“Standouts among the really wonderful cast . . . included Melody Moore, who sang Mrs. Grant and Vi Liuzzo, a civil rights volunteer, with a clear shining voice . . . It is as deeply moving as anything I’ve seen in opera. This opera runs for only a week; I will certainly be going again, and I think everybody should see it.”
Anne Midgette – Washington Post
“Soprano Melody Moore was a vocal sensation as Mrs. Grant in the first act, and equally so in the second act as Viola Liuzzo, a puzzling sidetrack; she was a volunteer from Michigan, shot by the Ku Klux Klan after supposedly experiencing a premonition that someone would die that day.”
Charles T. Downey – The Classical Review
” Among the large and generally fine cast, two female voices stood out: Melody Moore’s plush and vibrant soprano as Julia Grant and Viola Liuzzo . . .”
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim – The New York Times
“The character of Julia Grant (Soprano Melody Moore) is eminently practical and full of common-sense and Moore brings this out beautifully. Moore’s purity and clarity of tone is crisp and pragmatic yet, concurrently, almost ethereally entrancing . . . A nice shift in emphasis ensues as the idealistic, altruistic character of volunteer Viola Liuzzo (once again, the exquisite Melody Moore) appears to offer her services to the Civil Rights movement. Moore’s aria as she sings of her dreams of helping the cause is spellbinding and iridescent.”
David Friscic – DCMetro Theater Arts
“The most touching relationship on stage was that between Melody Moore playing Julia Grant and Richard Paul Fink as her husband Ulysses. Moore is totally convincing as a Civil War marm, strong as a rock physically and morally, and her partnership with Fink, as the embattled General who has struggled out of abject poverty and street smarts to become the major problem solver of the war, is all in the details of their crafted choices and demonstration of their underlying tender devotion.
The creators have thankfully not made this a man’s opera which might have been tempting to do. The women as a group are strongly represented . . . certainly the women have the most stirring musical moments in the whole opera. The opening number, “War is always sorrowful,” serves as a kind of anthem that guides the work thematically. Anne-Carolyn Bird, Kerriann Otaño, and Crystal E. Williams join Moore in a quite lovely quartet, and the rest of the women become a chorus, representing women throughout history as the true victims of war.”
Susan Galbraith – DC Theatre Scene
“A few moments allow the story to breathe a bit, like a short digression for Ulysses S. Grant’s wife Julia, on the Grants’ hardscrabble background, movingly tackled by Melody Moore’s formidable, incisive soprano . . .”
Alex Baker – Parterre.com
“There are other great performances including Melody Moore (Mrs. Grant/ Vi Liuzzo) . . . “Appomattox” is worth seeing more than once. Glass and Hampton got it right: Act II was needed and the opera leaves no stone unturned in portaying hopes and dreams juxtaposed with struggles and frustration.”
Sarah Hearn – Examiner.com
