Heather Phillips has received rave reviews for her Oper Frankfurt debut as Bianca in Rossini’s Biana et Falliero.
“Quite grandiose: In “Bianca e Falliero” by Gioachino Rossini, Oper Frankfurt presents beautifully singing people whose acting remains committed to dramatic truth. Soprano Heather Phillips succeeds in making a splendid debut. The American soprano, who has made her European debut here, is not only a great
performer: she begins as a sky-high, exultant, amorous girl…then transforms into a sufferer with the terror-stricken mien of a classical tragedienne and ends as a disillusioned, battered but inwardly strong woman.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitgung
The most prominent is Bianca’s “Teco io resto” as an adaptation of “Tanti affetti” from “La donna del lago”. The difficulties of “Bianca e Falliero,” however, lie less in Gioachino Rossini’s multiple adaptations and self-borrowings than in the extremely complicated part of the Venetian noblewoman Bianca. Hardly a phrase passes in this one without ornamentation in all registers. In this respect, the American Heather Phillips showed strong nerves and high courage in her European debut…Phillips as Bianca shines radiantly in her big arias at the beginning and end of the part. There the music triumphs…Bianca remains alone with herself and her potential for violence accumulated in the encounters with her father and Falliero. – Neu Musik Zeitung
“The two title roles are top-class with Heather Philips as Bianca and Beth Taylor as Falliero. Philips, who is making her European debut in Frankfurt, endows the role with great drama and clean coloratura. While in her first cavatina, when she longingly waits for Falliero’s return, she still seems like a naive little girl, which Philips credibly expresses vocally and visually, she convincingly shows the development into a combative woman who saves her lover Falliero from condemnation. In the final rondo “Deh respirar lasciatemi” she really turns up the heat with agile runs when she sings of her happiness that her father will now no longer stand in the way of a marriage with Falliero…” – OMM.DE Online Musik Magazin