Press
“It was followed by Schubert’s justly famous Shepherd on the Rock, featuring the third member of the Trio, soprano Leslie Fagan. She told the audience how emotional this homecoming was for her, as she has fond memories studying at U of T Faculty of Music, with Irene Jessner, Lois Marshall and Greta Kraus, three legendary names in Canadian music.
Given that Fagan’s musical journey goes back to the Forrester/Marshall/Jessner/Kraus era, it’s amazing how youthful her tone has remained, a light, lyric timbre without any sign of the passage of time. Her Schubert was lovely, but to my ears, she was at her best in de Falla’s Seven Spanish Popular Songs, and especially the opera arias.
She started off with “Quando m’en vo,” with her endearing stage persona front and centre. She combined purity of tone with an unbridled joy of music making. In the high B-natural at the end, she even did a lovely if daring diminuendo. Also terrific was “Les oiseaux dans la charmille,” better known as the Olympia’s Doll Song. Fagan pulled out all the stops, with a perfect trill, plus the requisite sight gags of the Doll running out of gas – figuratively speaking that is – only to have Campbell coming on to wind her up. The only thing missing was the mechanical sound effect!”
– Joseph So, Women’s Musical Club of Toronto
“Fagan[‘s] consecutive numbers comprised the bulk of the [Carnegie Hall] concert’s middle section and were handled with grace and sonority. Her aria, ‘Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,’ featured a gossamer sustaining in her lower register which wonderfully accented the phrase, ‘He shall speak peace to the heathen’ before the da capo. She was given the last solo number of the evening with ‘If God be for us, who can be against us,’ where her tender reassurances were both pious and remarkably touching.”
– Opera Wire
“Fagan managed the trickiest aspects of this high-flying part with stunning precision and musicality; for me, it was one of the most memorable performances of the entire season.”
– Opera News
“In the difficult role of his mother, Nitocris, Leslie Fagan sang with a bright, nimble soprano and aptly portrayed the anguish of a parent who despairs of her vile son yet still loves him.”
– New York Times
“…her voice sounds nothing short of astonishing… she is in a class of her own.”
– Wholenote Magazine