Barbara Leifer
Reviews
An outstanding dramatic mezzo, Barbara Leifer took the stage and played Carmen with all the derision, anger, caprice and love-play you could ask. She can move and dance with facility and can do a rousing zapateado atop a table with the slightest provocation. Leifer is a big-league talent.
- San Jose Mercury News
The beautiful voice of Carmen carried listeners throughout the afternoon. By the end of her first aria, it was known that Carmen was a very sensual force to be reckoned with because of her tasteful dynamic control. She would tease the audience with her vocal potentials when solo, yet, she would let her voice soar over the top of the chorus and orchestra without forcing the sound to be heard.
- Escape Magazine, Los Angeles
Miss Leifer’s rich voice is displayed splendidly in the famous ‘Habanera’. She’s sexy, she dances well and her acting is wonderful.
- Anniston Star
The show stopper was Barbara Leifer, who started off as Mrs. Peachum but later took on the role of Lucy with a mezzo sound of positively Wagnerian proportions
- New York Daily News
Barbara Leifer, a mezzo-soprano, had the largest and most polished voice in the cast, and gave a fiery portrayal of Lucy.
- The New York Times
Discovery of the season, mezzo-soprano Barbara Leifer will certainly have a career, perhaps as Carmen, Dalila, or Eboli. She has a great dramatic voice with an alluring, seductive vibrato.
- Bel Canto Magazine
With lyrical and sympathetic understanding she demonstrated the finest color changes in the musical expression ... she sang the meaning of the music from the soul. Her Voice was powerful in the high registers, luminous and penetrating. She was able to effortlessly dramatize the musical text.
- Badener Tageblatt, Germany
Barbara Leifer, Mrs. Peachum/Lucy one night and Lillian the next, had the fullest, most glorious voice, frequently soaring over the orchestra in both lower and upper registers.
- Princeton Press
Mezzo-soprano Barbara Leifer was a perfectly sensuous Maddalena.
- New York Daily News
A profound and rich voice, an expressive face that delivered many different emotions in the song, Barbara Leifer captivated her audience.
- La République, France
Barbara Leifer is "a powerful presence on stage ... an outstanding dramatic actress ... with a mezzo sound of positively Wagnerian proportions."
-New York Daily News