizabeth Llewellyn unquestionably did what she could to have one care about Manon and her plight. If the character remains unsatisfactory, that is in no way to be attributed to Llewellyn, whose typically intelligent, sympathetic performance rose far above the vocal difficulties recent laryngitis occasionally revealed.”
Boulezian
“Although her voice clearly hadn’t completely recovered, it’s a terrific instrument, brightly coloured, expressive and rich. There were times when, for obvious reasons, she seemed to take the music cautiously, but by the second half she had regained confidence and the voice seemed in near pristine condition. Llewellyn is one of those performers so naturally elegant on stage that she imbues her heroines with a certain noble grace, even as she is lined up in Act 3 as a sex slave.”
Bachtrack


Margherita & Elena, Mefistofele
Chelsea Opera Group | March 2019
“When I first heard Llewellyn sing, in ENO’s 2010 La Bohème, I admired her ‘warm, generous voice [which] easily reached the rafters of the Coliseum’, and the warmth and generosity of her lyric spinto have only blossomed more richly during the intervening years. She commanded the attention of all in the Queen Elizabeth Hall during the Act 3 prison scene, her soprano falling with a slight duskiness and rising with a rapturous sheen, the projection easy and the phrasing beguiling. If the drama of ‘L’altra notte’ was well-crafted, in the great love duet, ‘Lontano, lontano’, she spun an exquisite, gentle pianissimo; and, when she prayed to God for salvation and rejecting Faust, her dying phrases conveyed every drop of emotional intensity. The spontaneous applause that greeted ‘L’altra notte’ seemed to take Llewellyn a little by surprise, just as she had astonished those in the Hall with such powerful expressivity – an expressively which was equally captivating when she assumed the persona of Helen of Troy in the following Act.”
Opera Today
“The character of Marguerite can seem sweet but empty; Elizabeth Llewellyn had the vocal and dramatic range to make her a truly operatic figure, impulsive yet profound. This was a concert performance to make you long for an opera house staging.”
Evening Standard
“Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn sang the double role of Margherita and Elena, bringing an ideal combination of power and lyrical flexibility to the roles. Her Margherita was beautifully sung with a convincing and touching naivety, yet expansive in the more lyrical moments and with a surprising strength when she denies Faust just before her death. By contrast, Llewellyn’s Elena was wonderfully radiant and rightly seductive.”
Planet Hugill
“Elizabeth Llewellyn was at her radiant best in her two incarnations as Margherita and Elena, differentiating the two beautifully. As Margherita in love she unleashed waves of powerful velvety sound but then found exactly the right sense of pathos and stillness as she is imprisoned and seeks salvation. As Elena she was full of dangerous allure. The wide-eyed faces of the Capital Arts Children’s Choir (a distinct asset to the evening) marvelling at it was a delight!”
Classical Source
“Elizabeth Llewellyn, playing both Margherita and Elena, was marginally more suited to the latter, though her singing had great beauty and poise.”
The Guardian
“Elizabeth Llewellyn brought her sweet yet rich and beautifully shaped soprano to the fore in the roles of Margherita and Elena.”
Music OMH
“The role of Margherita was taken by Elizabeth Llewellyn, who has previously impressed as Magda in Puccini’s La rondine for Opera Holland Park and in Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony at the Barbican. She is a spectacular singer: she has great stage presence, a powerful voice which never seems to harden and, most of all, she absolutely inhabits the roles she takes on, always with the utmost musicality and integrity. The Act III aria in which she reflects on her fate (‘L’altra notte in fondo al mare’) was vocally beautiful as well as dramatically affecting; she also boasts a splendid vocal trill. In her alternative persona as Helen of Troy in the fourth act, Llewellyn was glorious in her duet with Pantalis her companion; her vision of the destruction of Troy, later in the act, was gripping in the extreme, and she soared easily and freely over the ensemble towards the end of the act.”
Seen and Heard International
Cio-Cio San, Madama Butterfly
Royal Danish Opera | September 2017
“Llewellyn’s soprano has wonderful fullness and her all-embracing and sweet Butterfly catches Act 1 in the second and third acts so you feel the heartbreaking longing and the unbearable situation she is in. Elizabeth Llewellyn’s fine interaction with the charismatic mezzo soprano Johanne Bock [as] Suzuki, must be emphasized.”
