*Click here to read the "Sound Bites" article about Leah Wool from the March 2009 issue of Opera News*

Knoxville Opera - Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Alan Sherrod, Metro Pulse, April 28, 2010

"Although productions often transpose the role of Rosina up for coloratura sopranos, the lovely mezzo-soprano Leah Wool proved this totally unnecessary. While her voice was perfect for the role, Wool is also an actress of substantial comedic ability, selling the role beautifully with both a calculating smirk and an open-mouthed ingenuousness."

Gloria Musicae - Petite Messe Solennelle

Gayle Williams, The Herald Tribune, April 7, 2010

"The four vocal soloists were exceptional in their own way. But the stars were the two women, Giglio and Wool, who in the duet Qui tollis peccata mundi of the Gloria, left us hanging on every phrase. Their ornamented final phrase together was perfection. Only Wool's final solo, Agnus Dei, with the chorus, eclipsed this moment."

Utah Opera - L'Italiana in Algeri

Robert Coleman, Opera News, June 2010
"Mezzo soprano Leah Wool (Isabella), an alumna of Utah Opera's Young Artist Workshop, returned to the Capitol Theatre stage as the feisty heroine. Her supple bel canto resonated in the low register and bloomed on ascending phrases. She established her character's feminist agenda with a powerfully sung "Cruda sorte," while swooning pirates added a comic counterweight to her earnestness."

Edward Reichel, Deseret News, March 14, 2010
"A former Utah Opera young artist, Wool makes her local debut in a major role as Isabella. Her characterization is wonderfully crafted and polished, and her voice is well suited to the demands Rossini places on his singers. At Saturday's opening night performance she sang the florid lines of her part with an ease that showed her to be a natural in the bel canto repertoire."

Catherine Reese Newton, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 14, 2010
"Mezzo-soprano Leah Wool, who trained at Utah Opera early in her career, is back to sing the title role of Isabella. Her luscious, creamy voice was in fine form all evening Saturday."

Kentucky Opera - Hansel and Gretel

Andrew Adler, The Courier-Journal, November 30, 2009
"I particularly enjoyed Leah Wool's Hansel, a trouser role that brought out this young mezzo's delightful impetuousness."

Boston Baroque - Amadigi di Gaula

Kalen Ratzlaff, Opera News, January 2010
"As Amadigi, a knight fleeing from a sorceress's enchanted garden in search of his true love, mezzo-soprano Leah Wool was particularly effective in the role's meditative moments, in which she could exploit the warmth and richness of her voice."

Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, October 17, 2009
"Leah Wool was fluid and sensitive in the title role"

Glimmerglass Opera - The Consul

Joanne Sydney Lessner, Opera News, November 2009
"Leah Wool delivered a crackling performance as the Secretary, a fastidiously cute Cerberus relishing her world of little privileges"

Heidi Holder, The Berkshire Review, September 8, 2009
"The Secretary is beautifully sung by Leah Wool, particularly in her Act III aria when she finally, too late, shows feelings for the lowly folk she has coldly dismissed in her lilting, waltzing refrain, “Your name is a number, your story’s a case.”

David Shengold, The Boston Music Intelligencer, August 18, 2009
"Leah Wool offered a poised, nuanced Secretary, handsomely vocalized."

Eli Jacobson, Gay City News, August 20, 2009
"...a vocally strong cast illumined each role...Leah Wool’s attractive tone made the Secretary infuriating as she blandly stonewalled each supplicant. Diction was surprisingly clear all around."

Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, August 5, 2009
"The cast members gave their all and were impressive, especially...the mezzo-soprano Leah Wool as the officious secretary"

William V. Madison, Billevesées.com, August 5, 2009
"...the Secretary, here sung splendidly by the charming Leah Wool."

Joan Vadeboncoeur, The Post-Standard, August 6, 2009
"A crisply efficient Secretary...Wool scores mightily "

Stephen G. Landesman, The Ithaca Journal, Jul 29, 2009
"Mezzo Leah Wool sang the pivotal role of the consular Secretary with an aptly numbing recitative of endless forms to be completed by Magda and her companions. Her sudden compassionate and lyrical outburst (“Oh, those faces! All those faces!” ) at the end of Act 2 was especially striking for its abruptness and impassioned clarity."

Wayne Myers, New York Cultural Arts Examiner, August 1, 2009
"Rarely has bureaucracy been given such a pretty face. In Glimmerglass Opera’s production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1950 opera “The Consul,” the tale of a bureaucracy so caught up in red tape that it ends up destroying the very people it was designed to help, that face belongs to Leah Wool. She gives bureaucracy a lovely mezzo voice, too."

