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PRESS
as
ESCAMILLO
in
Carmen – Bizet
Carmen - Piedmont Opera
Carmen - Hawaii Opera Theater
Carmen - Nashville Opera
Carmen - Piedmont Opera
1/5
"...the biker Escamillo, Ollarsaba played to a tee. With charisma and energy, the bass-baritone did a fantastic job of portraying the character through his body language, tone, and leather biker's outfit!"
- Music City Review
"Ollarsaba embodied and acted a totally credible Escamillo and put over the matador's terrifyingly rangy "Votre toast" extremely well."
- Opera News
"Ollarsaba looked and sang [...] gentlemanlike: a fine, resonant bass-baritone."
- bachtrack
"Ollarsaba held up the quartet's low end with a basso-cantante voice both mellow and powerful. His bottom notes in the "Confutatis" were firm and he brought elegance to his vocal production..."
- South Florida Classical Review
[Requiem – Verdi]
as
DON GIOVANNI
in
Don Giovanni – Mozart
"Ollarsaba as the decadent don...conveyed moments of dark humour with dark vocal timbres rich in narrative nuance."
- South China Morning Post
"Ollarsaba commanded the stage from the first moment he set foot on it. Tall, swaggering, and thin as a rock star, he brought a devilish charisma to the role [...] in a deep, thick bass-baritone that soared over confidently above the music."
- the rapidian
Don Giovanni - The Florentine Opera
Don Giovanni - Opera Hong Kong
Don Giovanni - Opera Grand Rapids/Opera Carolina
Don Giovanni - The Florentine Opera
1/6
"I can't imagine a more perfect performer to portray Don Quixote, the "Knight of the Woeful Countenance," than Richard Ollarsaba. His handling of the optimistic anthem "The Impossible Dream" was incomparable."
- CVNC
[Man of La Mancha – Leigh/Darion]
as
FIGARO & IL CONTE
in
Le nozze di Figaro – Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro - New Zealand Opera
Le nozze di Figaro - Virginia Opera
Le nozze di Figaro - Portland Opera
Le nozze di Figaro - New Zealand Opera
1/4
"Ollarsaba who plays the dastardly Almaviva, was the crowd favorite for his entertainingly villainous performance...only when he took the stage during the final bow did [the audience] rise to their feet."
- Willamette Week
"Figaro sung by Richard Ollarsaba performed with a rich controlled voice, his every gesture finely tuned"
- New Zealand Arts Review
"As the Count [Ollarsaba] delivered his Act III aria with particular panache...making his gorgeously sculpted "Contessa, perdono" all the more affecting"
- Opera News
"In two Viktor Ullmann settings, [Ollarsaba] displayed a dark, deep-pile voice, delivering a jaunty "Vorausbestimmung" and a hearty paen to Bacchus in "Lob des Weines" ... Ollarsaba's performance of Steven Mark Kohn's "The War Prayer" was mesmerizing. The singer showed the poise and communicative power of a seasoned artist, commanding, stentorian tone and delivering all the passions and tenderness and biting irony of Mark Twain's antiwar text."
- Chicago Classical Review
[Beyond the Aria]
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