OplevByen.dk
“…the English soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn sings brilliantly as Cio-Cio San, Madame Butterfly”
Sklassisk.dk
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s portrayal of Cio-Cio San, better known as Madame Butterfly, was exquisite as she conveyed the personal anecdote of this geisha wife through her angelic vocals. Her beautifully layered singing reverberated through the entire roomand made a world outside of her perfectly pitched notes seem obsolete.”
CPH Post


Magda de Civry, La Rondine
Opera Holland Park | June 2017
“Elizabeth Llewellyn is a British soprano… whose rich, lyric instrument produced refined tone at every point in her wide rangeand whose sense of Puccinian style was consistently impressive; she brought to the role of Magda glamour, sophistication and a voice it would be hard to match anywhere in terms of beauty and color.”
Opera News
“The aria, Doretta’s Song, is truly memorable, and especially well sung here by the British soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, a fine Verdian possessed of a voice that effortlessly fills OHP’s big tent with gloriously unforced sounds.”
Mail on Sunday
“Llewellyn and Lippi soared again in the final duet, and…Llewellyn showed how to make it count with sheer beauty of line and a glorious sheen to the voice. This certainly showed how having a real spinto soprano in the role can count.”
Opera Today
“…Magda’s Chi il bel sogno di Doretta, which Llewellyn sings lusciously with her warm, smoky tone and gleaming high notes…Both leads rise magnificently to their passionate duet in Act III, when it becomes clear that they cannot live together, Llewellyn unleashing her Tosca voice (which she has already shown off in Germany) with plenty of “spinto” blade… A huge OHP hit: Llewellyn is a star.” “To ice the cake in shades of yellow and scarlet, Elizabeth Llewellyn sang Magda with a voice of pure operatic joy. Her soprano timbre, rich, powerful and faintly smoky, was irresistibly seductive and multi-layered, and somehow she found heartbreak in the score’s simplicities. Llewellyn is an exceptional artist who oozes star quality and ought to be top of the ‘grab’ list for any half-decent UK casting director, but for some reason isn’t. Don’t miss this too-rare opportunity to hear her: she’s a great singer at the peak of her craft.” “…a voice that threaded its lovely way seamlessly across all of Puccini’s bar-lines, never striking a less than entirely lovely sound: she is a truly special artist.” “The night belongs, though to Elizabeth Llewellyn as Magda and Matteo Lippi as Ruggero. Llewellyn has a voice like best dark chocolate in the lower register and crystal clear water in the upper. She achieves an impressive variation of tone and packs in huge amounts of immaculately acted emotion. Her reading aloud of the letter from Ruggero’s mother in the third act is a good example of impassioned excitement mixed with horror. It is a very fine performance indeed.” “When are the big international opera houses going to wake up to the great British talent that is Elizabeth Llewellyn? With her opulent soprano – shaded middle register, full bloom at the top, cutting chest voice – she was born to sing Verdi and Puccini, and her stage presence is undeniable from the moment she steps out… our hearts are with her from the start.” “It’s a role that requires wit, grace, elegance and the ability to float seraphically above the stave – all qualities that Llewellyn has in abundance. She plays exquisitely with the phrasing of Magda’s one showpiece aria, “Che il bel sogno di Doretta”, and rises confidently to its moments of climax, but mostly one appreciates the sheer charm and lightness of touch with which she paints the chattier aspects of her music.” “Magda is one of Puccini’s top vulnerable heroines, and the role is magnificently sung by Elizabeth Llewellyn, blessed with a voice of sumptuous range, security and fullness; you first hear her generous lower range, which as it expands higher keeps its character and flexibility. Llewellyn also has a powerful presence; she is compelling as the worldly woman taking one last chance at love, and easily strides between archetype and straightforward characterisation. In every respect she rises to the occasion.” “…yet again Llewellyn…proved what a fabulous Puccini soprano she is. The voice is a good size with a smoky lower register, a velvety middle of complex depth and a top that opens up magnificently… Her Magda was vulnerable, hopeful and determined just as she should be.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn successfully combines sophistication and sincerity….her voice is ideally warm and lyrical, and easily fills the theatre. Opera Holland Park is lucky to have her.” “The soloists were led by, and effectively overshadowed by, Elizabeth Llewellyn …She was thrilling, living the role throughout and with full vocal and dynamic range. In act three, Llewellyn and the orchestra conspired to provide moments of magic in her soliloquy as she reminisces; her pitching, too, was noteworthy in its accuracy. Magda’s love scene with Ruggero was one of the evening’s many highlights; she effectively lifted it to another level.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn is a perfect Magda, warm and lively yet wistful in her Act I soliloquy.” “Singing Magda, Elizabeth Llewellyn has obvious stage presence and the vocal stature to go with it; the bottom of the voice is full and has an appealing spice to it that makes it quite distinctive, while her middle is luxuriously warm….Commitment to the role was absolute, from the grace of her salon presence, through breathless excitement in Bullier’s, to her sacrifice in the third act.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn gives a stand-out performance as Magda, showing the delicate touches of her range against the power of her top flight displayed through the bigger numbers, making this production worth a visit for her performance alone.” “It is, however, Elizabeth Llewellyn as Magda and Matteo Lippi as Ruggero who make the evening special. Llewellyn has the precision and focus to make her vocal line feel sweet and clean, but her soprano is also blessed with richness and strength that gives both her sound and the character a good deal of weight.” “As Magda, Llewellyn commands the right blend of wry self-knowledge and creamy expansive tone to cover her character’s transition from bored semi-retired performer to radiant lover and regretful realist. She also finds real warmth and tenderness in the final scenes, which carried across into the arena.”
