In Review: McIntyre, Zabala, Whitney, and Hernandez in Madison Opera's "Florencia en el Ama
"Director Kristine McIntyre (“Tales of Hoffmann,” 2016) gives her performers free range on a sloping set borrowed from Arizona Opera. . . Rachel Sterrenberg and Mackenzie Whitney, as a tightly wound young writer and a restless would-be pilot respectively, inch toward each other in a series of satisfying duets. Opposite them, the eloquent and affecting mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala and easygoing baritone Levi Hernandez have sharp comic timing as a long-married couple who can no longer stand the sight of each other. In a particularly moving scene, Zabala’s Act II lamentation aria when she believes her love is gone has the maturity and resonance of a performer at the top of her craft. . . .McIntyre’s striking staging. . . The most moving moments in “Florencia” come when magical realism reveals real emotions, as in Zabala’s poignant Act II aria or a heated duet of denial between the young lovers." -The Cap Times