Operatraveller.com  - April 2022

"Reisha Adams stepped out to lead the closing fugue of the ’libera me’, with a generously vibrating soprano, confidently sung, and soaring to a ringing high C." 

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The Guardian - February 2016 by Fiona Maddocks

“Reisha Adams, replacing an indisposed Lucy Crowe as Pamina, displayed verve and confidence.”

 

Classical Source - February 2016 by Amanda-Jane Doran

“Lucy Crowe was sadly indisposed for this second performance. Her replacement Reisha Adams sang Pamina with warmth and vibrancy, just occasionally needing assistance with the perilous plank. Vocally Clayton and Adams stood out as the most accomplished singers.”

 

Datta Katha - February 2016 by Anita Datta

“Reisha Adams, who stepped in a few hours before the performance, delivered Pamina’s arias with a clear and glorious tone that established and developed a believable and realistic portrayal of the character’s conflicting and genuine affections.”

 

The Pyonear - May 2014 by Anthony Drew 

“Whilst the weather was a contrast between the last visit of Reisha and this one, the music was an evolution. Two years’ experience, much of it with Glyndebourne, was to present itself to us in a performance that took us from the melodic sweetness of Ivor Novello to rattling the roof tiles with a range of operatic cameos from Mozart, Bizet and Puccini. 

Wonderfully accompanied and supported by David Doidge at the piano, the pair gave a formidable performance that would deserve a standing ovation at any venue in the world.”

 

www.briandickie.com - December 2013 by Brian Dickie 

“Welsh soprano Reisha Adams managed both Musetta and Donna Elvira without missing a beat.” 

 

The Pyonear - August 2013 by Anthony Drew 

“The evening marked the return of local talent, Reisha Adams and her colleagues from the Welsh National Opera, to play for us again; this time in aid of St Michael’s Hospice. Reisha first burst into our ears over a year ago in Canon Pyon Church, as many of you will remember, in weather conditions equally memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. I said at the time that “this girl is going places”. Well, she has and her first year at Glyndebourne was demonstrated in an outstanding performance of power, confidence and maturity.

All four contributed equally and performed to a level that belied their youthfulness.”

 

Wiltshire News - September 2011 by Will Frampton Westbury Music Festival 

“There was a fantastic performance from Reisha Adams and David Doidge at All Saints Church, she had the most amazing voice and sang German and Italian arias.” 

 

www.bristol247.co.uk - November 2010 by Andrew Batten-Foster 

The Bristol Choral Society with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Colston Hall. 

“This was an exceptional evening in more ways than one. The programme promised three outstanding pieces of classical music written by British composers between 1912 and 1917; the grim days of World War One. Holst’s The Hymn of Jesus, Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending and finally Elgar’s The Music Makers. All pretty exciting and dramatic pieces in their own right. But before a note was sounded, an entirely different drama was being played out elsewhere. 

Two hours before the performance was scheduled to begin, Mezzo-soprano Katherine Allen decided she was too ill to sing. This left conductor Adrian Partington with an interesting dilemma. Did he call off the show and disappoint audience, orchestra and choral society alike, or try to find a last minute replacement? 

Of course he took the second option, and had so much confidence in Reisha Adams that he rang her and told her drop everything and drive immediately to Bristol. There were further complications. Reisha had never sung The Music Makers before, she (literally) didn’t know the score and, what’s more, she was Christmas shopping with her boyfriend in London 120 miles away. Whatever doubts must have gone through her head, she decided to jump in her car, the score was scanned and sent to her mobile and she downloaded the piece so she could begin rehearsals on the M4. 

The audience would certainly be in the Colston Hall before she’d arrive, but luckily the Elgar was scheduled after the interval. Would she make it on time? Or might the car break down? What about possible traffic jams? Would she need a police motorcycle escort? Or have to be flown in by helicopter? I suspect it is rare for the worlds of classical and choral music to so closely resemble a Hollywood screenplay....

....Then, the time had come for Elgar’s The Music Makers. Would Reisha have made it? Well, yes. None of my more fanciful disasters had come true but none the less all eyes were upon her as she walked onstage — still dressed in the clothes she’d been been wearing for her shopping trip a few hours earlier. 

The piece allowed her about 15 minutes to compose herself before she actually had to sing, but when she did so she performed with astonishing poise, rising quite wonderfully above the extraordinary circumstances that brought her there so unexpectedly. The audience, the orchestra, the choral society; all gave her a rapturous reception, and the night had its fairytale ending.”

 

What’s On Wales - June 2010 by Nigel Jarrett 

“Busy bees alighting on everything that bloomed best describes the itinerary of soprano Reisha Adams and pianist David Doidge at the Riverfront's latest lunchtime recital. 

Subjectively one wishes that they might have settled longer in certain parts of the garden if only to get a firmer impression of what each is made of beyond the whirlwind format of the Live Music Now! scheme. 

As it was, there were fourteen numbers, three of them featuring Mr Doidge on his own in music by Debussy, Beethoven and Chopin and, as a partnership, everything from Ms Adams's favourite song - Duparc's Chanson Triste - to Diva's Lament from SpamAlot, in which the singer bemoans her upstaging by, among unnamed others, Britney Spiers. 

With such a long list, this is not the place to nit-pick. In fact, what came across most forcibly was Ms Adams's steely charm and Mr Doidge's versatility, at events like this perhaps the qualities that say more about the musicians than any amount of speculation about how they'd deal with, say, other Duparc songs or the rest of Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata. 

The pointers were definitely there - particularly in Elletra's white-hot Tutte nel cor from Mozart's Idomeneo and in the pianist's now blistering, now composed rendering of Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 Opus 39 and in the deft accompaniment to three settings of Edith Sitwell by Walton The couple couldn't elicit audience involvement in Broadway numbers, perhaps because having been offered the Countess's Porgi Amor from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro as well as Hear Ye, Israel from Mendelssohn's Elijah, it was approaching emotional surfeit and overdosing on delight.”