The Sunday Times
What’s On Stage
Opera magazine
Lark Reviews
The Artsdesk
The Telegraph
Classical Source
Opera Traveller
Financial Times
Seen & Heard International
Mark Ronan
Bachtrack
The Arbiturian
Music OMH
Live Theatre UK
Tosca
Theater Magdeburg | October 2016
“Tosca operates entirely as a prima donna, both in her set-up jealousy as well as in her iron loyalty. Only alone with her lover is she human.Elizabeth Llewellyn plays these changes as closely as she interprets them vocally. For coquettish and playful she finds warm heart-tones. The sound of each note is beautiful, but the vocal-acting makes her Tosca outstanding.”
Volkstimme
“In the case of “Tosca” [Theater Magdeburg] has engaged a downright dream-cast, which every major house might envy: in the first place to mention is the English soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn who sings and plays a glowing, passionate Diva.”
MDR Radio, Dieter David Scholz


Suor Angelica & Giorgetta, Il Trittico
Royal Danish Opera | 2015 & 2016
“Indeed, the Suor Angelica in particular moved me immensely, especially due to Elizabeth Llewellyn’s sensational debut in the title role… Elizabeth Llewellyn’s role debuts were absolutely thrilling. She was a fine Giorgetta but it was really as Angelica that she gave a truly overwhelming performance. The voice has a beguiling combination of duskiness and velvety warmth. It’s a good size and she rode the orchestra with ease. Her Angelica was shattering, her acting completely raw and so immediate, her vocalism so full and generous that one could not help but be moved. This is a significant role debut for this excellent British soprano, one I hope she will return to very soon.”
OperaTraveller
“Elizabeth Llewellyn [is] strong, open and pivotal as hybrid Giorgetta/Angelica”
Andrew Mellor, @operalastnight
“The young wife Giorgetta, the evening’s greatest joy and surprise, is sung by Elizabeth Llewellyn” “[Angelica’s] aria, which is not known, is redeemed in the best way by the guest Elizabeth Llewellyn who is flown in from London… But in Suor Angelica she unfolds with the finest nuances and volume so that this neglected opera becomes interesting. Beautiful.” “The two essential singing stars are sovereign. Bass-baritone Johan Reuter and soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn both have double-roles. Elizabeth Llewellyn creates both a challenging and promiscuous Giorgetta, scintillating among a host of stevedores, and a contrite Angelica, ostracized by both fellow prisoners and guards.”
Kulturkupeen.dk
Weekendavisen
Elsa, Lohengrin
Theater Magdeburg | September 2014
“In her debut as Elsa, Elizabeth Llewellyn reaped a huge personal triumph. With well-nigh-perfect diction, she modulated her ever-so-slighty smoky timbre from the dreamy forlorness of the first scenes to an unusually strong confrontational tone. Her voice carried to the furthest nook, even in the pianissimo passages, and – almost alone in the cast – she seemed to have power in reserve during even her most outgoing effusions.”
Opera magazine
“A beguiling luminous voice that alternates between perfect dreamy sounds and effortless power, and on top of that offers exemplary diction. This must be a name to remember.”
