IN THE NEWS
PRESS QUOTES
LUISA MILLER
LUISA MILLER | LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO
"She impressed the Lyric audience with her tender, yet strong and flexible voice and her wide vocal range. Palmertree's artistic approach to this challenging role, thoughtful and professional presentation of her vocal part, and the natural beauty of her voice touched everyone's heart. She demonstrated excellent breathing technique, beautiful high notes and touching timbre of her voice singing demanding arias such as "Lo vidi e il primo palpito," "Tu puniscimi o Signore," "La tomba e un letto sparso di fiori," and "Ah! l'ultima preghiera." She was also absolutely stunning while singing as part of duets and ensembles."
CHICAGO DAILY HERALD
TOSCA
FLORIDA GRAND OPERA
"Toni Marie Palmertree, who portrayed Floria Tosca, delivered a truly remarkable performance. Her voice was powerful, clear, and expressive, capturing the complex emotions of the character with ease. Palmertree's acting was equally impressive, embodying Tosca's fiery temperament and vulnerabilities masterfully."
SCHMOPERA
"The title role is a larger-than-life embodiment of a theatrical star coping with passionate emotions and loyalty to her lover and his cause. Toni Marie Palmertree proved a lyric Tosca who is fully equal to the role’s demands. She brings a playful charm to her initial scene with Cavaradossi but her fiery temperament can flair to jealousy with conviction. Palmertree’s voice is even throughout a wide range and she can caress long phrases while her strong top notes cut through the orchestra clearly. She vividly projected Tosca’s agony at seeing her lover tortured in the second act. Palmertree’s rendition of “Vissi d’arte” was passionate, as much a prayer as a plea. Near the opera’s conclusion, her narrative of Scarpia’s murder proved riveting."
SOUTH FLORIDA CLASSICAL REVIEW
I PAGLIACCI
NEDDA | FESTIVAL OPERA NEW ZEALAND
"Toni Marie Palmertree made the role of Nedda, Canio's wife, her own in I Pagliacci, with her brilliant singing and the extraordinary range of emotions shown in combination with her secret lover, Silvio, convincingly played by baritone Kieran Rayner."
NEW ZEALAND HERALD
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
PALM BEACH OPERA, SYRACUSE OPERA, WEST BAY OPERA, FESTIVAL OPERA NEW ZEALAND, SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
"Cio-Cio-San is played by Toni Marie Palmertree, whose clear soprano lifts, soars and dances on Puccini's gorgeous melodies. She is entrancing even before she's on stage, first heard singing from the wings the melody that becomes her motif as she approaches with her entourage to meet Pinkerton. To her falls the most well-known aria of the opera, "Un bel di Vedremo," sung early in Act. II. Even without the English surtitles, the audience would grasp the range of emotion Palmertree expresses as she first imagines her joy "one fine day" at the return of Pinkerton, then her hysterics as she considers her life of poverty and shame if he does not come back."
SRYACUSE POST-STANDARD
"Toni Marie Palmertree is a classic Cio-Cio-San, even down to the ritual gestures associated with the role. She employs her soprano in a dazzling manner, regularly producing voluptuous swells of tone that send chills down the spine. The regular place of the aria “Un bel di” in the recital repertoire can obscure the fact that, in the context of the opera, it springs from a simple conversation with Butterfly’s maid, Suzuki. This little telling of a dream — her vision of her long-lost husband returning to her — grows to dramatic proportions in a remarkable way, and serves as a fine demonstration of Palmertree’s dynamic range."
THE ALMANAC NEWS
"In an understudy-saves-show performance... something remarkable happened. The young soprano not only met the challenge, but she claimed her place among the finest vocal interpreters of the role heard here recently. It was, to borrow from Hamlet, “a hit, a very palpable hit.” Hers is a big, bright, beautiful voice. She sings with an innate, unaffected musicality, with enough projection to fill the 3,200–seat auditorium smoothly and completely. It’s an individual, personal voice, one which you can recognize when you hear it again, not the kind of “generic soprano” that is present in profusion. Palmertree received well-deserved ovations, heartfelt acclaim... and the next morning this unstinting message was waiting for her on Facebook, from [the general director]:
The stunning impact of Toni Marie Palmertree’s first Butterfly will be etched in my mind for all time. She gave so completely of herself and took the audience on an incredible journey. You made us all so proud last night, Toni Marie. — Matthew Shilvock"
SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE
"Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, was breathtaking in her performance as Cio Cio San. She has graced the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and other venues of global fame. She knows how to draw an audience in to her story and make them feel her joys and her pain. As I said, her voice gives you chills."
SPLASH MAGAZINE BAY AREA
IN RECITAL
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
"There is her sound itself — a bright, lustrous instrument capable of gathering great reserves of expressive momentum and then discharging them with a well-placed climactic flourish. Added to that are a wide emotional range, a gift for communicative intimacy, and a dash of theatrical temperament that can give her singing a certain dramatic flair. ... In the “Canciones clásicas españolas” of Fernando Obradors, which concluded the evening in a burst of expansive high spirits. In the brisk, saucy numbers of the set (“El molondrón,” “El tumba y lé”), Palmertree brought out her most vivacious side, tripping gaily through the texts like a Spanish Gilbert and Sullivan patter singer. Yet the most exquisite number was the slow love ballad “La mi sola, Laureola,” in which Palmertree gave a musical impression of a lover struck nearly dumb by the beauty of his beloved."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
VERDI REQUIEM
ALLENTOWN SYMPHONY,
ALBUQUERQUE PHILHARMONIC
"Palmertree sang with stunning clarity, her voice practically shimmering in its upper range, yet with formidable power even below middle C. Her range of emotional delivery was equally broad, capable of playing both the lion and the lamb. In fact, Palmertree had the lion’s share of the solo vocals in the “Libera me,” and roar she certainly could, as those terrifying thunderclaps and full chorus of the “Dies Irae” returned. It takes one mighty voice to compete with all that glorious sound, and she was certainly up to the task."
THE MORNING CALL
TURANDOT
LIU | SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
"Liù was never a question, however, as far as her voice is concerned. Played by soprano Toni Marie Palmertree, she delivered both her famous aria, “Signore, Ascolta” in Act one and her “Tu che di gel sei cinta” in Act three, with lustrous, gleaming and moving sound, and soul."
OPERAWIRE
LUCREZIA BORGIA
LUCREZIA BORGIA | NEW AMSTERDAM OPERA
"In the title role, soprano Toni Marie Palmertree was a revelation. Palmertree is a rising star who recently made her Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera debuts. ... Her Lucrezia revealed a rich distinctive voice with a lustrous top and excellent agility, including finely articulated trills sprinkled over the vocal line. The color is dark and fruity with a shimmering vibrato. This is a voice that blooms at the top of the range and Palmertree scored mightily throughout the evening in soaring and blazing vocal lines in the high register."
PARTERRE
DON GIOVANNI
ARIZONA OPERA
"Palmertree’s soprano soared at every turn and her comic acting prompted true belly laughs from the audience."