Lisa Vroman

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

 

The Portland Oregonian

by James McQuillen

 

Lyric soprano and Broadway diva Lisa Vroman was an excellent choice for the role of Anna…..Vroman has a powerful, flexible voice and forward tome, as well and clear physical expressiveness.

 

St. Petersburg Times

by John Fleming

 

Lisa Vroman has the makings of a great interpreter of Kurt Weill, judging from her performance Saturday night of The Seven Deadly Sins, with vocal quartet Hudson Shad and the Florida Orchestra at Pasadena Community Church.

 

Weill's "sung ballet," with text by Bertolt Brecht, has eluded many a soloist, because it is neither fish nor fowl, stylistically speaking. As Weill scholar Joel Galand pointed out last week, the composer wrote works that are not quite opera, not quite musical comedy, not quite oratorio.

 

Vroman, who combines the naturalism of a musical theater ingenue with a big, classically refined soprano, bridged all those genres as Anna I who, with her "sister," Anna II (represented by a mannequin), set out across the United States to make money to build her family a house in Louisiana. It was thrilling to hear the piece sung with such luscious color and soaring register instead of the barroom rasp of the original Anna, Lotte Lenya, in a recording.

 

Nor did Vroman sacrifice anything by way of theatricality. She was a smartly acted Anna, going from vehement to droll in the turn of a phrase in relating to her "family," the incomparable Hudson Shad, hilarious as a barbershop quartet. Stefan Sanderling conducted, with instinctive understanding of Weill's astringent music.