Neue Musik Zeitung
“For Elizabeth Llewellyn as Elsa one was drawn in as soon as she opened her mouth. Innocent, dreamy, she exuded loveliness in chaste euphony to the scene in the bridal chamber. There she comes to life… “ “Elizabeth Llewellyn in her role debut as Elsa, alone succeeded out of the whole line-up! The Briton who only lately changed in singing repertory, has a balsamic blossoming soprano with bright timbre, with nuanced responsiveness even in her lower register. Already in this her first German-language role she convinced with a characteristic voice leading that – coupled with strong stage-presence – gave the viewers a compelling potrait of the role. “ “Vocally, the evening was coined by the the two main protagonists. With special attributes should we indeed deal sparingly, but what Elizabeth Llewellyn offered as dreamy Elsa was simply sensational! As well being theatrically completely convincing this singer, with a balanced soprano with its full timbre and all-round gleam, outshone the ensemble, also having no intonation difficulties at the top of her voice. She had at her Wagner debut already excellent standards. “ “More intense and free in her acting was Elizabeth Llewellyn as Elsa. That she is a stranger and that she is more at home in her dream-world than in this theater of concrete and militancy, she conveyed musically and made dramatically credible.”
Volkstimme.de
Opernglas
Opernfreund
Klassik.com


Amelia, Simon Boccannegra
English Touring Opera | Sir Mark Elder & Hallé , 2013
“Only one element of the performance truly comes alive. Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Amelia shines brightly: as well as negotiating one of Verdi’s trickiest arias with elegant aplomb and crowning the wonderful Council Chamber ensemble with glory, she also makes the girl’s hopes and fears vivid, suggesting that innocent womanhood can point the way out of the mess that men have made of the world.”
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph
“Elizabeth Llewellyn continues to fulfil her promise… [with] her powerful and lyrical soprano.”
Daily Telegraph
“Elizabeth Llewellyn uncorks passages of glorious timbre as Amelia…”
The Times
“[ETO] fielded a far superior Amelia, the rising lyric soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn.”
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times
“Rising star Elizabeth Llewellyn confirms her excellence as an Amelia of gleaming lyricism, musically distinguished and dramatically sympathetic.” “The exception of Elizabeth Llewellyn’s gleaming Amelia…” “There is, however, one very good reason to catch this Boccanegra and that is an Amelia of distinction from Elizabeth Llewellyn, marking her Verdi debut. She has a lovely, rich lyric soprano and a formidable technique. The little dynamic swells within Amelia’s opening aria ‘Come in quest’ora bruna’…were beautifully controlled and she phrases in long legato lines.” “…a sensational Amelia, who dispatched her passages with sentiment and confidence throughout.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn…gives a performance of great lyrical beauty and is clearly a talent which has huge potential.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn, as the lost daughter Amelia/Maria, has a sensuous voice.” “The highlight of this production is the singing of Elizabeth Llewellyn (Amelia) in the only major female role. Her voice, with wisps of smoke and undercurrents of honey in it, is a sound to bathe in. If touring opera companies can bring voices of such quality to be heard live in these roles by local audiences, their existence and value can’t be questioned.” “The star of the evening was Elizabeth Llewellyn as his daughter Amelia… nicely varying her tone on her emotional roller-coaster.” 24th November 2013 – Jump-in for concert performance with Sir Mark Elder / Hallé Orchestra “Two outstanding artists dominated here. Alongside the smooth-toned Boccanegra… we heard Elizabeth Llewellyn’s gleaming Amelia. Though she was standing in for an indisposed soprano, there was no compromise in her musical warmth and exciting vocalism.” “Soprano Maria Luigia Borsi was replaced shortly before the performance by the excellent Elizabeth Llewellyn as Amelia Grimaldi.” “The Italian soprano Maria Luigia Borsi withdrew with laryngitis to be more than adequately replaced by Elizabeth Llewellyn as Amelia. I have heard her sing the role before with English Touring Opera and was impressed. A soaring soprano, she was even more impressive this time – a rising star.” “Her stage demeanour, added to her clear silvery tone, vocal strength, superb legato and vocal expression in Amelia’s Come in quest’ora bruna that emerged from Sir Mark’s reading of the quiet, ethereal, orchestral introduction, with its echoes of the sea lapping the Genoese the shores, was magical. The diversity of her vocal quality was further illustrated by her duet with Gabriele Adorno and more significantly still in her contribution in the Council Chamber scene… She was quite formidable.”
