Press
Bellini, I Puritani (Boston Lyric Opera)
“She possesses a silvery soprano with an agile coloratura, great musicality, and a complete command of the stage…Coburn is compelling even when silent; one can see the madness flicker in her eyes.”
– Boston Classical Review
Donizetti, La Fille du Regiment (Seattle Opera)
“The two opening-night stars, tenor Lawrence Brownlee and soprano Sarah Coburn, cast the best possible light on Seattle Opera’s Young Artists program (both are alums). It would be hard to find two singers anywhere who could do more credit to these roles. Brownlee, at the international top of his form, sings his highflying arias with an ease, purity and polish that could hardly be bettered. He is thoroughly at home as the lovestruck Tonio, who joins the regiment to woo its adorable mascot Marie (Coburn, whose coloratura voice has gotten bigger but has lost none of its lovely agility). Both singers are vital, winning actors and fun to watch; the opera’s two acts seem to fly right by.”
– Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times
“Coburn’s performance as Marie was nothing short of stunning. This is a coloratura whose mastery of the intricacies of bel canto technique is absolute: timbre, agility and technical precision form the engine that allows her imaginative interpretation to shine through. Her cadenza in the opening act was redolent with delightful, bird-like warbling and ornamentation, and yet through it all she acts like the carefree young woman she portrays. An incredible feat to say the least.”
‐ from the Oregon Music News
“Whether standing atop a bar counter or on a table, Coburn was rock solid as the tomboy Marie, tossing off cascades of notes with ease. She reveled in the spunky, can-do nature of her character and thrillingly upped the volume for the ensemble pieces.”
‐ from the Classical Voice America
Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier (Cincinnati Opera)
“Radiance was also to be found in the Sophie of Sarah Coburn. She seems comfortable with the high tessitura of the role — even the treacherous conclusion of the final duet was spot on — and it was a pleasure to hear her spinning out the many long lines Strauss requires.”
‐ Joe Law, Opera News
“Coburn brought sweet vulnerability in her role debut as the ingénue Sophie. The presentation of the rose scene was radiant, and her voice had silvery beauty all the way to her stunning high notes. Time stood still in her wonderful duet with Octavian, ‘Ist ein Traum’ (‘It is a dream’), in which the two sealed their love with ecstatic kisses.”
‐ Janelle Gelfand, Cincinnati Enquirer
Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor (Washington National Opera)
“Sarah Coburn in the title role [is] a riveting presence from the get-go…. The soprano has a voice of admirable purity and security. And she knows how to burrow into the music incisively, a quality matched by exceptionally nuanced acting.”
– Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun
Verdi, Rigoletto (Cincinnati Opera)
“Cincinnati favorite Sarah Coburn did what she does best: singing like an angel, flitting through the coloratura with ease, all the while creating a youthful, innocent maiden that the audience loved and wanted to protect as much as Rigoletto.”
– Charles H. Parsons, Opera News
Bellini, La Sonnambula (Wiener Staatsoper)
“Taking the soprano lead in her house debut, Sarah Coburn scored a well-earned triumph. Her finely-tuned soprano is agreeable in timbre, ample in dynamic range and accurate in pitch and flexibility. Natural stage charm, a ballerina’s figure, together with an instinct for timing and a sense of shape for the lines (as much in the recitatives as elsewhere), make her an Amina to watch out for.”
– Moore Parker, Opera Critic
Verdi, Rigoletto (Los Angeles Opera)
“The performance centered on Sarah Coburn’s multifaceted Gilda. Strikingly pretty in appearance and superlatively agile in voice, Coburn caught Gilda’s naïve wonder at the world, her yearning for freedom and her sensual curiosity most effectively, but her darker vocal qualities, already quite pronounced in her fine Los Angeles debut last year, are now even more apparent in the middle to lower registers. As early as ‘Caro nome,’ these tones suggested a powerful sexual energy that would eventually drive Gilda to her death.”
– Simon Williams, Opera News
Rossini, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Seattle Opera)
“The production boasts an elegant, witty soprano Rosina in Sarah Coburn, whose voice is equally compelling in the low notes of Una voce poco fa and the optional high D’s which glitter and blossom at full voice. Coburn is one of the few singers who can match Brownlee’s facility with lightning passagework, providing more ornaments than the White House Christmas tree. She’s also an adroit comedienne and a remarkable beauty: the very model of a Rossini heroine.”
– Melinda Bargreen, The Classical Review
Verdi, Rigoletto (Welsh National Opera)
“In an auspicious UK debut, the American Sarah Coburn helped make the father-daughter duets as heart-rending as Verdi intended. Coburn’s agile soprano was laser-like at the top, but equally capable of a deeper, gutsier tone.”
– Rian Evans, The Guardian
Rossini, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Florida Grand Opera)
– James. L. Paulk, Musical America
“Although it was written for mezzo-soprano, the role of Rosina was transposed and taken over by sopranos for many decades before the mezzos reclaimed it. Today we can still hear the soprano version occasionally, and here Sarah Coburn showed us why. Her bel canto technique was beautifully executed; her trills alone were worth the price of admission. Added assets are her good looks and subtle comic sensitivity. Never mugging or going for cheap laughs, this Rosina was a class act.”
Handel, Tamerlano (Los Angeles Opera)
– Donna Perlmutter, Huffington Post
“Nothing less than stunning was Sarah Coburn, Bajazet’s daughter Asteria. With a voice equal to her fairytale princess face and form and a limitless technique she is simply stellar.”
Pedrotti, Tutti in Maschera (Wexford Festival Opera)
“All credit to Agler, then, for creating a European platform for American coloratura soprano Sarah Coburn. Judging by her sparkling decorative runs, perfect trills and the way she caressed the lines with her full, even timbre, she deserves an international career and has the stage temperament for it.”
