In Review: Krause and Barron in Princeton Festival " Nixon in China"
"Rainelle Krause is a catalog of facets as she presents a diverse Pat Nixon, at once deferent and astute, aloof and canny, and ready for any role presented to her. Best of all is how Krause finds the hominess in Mrs. Nixon while honing in on her skillful intelligence. . . Joseph Barron’s Henry Kissinger is all shrewd business." -PrincetonInfo.com
"Soprano Rainelle Krause effectively looked the part of Pat Nixon, capturing an often worn and weary woman whose husband was the principal focus of her life. Krause sang in a consistently lyrical style, especially in her Act II soliloquy reflecting on her own good fortune. Joseph Barron, singing the role of Nixon’s right-hand man Henry Kissinger, sang with a thundering bass voice reminiscent in range of Kissinger’s own gravelly speaking voice." -Town Topics
"For the sake of the opera, we see more human links than perhaps reality would have found between him and the weary Pat Nixon of Rainelle Krause.A certain unsteadiness of her large and well-focused soprano in the opening scene of Act II hinted at this insecurity, this false note, this wonder at finding herself, with her lack of pretension, in so aristocratic a situation, being gracious to peasants, pigs, small children, unable to restrain her sympathy for the peasant girl raped in a ballet. Hers is a voice of considerable lyric power."
-Parterre Read full review. "Yuk has also assembled the most vocally consistent cast I’ve heard at the Festival. . . bass Joseph Barron (Kissinger) represented the low voices well . . .Rainelle Krause brought a plangent lyric soprano to Pat Nixon; better yet, she provided a necessary sense of dignity whenever possible." -Broad Street Review