The Stage
Guardian
Opera Britannia
Bach Track
What’s on Stage
The Express
Herald Scotland
York Press
The Telegraph
The Guardian – *****
The Arts Desk
Seen and Heard International
Mimi, La Bohème
Scottish Opera | 2020
Theater Magdeburg, Germany | 2015
English National Opera | 2010
“For her part, Llewellyn delivered her great set-piece aria with immense conviction and unflinching sincerity – a rich, glorious voice that I hope we’ll hear at Scottish Opera again.”
The ArtsDesk, 2020
“Into the mix comes Elizabeth Llewellyn’s warm-hearted Mimi, rich and resonant in tone, with a growing sense of tenderness and vulnerability as the shadow of her impending fate looms larger.”
The Scotsman, *****
“Llewellyn has both a wonderfully fragile edge to her voice and a great natural power, respectively echoing Mimi’s physical and emotional states.”
The Stage, ****
“With her velvet-hued voice, Elizabeth Llewellyn is a dignified Mimì, seemingly more worldly-wise than Samuel Sakker’s youthfully impassioned Rodolfo.”
The Guardian, *****
“…a fabulous Elizabeth Llewellyn as Mimì”
The Herald Scotland, ****
“One suspects that the audience would, if operatic etiquette had allowed, have been on its feet as Sakker and Llewellyn delivered the two great arias and the magnificent duet with which Puccini ends act one.”
The Telegraph, *****
“Elizabeth Llewellyn and Samuel Sakker bring big voices to Mimì and Rodolfo, but they’re hugely expressive.”
The Times, *****
“With her impressive vocal range and her spectacular stage presence she received applause time and again.”
Volkstimme, 2015
“Much more appealing was Elizabeth Llewellyn, who enjoyed huge success with the audience… her full lyric soprano, with its distinctive timbre and warm middle register, sailed through everything else with winning grace and excellent diction.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
“Making her debut in the role of Mimi, Elizabeth Llewellyn adds to her growing reputation for tackling major roles. Her solos, particularly in the final scene, enable her to show off the pure soprano voice to perfection.”
Daily Express
“But it is Llewellyn, gorgeously toned and rapturous, who is the evening’s real star.”
The Guardian
“Mimì was sung by the young soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, making her ENO debut. It’s hard to imagine a better debut: Llewellyn’s voice has a lovely warm timbre, she sang with clarity and precision, and she is a credible actress.”
Bachtrack
“As Mimi, she of the frozen extremities, the creamy-voiced Elizabeth Llewellyn continues in her career-defining role. This enchanting lyric soprano brings a vulnerability and passion to the drama… for this revival, overseen by Jonathan Miller himself, dramatic balance is restored and Llewellyn’s Mimi is able to break our hearts.”
Classical Source
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s warm buttery soprano lent itself admirably to the role of Mimi and she handled the balance between pathos and conviction in her performance perfectly. Her exchange of arias with Hughes Jones in Act I was particularly moving, as was her final scene…”
Music OMH
“Llewellyn (…) has a distinctive and very attractive soprano – warm, passionate, large but not forced, with a mezzo hue that will surely suit her Countess for Holland Park next summer”
Opera magazine
“Rising star Elizabeth Llewellyn makes a bigger splash with her house debut as Mimi. (…) the sumptuousness of her lower register promises great things.”
The Stage
“Mimi herself was the star of the show, gloriously sung by Elizabeth Llewellyn, making her ENO debut. This is a young woman to watch out for”
Mark Ronan’s Theatre Reviews


Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni
Bergen National Opera | March 2015
“Both the donne were in formidable command of their coloratura…Elizabeth Llewellyn characterizing Elvira with a formidable blend of double cream and gleaming metal”.
Opera magazine
“The ladies…are brilliant in their own way. Elizabeth Llewellyn had authority in her interpretation of Donna Elvira.”
Bergen Tidende
Fiordiligi, Così fan tutte
Opera Holland Park | June 2012
“[Dorabella’s] antics … are a foil to the moving vulnerability of Elizabeth Llewellyn’s outstanding Fiordiligi, whose Per pietà is racked by inner sadness.”
