General Press Quotes 
RECORDINGS:
Ives: 17 Songs;
Concord Sonata
C'est ça la vie, c'est ça l'amour: French Operetta Arias
Il tenero momento
PERFORMANCES:
Ariodante
Dead Man Walking
Der Rosenkavalier
The Great Gatsby
"The American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham has for the better part of a decade impressed audiences with her creamy singing and chiseled characterizations..."
The New York Times
"America's favorite mezzo..."
Gramophone Magazine
"It is impossible to take eyes or ears off of Susan Graham whenever she is onstage. At almost 6 feet, the American mezzo-soprano is a commanding presence in opera or concert. And once Graham opens her mouth, a listener can only submit to a lustrous voice that abounds in expressive colors..."
Don Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Most opera divas don't do their errands on bikes, especially in New York City. Nor do they scuba-dive off the coast of Thailand. But to creamy-voiced Susan Graham, one of America's top mezzo-sopranos, such activities come as naturally as recording the music of composer Ned Rorem, performing Kurt Weill's Broadway songs or taking on the so-called trouser roles in Mozart, Handel and Strauss operas..."
Town & Country
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Reviews of Ives: 17 Songs;
Concord Sonata
"My newest favorite Ives recording...smartly chosen, elegantly sung."
Alan Kozinn, The New York Times, May 2004
"A splendid addition to the Ives discography and a fine tribute 50 years after his death from two superlative musicians...Aimard is a committed advocate, and his partnership with Susan Graham in the songs is a winner."
"Editor's Choice" Gramophone magazine, June 2004
"Graham's clarion tone perfectly suits the contours of Ives' material, and her lyrical sensitivity draws out the songs' character."
Billboard "Classical Score" column, May 2004
"By far the most anticipated release of the Charles Ives anniversary year,
this disc lives up to all expectations. Susan Graham is the ideal
interpreter for 17 of the composer's songs. Graham brings these little
Americana arias to life with idiomatic surety and an alluringly full-bodied
tone. Much of America's musical past and some of its future are encapsulated
by this one CD."
Newark Star Ledger, June 2004
"A generous sampling of Ives' songs...from the peerless American mezzo Susan Graham."
Observer (New York), May 2004
"Seventeen songs delivered by Susan Graham and Aimard provide reasons enough to purchase. Brief, various, always surprising, the songs offer an ideal introduction to Ives's world."
Times (London), May 2004
"This exquisitely sung collection of seventeen songs is a perfect
introduction to the genius of Charles Ives. Susan Graham is a national
treasure. Her voice flawlessly captures the varying essence of these gems.
Don't miss this outstanding CD." (Four Stars)
Audiophile Audition, September 2004
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Reviews of C'est ça la vie, c'est ça l'amour: French Operetta Arias
"This is the musical equivalent of an expensive box of scrummy chocolates and I intend to gorge myself on them for the rest of this year. If my friends behave themselves until December, they'll find one in their Christmas stockings."
Hugh Canning, Gramphone Magazine
"[Susan's] romantic, seductive sensibility is more apt than any mezzo since the days of Claire Croiza and Jennie Tourel. This album is to be treasured... [it] looks most likely to be the best vocal recital album of the year."
Music Critic Benjamin Ivry
"Susan Graham is marvelous in French music, and this program... is tailor-made to her gifts. Graham sings them all with style and ample vocal richness."
Barnes and Noble.com
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Reviews of Il tenero momento
"Susan Graham just keeps getting better...Graham's voice is a marvel, enveloping in its warmth, perfectly even throughout its entire range, and amazingly supple in the music's often elaborate ornamentation...Not to be missed!"
Barnes and Noble.com
"The tenor voice may be on the endangered species list, but the mezzo-soprano is thriving like crazy. Susan Graham is one of the best. She has just about everything - creamy tone, smoothly controlled technique, keen artistic instincts."
Baltimore Sun
"This is one of the best star-mezzo discs to come out over the last few years, and the repertoire is a godsend for those who love classical-period opera...Throughout, Graham sings stylishly with a fine sense of characterization..."
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham sings gorgeously on this recent Erato release...The New Mexico native has a full, rich voice and a way of conveying passion at every turn. She reaches the extremes of her register effortlessly and without loss of color."
The Sunday Gazette
"Even in this mezzo-abundant era, Susan Graham stands apart for her striking stage presence, creamy vocal timbre and nimble articulation."
Sun-Sentinel
"In everything she approaches, Graham gives the impression of being conscientious...and never leaves one with the feeling that she is spread too thin. In live performance, her vocal and physical beauty and incisive interpretations can create memorable moments."
Opera News
"Susan Graham moves and heartens. An admirer of her Covent Garden appearances, I've fallen for the American mezzo all over again on 'Il tenero momento', a gorgeous collection of Gluck and Mozart arias on Erato...Graham conveys emotion by scrupulous vocal means, lightening her tone, sometimes filing it down to a thread of sound. The voice is warm and needs no forcing; yet again, we realize that emotionally, less is more...[two arias] sum up Graham's ability to show the humanity beneath classicism's marmoreal monumentalism. Susan Graham, I love you!"
