Soprano Melody Moore believes in female empowerment — perhaps that’s why she’s so drawn to the Lady Macbeths and Floria Toscas of the operatic stage. Luckily, these are the types of roles she’s been polishing since her earliest days as a budding singer, meticulously analyzing each and every leading lady throughout her development. But Moore is all grown up now, and on May 13 she once again steps into the title role of Puccini’s Tosca at LA Opera, under the baton of Maestro Grant Gershon.

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“As the ill-fated heroine, Melody Moore combined her splendid vocal and theatrical gifts to deeply moving effect. She had full control over her powerful soprano, projecting the high-lying part easily across Janáček’s most tempestuous orchestration and applying exquisite shading and shaping. Moore conveyed Katya’s fear of her locked-up emotions with tremulous beauty, turning her final scene into an ecstatic vision of release that kept a refreshing distance from clichés of operatic madness.”

Thomas May – The Seattle Times

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“Wagner fans will be more satisfied with good solos from Melody Moore’s Senta, with a clear tone and solid acting …”

American-Statesman Staff – Austin360

“Moore was the right combination of sweet and spicy to execute the role of the desperate Senta. Her conviction of love and admiration proclaimed through a ballad sung to her fellow seamstresses, was beautiful and lively executed. Moore’s love triangle introduced with a local man Erik (played by Clay Hilley) added another element of drama and surprising abuse. This plot line displayed the full circle love story of unrequited and missed love.”

Amy Bradley – Broadway World

“If another singer were to insert sobs into Richard Strauss’s “Befreit,” as Melody Moore did at her New York recital debut on May 25, it might well seem vulgar. The song’s text and melody alone offer so complete a portrayal of grieving devotion that no such extramusical gesture is necessary. But Moore had already proved herself to be a performer of such honesty that could you not only forgive her the effect, but understand its naked emotionality as a manifestation of her open, uninhibited stage persona. This was in fact as moving a “Befreit” as I’ve ever heard: sobs and all, Moore delivered its pathos exactly.

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Soprano Melody Moore is currently between shows at Washington National Opera, singing Freia in Das Rheingold and Ortlinde in Die Walküre until May 18th. After that, she hits the recital stage in Chicago with pianist Shannon McGinnis (May 20) and at New York’s Carnegie Hall with Robert Mollicone (May 25). Moore took the time to talk about some of the enviable roles she’s had the chance to perform, what’s left on her singing bucket list, and her “incredibly strong connection” with Puccini’s Tosca.

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“. . . the score is often remarkably rich in melodic flight and orchestral texture. Two scenes, in particular, linger . . . in prayerful hope that the world can somehow be transformed. That finale registered with particular poignancy on November 18 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. As the characters formed a tight circle of solidarity, and Melody Moore’s silvery soprano soared with a kind of angelic grace to cap the exquisitely harmonized scene, the effect was downright profound.

All of the singers got deep into their dual roles . . . In addition to her sensitive work as Liuzzo, Moore provided vocal richness and emotional power as Julia Grant, wife of Ulysses.”

Tim Smith – Opera News