SUSAN GRAHAM SCORES ANOTHER TRIUMPH AT SAN FRANCISCO OPERA IN TITLE ROLE OF HANDEL'S ARIODANTE WITH UNANIMOUS PRAISE FOR A TOUR-DE-FORCE PERFORMANCE, GRAHAM CAPS OFF A PHENOMENAL SEASON THAT BEGAN WITH HER FIRST METROPOLITAN OPERA IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE, IN STEPHEN WADSWORTH'S PRODUCTION OF THE LANDMARK GLUCK OPERA On June 15, the versatile Susan Graham gave her house role debut in George Frideric Handel's magnificent Ariodante at the San Francisco Opera. Bay Area reviewers are unanimous in their praise, writing some of their most glowing reviews of the season. The role of Ariodante contains a fistful of da capo arias, all long and demanding, and the performer wheels from joy to anguish and back more than once during the opera's three-plus hours. A writer for the online Bay Area Reporter points out (with only slight exaggeration) that "Susan Graham performs a host of arias that feature 5,000 viscerally thrilling, often heart-rending notes per minute. Sounding and looking fabulous[,] ... Graham sings with such surety, tonal allure, and technical panache as to make you wonder if she is the same singer who reigns supreme in slow, sensual French repertoire. She remains so in control of her instrument that she can ascend to an unexpected, perfectly placed high note while lying on her side." The more sober Mercury News reports on a tragic moment of the opera, in which "Graham turns a moment of betrayal into an extended flight of searing vocal intensity. ... She launches into the aria 'Scherza, infida' with a heartbreaking, almost unbearable sense of the character's grief and despair." Further, the writer describes "an indelible Ariodante. Proud, noble, and blissful in the early scenes ... and later stricken by the poison of ... treachery, the singer expresses every mood swing in forceful terms. ... The sustained anguish of 'Scherza, infida' was the transcendent centerpiece, but Graham sang with strength and luster throughout." Nowadays, especially in Baroque opera, good acting is as important a requirement as good singing. The authoritative web-based San Francisco Classical Voice stated: "Graham took the full measure of Ariodante in a commanding performance. 'Scherza infida,' the aria by which we have come to judge modern interpreters, had the weight and power it needs, but without undue heaviness in tempo or rhythm. By the middle of the aria, Graham had curled up practically in a fetal position, singing brilliantly with her face nearly buried in the floor. But Graham also tossed off the fireworks of 'Con l'ali di costanza' with aplomb, and gave a sumptuously lyrical account of 'Cieca notte,' Ariodante's sorrowful third-act aria. She also was the most vivid actor onstage." The "City by the Bay" boasts no more eminent newspaper than the San Francisco Chronicle, according to which, "Susan Graham added one more entry to her long list of triumphs with the company, turning in a performance marked by nobility and technical bravura. Her coloratura execution was flawless, and the expressive depth of her 'Scherza infida' was ... astonishing." Finally, the Contra Costa Times describes how "Graham's supple voice, by turns creamy and burnished, was under acute control all afternoon; her perfectly contoured dynamics imbued her every line with an intensity of feeling that lent credibility to her performance and made her rendering of the anguished 'Scherza infida' aria in Act II a revelation." Performances of Ariodante continue at San Francisco Opera: Tue June 24, Fri June 27, Tue July 1, and Sun July 6.