Joseph Dalton, The Albany Times-Union, July 27, 2009
"The prim and devastatingly efficient secretary is well played by mezzo-soprano Leah Wool, but even she eventually reveals a human side."

Brenda Tremblay, Rochester City Newspaper, August 14, 2009
"Leah Wool plays the Consul's secretary with a clear, precise tone and expressive nuance in a tricky role as the bearer of red tape."

David Rubin, The Freeman's Journal, July 31, 2009
"Representing the Consul is his Secretary, Leah Wool, also a singer with a bright future. She mastered saying “next” with just the right degree of boredom and derision. Every now and then she allowed her own humanity to peek through the gloom."

Syracuse Opera - Little Women

Wayne Myers, New York Cultural Arts Examiner, May 8, 2009
"The eye-grabbing Wool poured forth luscious top notes in the aria “Things Change, Jo”—a glimpse of the sweet things to come from this singer.”

Gloria Musicae - C Minor Mass

Gayle Williams, Herald Tribune, April 14, 2009
"Both female soloists proved themselves masters, with mezzo Leah Wool negotiating many florid passages beautifully in the Laudamus Te."

Napa Valley Youth Symphony - "Make Our Garden Grow" Benefit Concert

James Keolker, Napa Valley Register, March 4, 2009
"Leah Wool sang a beautifully articulated “Non più mesta” with cascades of intricate coloratura from Rossini’s “Cinderella.”"

Orlando Opera - La Cenerentola

Edmond Leroy, Opera News, June 2009
"Cenerentola cannot succeed without a mezzo who can really sing the part. Leah Wool can. Wool has a fine-grained voice of truly beautiful timbre, silvery on top and with bottom notes that project well. Her coloratura work was stunning in its accuracy and revealed no breaks as she scooted around the two and half octaves required for the role. Her "Nacqui all'affanno…. Non più mesta" was about as fine a rendition as I have heard."

Scott Warfield, Orlando Sentinel, February 21, 2009
"Leah Wool, whose reputation as a rising major talent preceded her here, did not disappoint as Cenerentola...and polished off the evening with a technically impeccable performance of the treacherous "Non piu mesta." She is a singer whose career will bear watching."

Charles Ives: Songs, Volumes 1-3 (Naxos Records)

David Shengold, Opera News, January 2009
"The singing I enjoyed the most on the whole disc was Wool's elegant, luminous instrument in 1901's lovely French-language "Elégie." Surely this gifted young artist is also the one heard in the lovely "Evidence," though Naxos's packaging attributes it to tenor Matthew Plenk. "

Howard Goldstein, BBC Music Magazine, October 2008: American Beauty
"Mezzo Leah Wool stand[s] out in particular here for [her] sensitivity to Ives's European/American duality."

James H. North, Fanfare Magazine
"Finally, on track 28, mezzo Leah Wool blooms in "Country Celestial", demonstrating that she, and presumably the other women, can deliver the grand songs as well as the men. She is excellent throughout her four songs, totally comfortable on the recital stage..."

Dave Lewis, All Music Guide
"Leah Wool's reading of "The Children's Hour" is genuinely lovely"

David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com
"Highlights are many, but include...mezzo Leah Wool's "Ann Street""

Boston Baroque - Xerxes

Sue Loder, Opera Today, November 2, 2008
"Equally pleasing to the ear was mezzo Leah Wool in the difficult role of the wronged and rather out-of-sorts Amastre...which she sang with commitment and a warm steady tone throughout."

Paul Joseph Walkowski, OperaOnline.us, October 24, 2008
"Leah Wool, singing the role of a foreign princess, Amastre, engaged to Xerxes, but disguised as a soldier...performed superbly"

Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe, October 24, 2008
"Leah Wool made an ardent Amastre"

Opera New Jersey - La Cenerentola

David Shengold, Opera News, October 2008
"July 12's La Cenerentola sparkled at its center. Leah Wool seems among the more distinctive and accomplished artists of her generation, worth traveling to hear: her mezzo has a distinguished, lovely timbre, and she has achieved admirable equalization in scale passages. She handles text, in both cantilena and recit, with aplomb and point. By the end of the performance, Wool gave the audience much to enjoy."

David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 15, 2008
"In La Cenerentola's title role, mezzo-soprano Leah Wool, for one, emerged as a finished operatic personality. You're tempted to think Rossini's ultra-intricate coloratura writing is the near-exclusive property of Cecilia Bartoli. But Wool has a comparable accuracy rate and a more pleasing technical approach. With her more demure, smoky timbre, Wool phrases more smoothly - better to achieve moments of specific dramatic relevance. Born on Long Island and educated at Yale, she's also an able actress: Her Cinderella was free of self-pity and full of mischief. She's also a captivating presence. Can you ask for anything more?"

