As Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust at the Grant Park Music Festival

“Marguerite doesn’t show up until the second half in Berlioz’s version but Allyson McHardy made the most of her belated appearance as Faust’s doomed beloved. Resplendent in a midnight-blue gown, McHardy’s high mezzo-soprano proved apt for this Gallic idiom. The Canadian singer brought inner feeling and refined lovely tone to the King of Thule ballad…In the abandoned Marguerite’s Romance (“D’amour l’ardente flamme”) Hardy sang beautifully with touching melancholy expression” (Chicago Classical Review, 20 August 2016)

“Allyson McHardy’s Marguerite…was the most touching characterization, particularly in the ballad of the King of Thule and Romance.” (Chicago Tribune, 20 August 2016)