– Andrew Clark, Financial Times
Bellini, I Capuleti ei Montecchi (Glimmerglass Opera)
“You need a voice of particular radiance for such spare music to come alive; Glimmerglass had such a singer in Sarah Coburn, who emerged from the company’s Young American Artists Program several years ago. To the requisite loveliness of tone Coburn added ample breath control, pinpoint accuracy in coloratura passages, and innately musical phrasing.”
– from The New Yorker
“Coburn represents a new generation of superb American coloratura sopranos, a wonderful singer/actor with the hardness of diamonds cocooned in a bed of velvet in her voice.”
– Paula Citron, Toronto Globe and Mail
Donizetti, Lucie de Lammermoor (Cincinnati Opera)
“Once every decade or two, a voice comes along that is so breathtaking, so thrilling for its sheer beauty and power, you feel lucky to witness it. That was the case when soprano Sarah Coburn took the stage in the title role of Cincinnati Opera’s ‘Lucie de Lammermoor,’ which opened Thursday in Music Hall.”
– Janelle Gelfand, Cincinnati Enquirer
Bellini, I Puritani (Washington Concert Opera)
“For a few magical hours Sunday at Lisner Auditorium, soprano Sarah Coburn and tenor Lawrence Brownlee seemed to be the world’s best opera singers. As Elvira and Arturo, their sweet and radiant voices climbed to stratospheric heights and sped effortlessly through hairpin turns…In “Qui la voce,” Coburn’s coloratura technique was flawless, each note hit squarely, never ruffling Bellini’s flowing line.”
– from the The Washington Post
“He had a sensational co-star Sunday night in Sarah Coburn, as the intermittently unbalanced Elvira. In vocal terms, the soprano proved to be a remarkably pure Puritan, her tone clear, smooth and effortless. Coburn, who would also be a very welcome presence on one of our local stages, apparently never met a coloratura hurdle she couldn’t surmount. Her technique was so comfortably controlled that, even at its highest and loudest, her voice never lost its essential beauty.”
– Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun
Haydn, L’anima del filosofo (Glimmerglass Opera)
“Eurydice was sung by the already risen star Sarah Coburn, who dazzled Glimmerglass audiences two seasons ago as the French Lucie (de Lammermoor) and who has grown in stature since then. The voice retains its brightness, staggering accuracy in rapid divisions and brilliance at the top, but added to those qualities is a new gentleness of expression and warmth; indeed, the accompanied recitative right before Eurydice expires was delivered in a stunning half-voice, with a finely spun legato and great expressiveness. The role of Genio, Eurydice’s spiritual guide, gets the showpiece aria, and here Ms. Coburn sang that role too (as did Maria Callas in 1951; Joan Sutherland in the late ‘50s, and Cecilia Bartoli in the ten-year-old recording of the work) and her virtuosity and coloratura brought down the house.”
– fromClassics Today
“…but the real star was the soprano Sarah Coburn, who dazzled in Haydn’s demanding arias.”
– from Financial Times
“Sensational coloratura soprano Sarah Coburn whips through both Euridice’s and Genio’s tortuous vocal decoration with precision placement, mercury speed, and a gorgeous liquid gold tone, gilded by a thrilling top and bottom register.”
– from The Globe and Mail
Rossini, Tancredi (Washington Concert Opera)
“The evening’s big surprise came from the young soprano Sarah Coburn, in the role of Amenaide, who sang with purity, power and pinpoint accuracy in terrifically challenging music … She more than held her own in this elite company.”
– Tim Page, Washington Post
Offenbach , Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Cincinnati Opera)
“When Sarah Coburn as Olympia the doll let loose with her coloratura fireworks in Act I of “Tales of Hoffmann” Thursday night in Music Hall, the crowd understandably went wild…As the mechanical doll, Coburn’s voice was as scintillating as her costume; her crystal-clear coloratura brought down the house.”
– from The Cincinnati Enquirer
Verdi, Un Ballo in Maschera (Cincinnati Opera)
“Sarah Coburn’s Oscar – crystalline of voice, with technique to spare – stole the show.”
– from Opera News
“As Oscar, the king’s page, Sarah Coburn is a rising star of the kind one feels lucky to witness. From her first act “Volta la terrea,” she was a scene-stealer who tossed off her vocal fireworks fearlessly and with clear, silvery high notes.”
– from The Cincinnati Enquirer
“The most outstanding overall performance, though, was delivered by Sarah Coburn in the pants role of Oscar, the king’s page. In addition to effortless, beautiful singing, she brightened the set with ebullient personality at each appearance.”
– from The Cincinnati Post
Mozart, Mass in C Minor (Seattle Symphony)
“Some voices possess a genuine radiance, and Coburn is one of those fortunate singers. Her voice, bright and flexible and expressive, was displayed to great advantage in the Mass, where her florid, difficult solos had huge interval leaps.”
– from the Seattle Times
Donizetti, Lucie de Lammermoor (Glimmerglass Opera)
“… Sarah Coburn turns out to have qualities that have made legends out of so many of her predecessors, from Adelina Patti to Maria Callas: stage charisma, a thrilling upper register and, crucially, a fearlessness about abandoning herself to opera’s most abandoned heroine… [T]his is a palpably exciting voice…. Ms. Coburn is a budding prima donna of exceptional promise.”
– from theNew York Observer
Strauss, Die Fledermaus (Seattle Opera)
“The evening’s real musical laurels were won and charmingly worn by Sarah Coburn, who sang Adele with poise and panache…her Act III audition aria stopped the show. Coburn’s highly polished voice shone throughout its range; she carried off the coloratura with an ease that obviously gave her (and her audience) great pleasure.”
– from Opera News