Opera Atelier’s Actéon and Pygmalion

“Allyson McHardy’s brief performance of Pygmalion’s jilted love interest Céphise was at once sympathetically alluring as it was entirely dominant of the action.  After hearing McHardy, I wanted an opera entirely about her character.  Not enough is written about the rarity of McHardy’s instrument, the ease with which she crosses from era to era and the multiple vocal types (Fach) she can emulate.” (Stephan Bonfield, Ludwig van Toronto, 28 October 2018)

“Mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy also keeps her roles quite distinct.  In the first opera she delivers Junon’s aria “Son infortune est mon ouvrage” with a grandeur befitting the queen of the gods, yet she subtly suggests the combination of annoyance and shame at Jupiter’s infidelity that has driven her to take revenge on Actéon that she knows his friends will find unfair.  As Pygmalion’s spurned lover Céphise, McHardy again conveys a complex mixture of emotions in her one short scene – continued love for Pygmalion and humiliation that he should love an inanimate object more than she.  It is a pity that Rameau’s librettist, Ballot de Sauvot, did not find a way to bring Céphise back for some kind of reconciliation if only for the pleasure of hearing McHardy’s dark, smooth, velvety voice again.” (Christopher Hoile, Stage Door, 28 October 2018)