Quinn Middleman
mezzo-soprano
La Susanna
Haymarket Opera | Testo | 2022
"Young mezzo Quinn Middleman has consistently made a fine impression with her work in Chicago theaters, so it was good to see her strut her stuff in a meatier assignment as Testo, the work’s narrator. Middleman’s tone was pungent and ample, with some impressive plunges into a healthy chest register and a nicely executed little trillo."
-Opera News, 2022
"Mezzo Soprano Quinn Middleman as Testo, the oratorio’s narrator, proved an animated musical storyteller, carefully changing timbres to reflect emotional changes and thereby keeping the audience engaged."
-Musical America, 2022
"Middleman fulfilled her role as presenter of the story with aplomb, and it appeared she’d memorized the whole score; she rarely looked at her book. Her haunting full-throated roundness of tone brought tangible moments of surprise and threat in her dramatic telling. She used her diction to complete the shaping of sounds in recitative passages, so appropriate to the details of storytelling."
-Core of Culture, 2022
La traviata
Utah Opera | Flora | 2019
"Utah Opera’s 2019-20 Resident Artists make an admirable showing in this production, [including] mezzo Quinn Middleman as effervescent Flora Bervoix."
-Utah Arts Review, 2019
The Ghosts of Versailles
Chautauqua Opera | Susanna | 2019
“Other roles were handled with impressive vocal and acting skill by upcoming singers from the company’s deep Young Artists roster. They included a...very believable Susanna (mezzo-soprano Quinn Middleman).”
-Tom Di Nardo, The Chautauquan Daily, August 2019
The Scarlet Ibis
Chicago Opera Theater | Mother | 2019
"Quinn Middleman caressed Mother's lullaby touchingly and scored extra points for keening her cries of labor pain right on pitch."
-Mark Thomas Ketterson, Opera News, May 2019
"Middleman’s violent child birthing scene at the start of the opera revealed a singer who is vocally up to new challenges that belie her youth... This is a VOICE. Congratulations to whomever cast Middleman in this role, which could have easily turned camp, but in Middleman’s hands feels visceral and authentic... a breakout performance."
-Oliver Camacho, VocalArtsChicago, February 2019
"Middleman brought tenderness and a gentle presence to the role of Mother. Her fine, warm mezzo-soprano voice easily met the challenge of vocal demands which included musically notated high notes for sung screams and groans during the first scene’s difficult childbirth. Ms. Middleman musically gave us all of a woman’s pain, fear, agony, joy, and strength while in the throes of one of life’s essential moments... Ms. Middleman touchingly exchanged excitement and optimism for the pathos of the forlorn hope of an unattainable goal."
-Buzz News Center Stage, February 2019
"Quinn Middleman, Bill McMurray, and Sharmay Musacchio create a rich and deeply connected family unit as Mother, Father, and Auntie respectively. The maturity and sheer power of their vocal talents is nothing short of a modern marvel. "
-Chicagoland Musical Theatre, February 2019
Elizabeth Cree
Chicago Opera Theater | Doris | 2018
“Painted with incisive brush strokes, the other members of the theatrical troupe were superb, including David Govertsen as Uncle, Jason Ferrante as Little Victor, and Quinn Middleman as Doris.”
-Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review, February 2018
The Burning Fiery Furnace
Central City Opera | Entertainer | 2017
"In the roles of court 'entertainers' Marlen Nahhas and Quinn Middleman are exuberant and funny."
-David Marlowe, July 2017
Variations on a Summer Day
Tanglewood Music Center | world premiere,
Harold Meltzer | 2016
“The Fromm Foundation commission was Variations on a Summer Day, set to Wallace Stevens’ poetry by the Brooklyn lawyer Harold Meltzer,… Quinn Middleman, from Washington state, was the compelling mezzo-soprano.”
-Leslie Kandell, Classical Voice North America, July 2016
“Mezzo-soprano Quinn Middleman made a similarly persuasive case for Harold Meltzer’s “Variations on a Summer Day,” a gleaming setting of texts from the Wallace Stevens poem of the same name.”
-Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe, July 2016