The Times
“Cosí has some terrific young singers — Elizabeth Llewellyn’s sumptuously sung Fiordiligi…”
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, June 2012
“The vocal blend is ideal: pure, supple and perfectly balanced… Llewellyn makes priggish Fiordiligi human, warm, even funny, in the coloratura pomp of ‘Come scoglio’.”
The Independent
“Even so, the evening was not without its pleasures, provided above all by Elizabeth Llewellyn’s deluxe singing of Fiordiligi’s two big solos and radiant top line in the ensembles. This British soprano…gets better with every appearance…” “The lovers are all rising stars – or stars already … Elizabeth Llewellyn (Fiordiligi), a veteran of OHP’s Marriage of Figaro who also sang the Countess at English National Opera, has a sumptuous lower register and a sympathetic stage presence.” “An outstandingly pure and beautiful voice…” “Vocally stunning, her performance of ‘Come scoglio’ is excellently measured, combining harshness towards the strangers, an element of rationality as she calmly explains that she loves another, and high comedy as she nearly faints and deprives the intruders of their tea and cake. Even after she submits to Ferrando, she looks profoundly uncomfortable at what she is about to do.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn … is in her element as Fiordiligi, and her partnership with Julia Riley’s Dorabella results in a vocal blend of the utmost sweetness and beauty.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn’s supremely dignified Fiordiligi is the night’s highlight. Like her voice – already a glowing, autumnal soprano but dropping tantalising hints of more expansive roles to come – Llewellyn is going places… singing an assured “Come scoglio”. In the harsher emotions of the second act, her entire performance blossoms.” “The singing was of an impressively high calibre. The Fiordiligi of Elizabeth Llewellyn was the standout, her beautiful tone and attentiveness to vocal line making both ‘Come scoglio’ and ‘Per pietà’ absolute joys.” “Best of all is Elizabeth Llewellyn’s turn as Fiordiligi – her rich-toned, seemingly effortless delivery of Per pietà, ben mio, perdona – resulting in rapturous applause and calls of “bravo!” from the audience.”
Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine
The Stage
Daily Express
Music OMH
Classical Source
The Arts Desk
Opera Britannia
The Upcoming


La Contessa, Le Nozze di Figaro
Opera Holland Park & English National Opera | 2011
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s peachy soprano is the perfect sound for the Countess…she moved and acted with dignity, dominating the moral and emotional high ground.”
Opera Magazine
“Indeed, the vocal expressivity of Elizabeth Llewellyn, as the disillusioned, disheartened Countess, was one of the highlights of the evening. Both ‘Porgi amor’ and ‘Dove sono’ powerfully conveyed her distress and established her aristocratic dignity.”
Opera Today
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s glorious vocal sound… This was a beautiful performance from a soprano with a very special voice (described by Edward Seckerson as ‘ripening nicely.’). Both ‘Porgi, amor’ and ‘Dove sono’ were effectively showstoppers, delivered with dignity and poise.” “One standout vocal performance made the evening worthwhile. The Countess’s inner despair was laced through Elizabeth Llewellyn’s every note, peaking in a profoundly affecting Dove sono. It was all the remarkable for the aristocratic poise of her delivery, the raw feelings behind the Countess’s unslippable social mask.” “Two performances stand out from start to finish. The first comes from Elizabeth Llewellyn as the Countess whose performance of ‘Porgi, amor’ is an undoubted highlight of the evening. There is a wonderful sense of style in her delivery, which sees her stand as a goddess, eternally elegant of bearing. At the same time, she conveys immense human emotion, her fragility being so obvious that one senses she could physically disintegrate at any moment.” “There are ravishing accounts of … Dove Sono by Elizabeth Llewellyn” “Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Countess combined with great success beauty of tone and poignancy of affect” October 2011 – Jump-in on opening night at English National Opera, London: “Elizabeth Llewellyn, standing in at very short notice for a sick Kate Valentine, is a finely poised Countess, singing both arias with remarkable beauty and poise. I was reminded of a night in 1973 when I first heard an unknown young soprano called Kiri Te Kanawa sing this role and a star was born.” “Best of all was the Countess, Elizabeth Llewellyn, whose rich-toned, agile soprano offered a level of vocal quality too often missing elsewhere; her performance was the more remarkable given that she was a late replacement, announced only on the day of performance. Following her strongly sung Mimì at the same address last season, Llewellyn here confirmed her potential as a rising star of the U.K. soprano firmament.