Martin Hoyle, Time Out London
"Susan Graham's gleaming, beautifully focused mezzo and nobility of line make her an ideal exponent of these heroes and heroines of anitiquity...this is a searching, superlatively sung recital from a lyric mezzo who in this repertoire has few, if any, peers in the world today."
BBC Music Magazine
"This superb American mezzo is at the peak of her powers."
Sunday Times (London)
"Graham's virtues are all on display - the lovely timbre, the directness of expression, the beautiful soft attacks, the smooth legato, the craftsmanlike coloratura. In the music she has sung most often, she is also a superb vocal actress."
Boston Globe
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Ariodante
In the title-role of Ariodante (Handel)
Role debut, San Francisco Opera, June 2008
"In the title role, mezzo-soprano 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, if anything, even more astonishing."
San Francisco Chronicle, 6.17.08 [Joshua Kosman]
"In the San Francisco Opera's "Ariodante," mezzo-soprano Susan Graham turns a moment of betrayal into an extended flight of searing vocal intensity. Singing the (male) title role in Handel's 1735 opera, she plays a young prince about to be married, who is tricked into believing his fiancée is unfaithful. She launches into the aria 'Scherza, infida' with a heartbreaking, almost unbearable sense of the character's grief and despair. ... Graham's performance was the high point of a glorious 3 1/2-hour production. ... Graham creates an indelible Ariodante. Proud, noble and blissful in the early scenes with Ginevra and later stricken by the poison of Polinesso's treachery, the singer expresses every mood swing in forceful terms. On Sunday, the sustained anguish of 'Scherza, infida' was the transcendent centerpiece, but Graham sang with strength and luster throughout."
Mercury News, 6.19.08 [Georgia Rowe]
"Without a doubt, the greatest of [several reasons to be at this performance] was the astonishing voice, presence and charisma of mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, singing the title role of a young prince tormented by love's imagined perfidy with such force, conviction and spot-on precision that you darned near forgot she was, you know, a girl.
"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."
Contra Costa Times, 6.17.08 [Sue Gilmore]
"The show belongs mainly to Ariodante and Ginevra. SFO scored by engaging Susan Graham and Ruth Ann Swenson for these roles. Graham took the full measure of Ariodante in a commanding performance. 'Scherza infida' (The unfaithful woman jests), 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 the wings of constancy) 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."
SFCV San Francisco Classical Voice, 6.18.08 [Michael Zwiebach]
"In the title role, mezzo-soprano 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 in a diaphragm-twisting position. She received cheers and "bravas" during Ariodante's opening matinee at the War Memorial Opera House."
Bay Area Reporter, 6.19.08 [Jason Victor Serinus]
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Dead Man Walking
"Audiences were irresistibly drawn into the complex plight and progress of Sister Helen Prejean - a vocal performance of unfailing beauty by Susan Graham."
The Wall Street Journal
"Susan Graham gave the performance of a lifetime as Sister Helen: a portrayal of depth and sustained intensity..."
USA Today
"Susan Graham brought not just the ravishing beauty of her mezzo-soprano to Sister Helen but seemed to glow onstage."
The Los Angeles Times
"With her plush muscular mezzo, commanding stage presence and fearless intelligence, Graham could have been born to play Sister Helen. The full, impeccably modulated stream of tone that she brought to the part, tempered by the dynamic control and flashes of subtle wit, left the listener agog."
The San Francisco Chronicle
"Graham is a believable and deeply affecting Helen,..."
Time Magazine
"Graham is the charismatic center onstage, tall, purposeful, a singing actress of extraordinary depth and lyrical gifts."
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
"Sister Helen, clearly the central figure in the story, finds an adept incarnation in Susan Graham, a mezzo of strength and stature with a voice to match. ...She reflects an intense identification with the moral dilemma of wrong vs. redemption, the core issue of the drama. Graham's dignified portrayal of the nun is yet another tribute to Sister Helen, a Muse like presence at the Saturday premiere."
MusicalAmerica.com
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Der Rosenkavalier
"...the evening belonged to Susan Graham, who is unquestionably the Octavian of the moment. Vocally and visually appealing, Graham played the sometimes proud, sometimes rash, often conflicted youth to perfection - her warm, commanding mezzo a striking contrast to both the elegant phrasing of [the Marschallin] and the pure, sweet simplicity of [Sophie]."
Financial Times
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The Great Gatsby
"...Whenever her glamorous, silky mezzo rubbed up against Ms. Upshaw's soprano, the music took flight."
The New York Observer
"...It was Susan Graham as Jordan Baker whose mezzo glowed gold. Her richness was a marvelous foil to the bleakness of her surroundings."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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