REVIEWS
Glory Denied, Summer 2021
“Cameron Anderson’s brilliant quadripartite set, which emphasized the separation of the (doubled) couple while furnishing keen period and character details, helped Sarah Ina Meyers direct an expressive cast incisively, with precisely coordinated and contrasted blocking illustrating the characters’ fraught interrelationships across time and space. Tláloc López-Watermann’s lighting further enhanced the staging’s aesthetic power. Musically and dramatically, this performance justified the audience’s fervent acclaim.” OPERA Magazine (UK)
“…each one of the singing actors served the material to great effect, creating four unforgettable portraits of the two human beings caught up in a world of war and social change. The two sopranos achieved the heavy lift of making the unfaithful Alyce understandable and sympathetic, giving the opera the balance that such a conflict of claims and needs deserved….. Composer Cipullo…must have been as pleased as were his fellow opera lovers at this promising opening of the Berkshire Opera Festival Season.” Linda Hirshman, The Berkshire Edge
“The production, like the opera, pulled no punches. Berkshire Opera Festival revealed [this opera’s] power in this remarkable production .” Rick Perdian, Classical Voice America
“Staging by director Sarah Meyers and scenic designer Cameron Anderson placed the characters on separate but adjacent platforms, which… emphasized their fundamental isolation from each other. This searing production demands to be seen…” Michael J. Moran, In the Spotlight
That’s Not Tango, Summer 2019
“Over the past couple of years, Lesley Karsten has staged her mesmerizing Astor Piazzolla biodrama That’s Not Tango in larger and larger halls around New York. The project’s sold out Jazz at Lincoln Center debut Tuesday Night came across as a big victory.” Delarue, New York Music Daily
For additional press about That’s Not Tango:
That's Not Tango Press
#FLEDERMAUS, April 2019
“This Die Fledermaus, with a new English translation by Sarah Ina Meyers, pulled off a major feat. It draws us in by updating the action, turning the opera’s 19th century caricatures into creatures that inhabit today’s media-crazed, star-obsessed America…. There is a sense we have seen these people on TV and in real life…. In collaboration with the librettist, MassOpera has blown the dust off a creaky antique about the misbehavior of Viennese socialites: now the spirit of the opera is nothing if not timely - a look at the absurdity of life in America today.” Katrina Holden, ArtsFuse
Scenes from Frankenstein/ Tell-Tale Heart, October 2018
“Without spoiling anything else, the costuming and lighting are spot-on and add immensely to the performance’s tension and suspense. Sometimes less is really more: in staging this, the crew really had to become intimate with the space.” Alan Young, New York Music Daily
“A brilliantly conceived evening to remember. Sarah Meyers’ perfectly finessed, simple staging takes place (mostly) on a basic but effective raised platform, skillfully and chillingly lit by Tláloc López-Watermann. Meyers’ direction is meticulous and powerful. ” Clive Paget, LimeLight
“Riveting… an extraordinary experience. As directed by Sarah Meyers, Cano’s crazed killer had a subtlety, a reality as she progresses from obsession to plans, and finally to murder. It was a demanding tour-de-force.” Matt Costello, OperaWire
The Tell-Tale Heart, October 2016
"I can't think of a better opera to become a new Halloween tradition." James Jorden, NY Observer
“Director Sarah Meyers suggested an interrogation room with a metal chair and a single lamp that cast harsh shadows on [Elizabeth] Pojanowski’s face. The confinement forced Pojanowski to climb onto the chair at one point as if trying to escape her own skin, and she modulated the character’s increasing madness to make her ultimate breakdown both surprising and inevitable.” Joanne Sydney Lessner, Opera News
"The Crypt Sessions, in collaboration with On Site Opera, came through with the hair-raising world premiere of Gregg Kallor’s musical monodrama The Tell-Tale Heart... Director Sarah Meyers suggested an interrogation room with a metal chair and a single lamp that cast harsh shadows on Pojanowski’s face. The confinement forced Pojanowski to climb onto the chair at one point as if trying to escape her own skin..." Joanne Sydney Lessner, Opera News
"The starkly simple production by Sarah Meyers, which placed Pojanowski in the merciless glare of a single spotlight, proved one of the most effective stagings I’ve seen." James Jorden, NY Observer
"Director Sarah Meyers has her own brilliant eye on opportunities...Grotesqueries abound." Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts
GALLO, Spring 2014
“Sarah Meyers’ direction utilizes slowly unfolding rituals – a dance, a burial, a string woven among the audience…hovering between masque and illustrated essay, “Gallo” repeatedly hones in on striking sounds and tableaux: Williams and O’Doherty combining in a rustling, rasping evocation of the swash of seawater, de la Guardia lullabying recumbent audience members while dead-channel television snow, projected down, mimics light filtering into deepwater...” Matthew Guerrieri, Boston Globe
Noye's Fludde, Fall 2013
“There were dramatic images in this ‘Noye’s Fludde’ I will never forget…. An enchanting production.” Anthony Tommasini, New York Times
The Purcell Project/Dido and Aeneas, Spring 2011
“The Met could take a page from this book!” Meche Kroop, The Opera Insider