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn, gave a superb account of the role. ‘Porgi amor’ was especially poignant.” “But the vocal honours were stolen by Elizabeth Llewellyn. A late substitute for Kate Valentine as a word-perfect and superbly poised Countess, she fitted into the production as if she had been rehearsing for weeks. This is a golden talent.” “The star of the first night, though, was the velvety toned soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, stepping in movingly as the Countess” “Fortunately, Elizabeth Llewellyn was able to step in with a bravura performance. Indeed, her commanding vocal and dramatic presence in both the big arias provided blissful relief from the manic hyperactivity on stage that irritated more than it illuminated.” “She was replaced by Elizabeth Llewellyn, her understudy, who had only sung the part once before. Happily, she did it with panache and wowed the critics, who called her performance “show- stealing”. Shaw was visibly delighted, bobbing in her seat with glee. This may be the beginning of a bright new future for Ms Llewellyn. “Expect to see a lot more of her in future,” gushes my man in the wings.” “…the most polished vocal contributions come from the last-minute stand-in: Elizabeth Llewellyn, who sang the Countess with gorgeous timbre and looked poised on what must have been a nerve- racking evening.” “On the morning Elizabeth Llewellyn gamely stepped in and caused something of a sensation with her warm yet plaintive tone, beautiful embellishments of line and a searing depiction of this unhappy character’s emotional plight. There was wit, too. Her two arias were both high-points.” “Elizabeth Llewellyn’s smoky-toned Countess sings with a touch of class” “… leaving Elizabeth Llewellyn bravely to assimilate herself into an extraordinarily complex evening. That she did so with poise and composure and affecting vocal bloom was a quite remarkable achievement. At the close of Shaw’s staging she is every thoroughly modern woman packed and ready to walk away from betrayal but ultimately big enough to stay.” “Astonishingly, the best vocal performance came from a singer who had only stepped into her role earlier the same day. Elizabeth Llewellyn has a beautiful, tender soprano voice and true stage presence… Remarkably, she played the part in a production that had never been seen before, singing words that had changed from any other time she had sung the role, as though she had been rehearsing it for months. At the end, she received the biggest ovation from the audience of all the performers and thoroughly deserved it.” “Yet stepping into this challenging assignment, Elizabeth Llewellyn undoubtedly took the evening’s vocal laurels – her rich, creamy soprano was superbly managed and deserves to take her far.” “She was outstanding. Her physical and vocal poise elevated the Countess’s predicament to genuine tragedy. Rarely are the tears behind the stiff upper lip so beautifully and poignantly evoked.”
Opera Britannia
Intermezzo
MusicOMH
The Stage
Seen and Heard International
Rupert Christansen, Daily Telegraph
George Hall, Opera News
Opera magazine
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times
John Allison, Daily Telegraph
Evening Standard
Matthew Bell, Independent, October 2011
Richard Morrison, The Times
Classical Source
Andrew Clark, Financial Times
Edward Seckerson, Independent
Daily Express
The Stage
Intermezzo, Bach Track
Bess, Porgy and Bess
Royal Danish Opera | 2014
Seattle Opera | 2018
The Metropolitan Opera | 2019
“Elizabeth Llewellyn’s Bess was equally captivating. Her golden-toned voice had many colours and convincingly expressed everything from hope to despair, love to loneliness. Her acting was also many-faceted, showing Bess’ vulnerability and most of all why Bess loves Porgy”
Seen and Heard International
“Only Elizabeth Llewellyn stood out, not just as the only singer who did not force her voice to cope with the acoustics of the opera and the grand orchestral playing, but as a singer with so rare a combination of grace and strength, reminiscent of a young Leontyne Price.”
Information.dk
“Angel Blue sang Bess in the Met’s new production of Porgy and Bess and she was wonderful… Equally good, yet very different, was the single performance of Bess given last October 13 by British soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn… Seattle had all gushed about her gorgeous voice, passionate and highly musical singing, beautiful appearance, and intense acting. When I saw that she would be coming to the Met to make her debut, I had to be there.
“Llewellyn’s interpretation of Bess was, to me, a confident assumption of a character who is often lacking in confidence. She made no effort to be endearing to the audience, even as she sang the glorious Gershwin music. I found her take on the character most persuasive.”
WQXR – Operavore
