ESCAMILLO - CARMEN

NASHVILLE OPERA

"It is here that Carmen meets her next conquest, the biker Escamillo...Ollarsaba played Escamillo 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."

- Sarah Featherston

Music City Review

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COUNT ALMAVIVA - LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

PORTLAND OPERA

"Richard Ollarsaba, who plays the dastardly Count Almaviva, was the crowd favorite for his entertainingly villainous performance; during intermission, the audience marveled at his great range of facial expressions and only when he took the stage during the final bow did they rise to their feet."

- Eric Ash

Willamette Week

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SOLOIST - REQUIEM | VERDI

MASTER CHORALE OF SOUTH FLORIDA

"Richard Ollarsaba adroitly 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, avoiding the exaggerated histrionics or gravely sonority some basses evidence in this music."

- Lawrence Budmen

South Florida Classical Review

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FRED / JUDGE - THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF ALAN TURING

CHICAGO OPERA THEATER

"Richard Ollarsaba applied his sonorous bass-baritone to a loving portrayal of Turing's sometime lover Fred before making a chameleon-like switch to assume the character of an icy judge."

- Mark Thomas Ketterson

Opera News

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ESCAMILLO - CARMEN

LYRIC OPERA KANSAS CITY

"Escamillo was sung by Richard Ollarsaba; I've seen him played more ladishly and crudely by some, heightening the contrast between himself and the erst-while respectable Don José; Ollarsaba looked and sang more gentlemanlike: a fine, resonant bass-baritone ."

- Hilary Stroh

bachtrack

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ESCAMILLO - CARMEN

GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL

"The best French came from bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba who embodied and acted a totally credible Escamillo and put over the matador's terrifyingly rangy "Votre Toast" extremely well."

Opera News

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COUNT ALMAVIVA - LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

VIRGINIA OPERA

“As the Count, bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba didn’t just have the tall-dark-and-handsome bit going for him, but also robust, flavorful, agile vocalism…he delivered his Act III aria with particular panache. Ollarsaba’s portrayal of the amoral aristocrat deftly conveyed a sense of entitlement as well as a telling bit of insecurity, making his gorgeously sculpted “Contessa, perdono” all the more affecting.”

- Tim Smith

Opera News

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“Ollarsaba’s portrayal of the Count was outstanding. From the start there was an air of aristocratic entitlement with a whole lot of Al Bundy incompetence thrown in for good measure. “

- Dave Pearson

digitalbeat magazine

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DON GIOVANNI - DON GIOVANNI

OPERA CAROLINA

"Dashing, cruel, and overflowing with conceit, bass-baritone Richard Ollarsaba made a stunning debut as Giovanni. His overtures to Elvira, her maid, and the peasant girl Zerlina were all lusciously seductive. Encounters with Leporello and Masetto crackled with scornful superiority, sometimes snarling and sometimes nonchalant. The old Commendatoere seemed to draw the very best from Ollarsaba, cavalierly deferential to his age in resisting his challenges to combat in the opening scene, defiant and fatally unrepentant when Giovanni's fate was sealed."

- Perry Tannenbaum

CVNC

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DON GIOVANNI - DON GIOVANNI

OPERA GRAND RAPIDS

"Richard Ollarsaba, who plays Don Giovanni, 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...It wouldn't have meant much if he couldn't sing; thankfully, he could, and did, in a deep, thick bass-baritone that soared confidently above the music."

- John Kissane

the rapidian

 

FIGARO - LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

NEW ZEALAND OPERA

"Ollarsaba played superbly off the other characters and sang with healthy resonance and smooth tone throughout, changing noticeably from jovial (if sometimes clueless) trickster to a deeper, sympathetic character in his angry scene in Act 4."

- Simon Holden

bachtrack​

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"Figaro sung by Richard Ollarsaba performed with a rich controlled voice, his every gesture finely tuned"

- John Daly-Peoples

New Zealand Arts Review

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ESCAMILLO - CARMEN

KENTUCKY OPERA

“One of the most memorable occurrences of the evening was Richard Ollarsaba’s Escamillo. Donned in a beautiful pin-stripped suit, dapper to the nines and with a tight barbered scruff, he was a vision of want and desire. But as he began to sing the Toréador song, I know I heard one or more members of the audience, if not the singers on stage make an  other characters and sang with  gasp of “Wow”. And deservedly so. Rich undertones and a very velvety top make his Escamillo one of the best that I have heard in recent past.”

- Annette Skaggs

Arts-Louisville

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DON GIOVANNI - DON GIOVANNI

OPERA HONG KONG

"Richard Ollarsaba as the decadent [Don Giovanni] conveyed moments of dark humour with dark timbres rich in narrative nuance."

- Martin Lim

South China Morning Post

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SOLOIST - MISSA IN TEMPORE BELLI

PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

"Bass-baritone soloist Richard Ollarsaba was especially impressive, his rich, smooth timbre gently ballooning with the cello and basses"

- Jeremy Reynolds

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette​​

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FIGARO - LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

MINNESOTA OPERA

"Richard Ollarsaba's virile Figaro encompassed the character's many facets -- bold, playful, bitter -- and cut a striking figure."

- Larry Fuchsberg

Opera News

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"Richard Ollarsaba, led the evening's show in the title role, gifting our cities with a fine performance. Ollarsaba warmed up quickly, taking a poised and broad command of his role as primo uomo. His performance of the famous melody "Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso" at the end of Act I was perfectly sarcastic, witty, and fun."

- Mark Anthony Rodriguez

Life in Revue

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ASDRUBALE - LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE

WOLF TRAP OPERA

"The count Asdrubale (Richard Ollarsaba, evoking a young Ruggero Raimondi in looks and manner, with a meltingly smooth bass-baritone)"

- Anne Midgette

The Washington Post

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"As Asdrubale, Richard Ollarsaba used his sizable, creamy bass-baritone to keen effect. He proved an astute comic actor, too."

- Tim Smith

Opera News

 

FEATURED SOLOIST

BEYOND THE ARIA - HARRIS THEATER

"In two Viktor Ullmann settings, the young bass-baritone displayed a dark, deep-pile voice, delivering a jaunty "Vorausbestimmung" and a hearty paean to Bacchus in "Lob des Weines." His two contemporary settings proved the highlight of the evening. In Chris De Blasio's "Walt Whitman in 1989" he offered a poignant rendering of the AIDS-inspired setting. 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, singing with commanding, stentorian tone and delivering all the passion, tenderness and biting irony of Mark Twain's antiwar text."

- Lawrence A. Johnson

Chicago Classical Review

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BASS SOLOIST - SONGFEST

RAVINIA FESTIVAL

"Ollarsaba was fully inside the aching tenderness of Walt Whitman's homosexual confession, "To What You Said," a poem unpublished during the poet's lifetime."

- John von Rhein

Chicago Tribune

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