Turandot, Florida Grand Opera
As the slave girl Liu, the Cuban-American soprano – and clear local favorite – Elizabeth Caballero gave a meltingly effective performance. The role is not one of grand passion but of gentle, self-sacrificing love, and Caballero had the right voice for the part. In the aria Signore, ascolta where she begs Calaf not to risk his head for Turandot, her warm, middle-range tones and floating high notes made for a moving plea to the prince.
David Flesher, The Sun Sentinel, 11/16/10
But the night’s most compelling singing comes from the comparably unknown Elizabeth Caballero, a young lyric soprano who has largely made her career with FGO. Her tones are limpid, creamy, Tebaldian. And she can act. As Caballero sings, you really might believe that a girl could fall in love with a man self-centered enough to sing away the night as innocents are murdered because of his googly-eyed obstinacy. Which is touching, I suppose, if a little depressing. We already knew love makes us blind. Did we need to know it makes us sociopaths as well?
Brandon K. Thorp, Miami New Times, 11/18/10
Recital, Miami, FL
The highlight of the evening was Caballero’s exquisite rendition of Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnets. This work finds Liszt at his most introspective, without much of the flamboyance and superficiality of his pianistic and orchestral scores. Caballero’s vocal radiance launched Pace non trovo into full romantic bloom. In Benedetto sia ‘l giorno, she exuded despair and sorrow, her gutsy low tones deeply poignant and effective. The soprano’s moving version of L’ Vidi in Terra Angelici was meltingly beautiful, replete with a lovely stream of unforced, rapturous tone and deeply felt emotion.
Lawrence Budman, Miami Herald, 6/14/10
Le nozze di Figaro, Seattle Opera
The part of Susanna was played by Cuban-American soprano Elizabeth Caballero, who is making her company debut with these performances. She was marvelous. She has a very rich and beautiful voice, she is quite lovely, and her acting was superb. She and Nicolas Cavallier, who played Figaro, had a lot of stage chemistry and were funny and convincing. She was a joy to watch and listen to — I was captivated by her.
Seattle Examiner – 5/15/2009
Le nozze di Figaro, Florida Grand Opera
Not less expressive was Caballero, who not only has polished her instrument with an extraordinary richness that allows her to sing Mozart and Ziemlinsky, but she has also developed her histrionic skills. Her Countess has not yet forgotten the range and the years of her past as a mischievous Rosina, who can be a “viper” but most of all a woman in love. Her Dove sono was impeccable and without a doubt the best moment of the night. She rocked the house.”
El Nuevo Herald – 3/29/2009
La Traviata, Opera New Jersey
Elizabeth Caballero made an excellent heroine, with a big, rangy, darkly glowing lyric-coloratura instrument capable of precise fioriture and crystalline high D-flats. Not a TV-star-style wraith in today’s already tiresome marketing-driven mode, Caballero made a handsome figure onstage, commanding and vulnerable by turns and at all times believably the erotic center of this hothouse world. Alert to text, she aced many tough passages: both “Dite alla giovine” and “Amami, Alfredo” were very moving, and others should gather more interiority as this portrayal grows. In sheerly vocal terms, Caballero’s performance already compares quite favorably with today’s most heavily promoted Violettas.
Opera News 10/2008
Elizabeth Caballero, made the audience wait at length for her to stop swigging champagne before launching into Verdi’s famous “Sempre Librera” aria. But she was worth the wait. You don’t realize how much you’re used to iffy pitch in this aria until it’s largely absent, as it was here. Her midweight lyric soprano managed all three acts with equal adeptness.
The Philadelphia Inquirer – 7/15/08