Bradley Bambarger, The Star-Ledger, July 13, 2008
"The soul of "La Cenerentola," of course, is in its Cinderella, and this production has a heartbreaker in Long Island native Leah Wool. With her doe eyes, wide smile and raven hair, the mezzo resembles the young Cecilia Bartoli...Wool's voice is perfectly formed...her phrasing of Cinderella's slower, sad-eyed music beautiful, the top notes of her benevolent final aria and cabaletta sparkling."

Anita Donovan, The Times of Trenton, July 15, 2008
"Leah Wool, a petite, perky ball of fire, is totally in command of the vocal lines and elaborate ornamentation that Rossini wrote for her character."

Robert Baxter, ConcertoNet.com, July 13, 2008
"An affecting Cinderella, Wool convinces as both the scorned stepdaughter and the radiant woman who wins the prince's heart. Looking like a dream in her gorgeous gown, she sings the joyous final rondo fluently..."

Stuart Duncan, The Princeton Packet, July 15, 2008
"Leah Wool sings the role of Angelina (our Cinderella) with lighthearted fervor. She has lovely doe eyes and a stunning smile..."

Giulio Gari Foundation Gala Concert

Brian Kellow, Opera News, December 2007
"This year's discoveries included...the gifted Leah Wool, completely captivating with Cendrillon's "Enfin je suis ici"

Central City Opera - Cendrillon

Chris Shull, Opera, November 2007
"In Massenet's Cendrillon, Leah Wool was delightful in the title role. Her charming demeanour helped create the reverie of the fairy tale, while her sweet singing conveyed the gamut of emotions - from contentment to rapture, despondence to delight - that helped make her character human."

David Shengold, Opera News, October 2007
"Leah Wool, a wonderful Erika in Vanessa two summers back, returned in triumph to headline Cendrillon. Appealing and musical, with a lovely timbre, Wool appears to be at the brink of an important career."

Kyle MacMillan, The Denver Post, July 31, 2007: Mezzo-soprano helps lift Cinderella
"In what has to be seen as something of a breakout role for her, mezzo-soprano Leah Wool could hardly be better as Cinderella. Indeed, Central City officials probably greenlighted this production only after they were sure she would be available. The attractive, up-and-coming singer completely looks the part, with a fresh-faced youthfulness that bespeaks authenticity and goodness. The fine actress both ably conveys Cinderella's humble servitude and deftly conjures the regal bearing and radiance necessary to turn every head as she enters the ball. Along with all that, Wool possesses a striking mezzo-soprano voice with fullness, depth and subtle tinges of amber at times. With well-shaped phrases and sure technique, she made Cinderella's extended aria at the beginning of Act 3 the tour de force it should be."

Marc Shulgold, The Rocky Mountain News, July 16, 2007
"Leah Wool (so impressive in Central City's Vanessa, two summers ago) is captivating in the title role - endearing, fragile, completely real in this ultimate story of make-believe. The voice never faltered, even through Massenet's lovely but demanding arias, so pivotal to the story line."

Wes Blomster, The Daily Camera, July 16, 2007
"It is, of course the singer cast in the title role — Massenet called her Cendrillon — on whom everything depends in this opera, and the CCO could hardly have found a more ideal incarnation of the abused young girl than Leah Wool, the youthful Erika in Barber's "Vanessa" here two summers ago. Wool, trite as it might sound, is Cinderella and she makes her a noble being who bears abuse with dignity. It's a demanding role, and on Saturday, Wool was superb in every one of her great scenes — above all in hatching escape plans with her father and in the soaring dream duet of Act Three."

Juliet Wittman, Denver Westword, August 2, 2007
"Leah Wool makes Cendrillon a far warmer-blooded creature than Disney's blank-faced, artificially feisty Cinderella, and she counters the nineteenth-century sentimentality of the script (in which she's constantly called "poor Cendrillon" and refers to herself as "little cricket") with an earthy and profound capacity for joy. Her rich, full singing voice sounds equally beautiful solo, paired with the fine tenor of Vale Rideout, who plays Prince Charming, or blending with [Heather] Buck's ethereal notes."

Bob Bows, ColoradoDrama.com, August 2007
"Leah Wool, as Cinderella, is the coup de grâce in this thoughtful staging. Her warm and expressive mezzo soprano takes hold from her first act aria, in which she describes her woeful life as a servant in her father's house, and transports us with each succeeding aria—meeting her Fairy Godmother; dancing with her Prince Charming; commiserating with her father; contemplating exile and death; and reuniting with the Prince in spirit—until, finally, coming together in the flesh."

Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County News, August 9, 2007
"When the stage empties and Cinderella walks out, alone, with hope and eagerness all over her face, it is obvious the show has a real princess in its midst. Mezzo-soprano Leah Wool tears into one’s heart as she recounts the longing of the abandoned girl. She has a voice that flows into every corner of the opera house, leaving the audience wanting more. Her acting is commensurate with her singing and if there is a perfect Cinderella, it is Leah Wool."

Toledo Opera - Roméo et Juliette

Alan Montgomery, Opera News, December 2006
"Leah Wool as Stéphano, quite believably a boy, delivered a delightful rendition of her famous couplet."

Sally Vallongo, The Toledo Blade, October 8, 2006
"...mezzo Leah Wool (Stéphano), whose verve was a great match for her colorful and flexible voice"

Illinois Symphony - Der Rosenkavalier (Excerpts)

Nick Rogers, The State-Journal Register, October 22, 2006
"Wool's declarative aria...seared with headstrong passion."

Opera Theatre of St. Louis - Hansel and Gretel

Judith Malafronte, Opera News, September 2006
"Saundra DeAthos' bright-voiced Gretel and Leah Wool's warm, effervescent Hansel were an adorable pair."

Lawrence J. Dennis, Opera Canada, September 2006
"Leah Wool was an outstanding Hansel....Wool has a warm mezzo, even throughout its range."

Lew Prince, Riverfront Times, May 31, 2006
"Leah Wool and Saundra DeAthos play Hansel and Gretel...Wool's voice [is] perfect for Hansel. Costumed in Raggedy Ann and Andy gingham, they bring the poverty-stricken children sparklingly to life."

Rob Levy, St. Louis Gateway Arts, May 29, 2006
"Hansel & Gretel is so delightful because of its two leads. Mezzo-soprano Leah Wool plays Hansel with great relish bringing a genuine childlike innocence to the role."

Joe Pollack, KWMU St. Louis, May 2006
"Leah Wool and Saundra DeAthos, as Hansel and Gretel, respectively, sang excellently."

Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX St. Louis, May 2006
"...and mezzo Leah Wool is a convincingly coltish Hansel...in fine vocal form"

Opera Roanoke - The Marriage of Figaro

Seth Williamson, The Roanoke Times, April 2, 2006
"Especially funny was mezzo Leah Wool as the testosterone-poisoned teenage boy Cherubino...she is convincing as the kid with only one thing on his mind...and even better later on as a woman pretending to be a man who's pretending to be a woman."

Gotham Chamber Opera - Albert Herring

David Shengold, Gay City News, March 2, 2006
"As Sid and Nancy, Timothy Kuhn and Leah Wool were lively onstage and vocally fresh and apt."

Bruce Hodges, MusicWeb International, March 1, 2006
"Albert's friends Sid and Nancy (strongly sung by Timothy Kuhn and Leah Wool)"

Charles Michener, New York Observer, February 20, 2006
"With...Timothy Kuhn and Leah Wool as a sweetly affecting Sid and Nancy"

Alice Tully Hall - Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Gala Concert

Brian Kellow, Opera News, January 2006
“The afternoon’s most arresting voice belonged to mezzo Leah Wool, who partnered Mari Moriya in Lakmé’s “Dôme épais de jasmin.” (Wool also clearly knows how to act.)”

Central City Opera – Vanessa

David Shengold, Opera News, October 2005
"Young Leah Wool displayed dramatic sensitivity and a lovely plush lyric mezzo as Erika"

Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post, July 2005
“Equally impressive is Leah Wool, with her expressive, wonderfully flexible mezzo-soprano voice. She seems attuned in appearance and every other way to the complicated character of Erika, poignantly capturing the niece's vulnerability, confusion and despair.”

Rocky Mountain News, July 4, 2005
“Erika is the opera's co-star, and Leah Wool lived up to the billing, subtly shading her vocal lines, roaring and purring with ideal focus.”

The Daily Camera, July 4, 2005
“Leah Wool is a touchingly vulnerable Erika”

ColoradoDrama.com, July 2005
"Up and coming mezzo, Leah Wool, is nothing but dulcet tones as the demanding romantic, Erika"

Utah Opera – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Opera Japonica, April 10, 2005
"Mezzo-soprano and former Santa Fe apprentice Leah Wool was a fresh voiced Hermia"

Salt Lake City Tribune, March 13, 2005
"Leah Wool as Hermia [was] youthful and appealing, dramatically as well as musically."

Utah Symphony – Messiah

Salt Lake City Tribune, December 2003
"Among the soloists, Wool's singing was especially impressive. She possesses rich voice with plenty of oomph in the low range.”

Santa Fe Opera – La Belle Hélène

Opera Japonica, August 2003
“Léoena and Parthoenis, played in revealing outfits by apprentices Leah Wool and Meredith Barber, were appropriately enticing and sang splendidly.”