Reviews

Bob Chilcott - Requiem

[Chilcott's] Requiem was beautiful and evocative, but never sentimental and dealt with the difficult issue of expressing death and dying in a poignant, positive, serene and uplifting way. Helen Bailey, the soprano soloist, soared effortlessly above the choir and orchestra.

Rev'd Tim Sledge - click here for the full review

Mozart - C minor Mass

The entry onto the scene of soprano Helen Bailey raised the performance further, in her duet 'Domine Deus', but particularly in the solo 'Laudamus Te' - watch her, this young lady will go far!

John Sutton, Director of Ember Choral Society
- click here for the full review

Ryedale Festival Opera: Mozart - The Magic Flute (Pamina)

Helen Bailey was an attractive Pamina, according the music a lovely flexible line and producing some radiant tone in her solos. She was an intensely serious Pamina and brought out in act two her depth of feeling for Tamino, particularly in her final aria.

Robert Hugill, www.planethugill.com - click here for the full review

I admired the rapport of lovers Ben Thapa and Helen Bailey, forcibly separated most of the time; Helen expressed in perfectly phrased arias the intensity of anguish imposed by her mother.

Peter Woolf, www.musicalpointers.co.uk - click here for the full review

Most impressive overall were Helen Bailey, an impressively implacable Pamina with a strong voice to match, and Luke D. Williams as Papageno, dressed as an inept scout and the perfect fit for this comic role.

Paul Kilbey, www.onestoparts.com - click here for the full review

Ben Thapa (Tamino) and Helen Bailey (Pamina) make for
consistently strong tenor and soprano leads.

PlaysToSee - click here for the full review

Haydn - The Creation

All three soloists were very high quality and had voices that suited the work well. As well as being easily able to fill the Town Hall with sound, they also had the vocal dexterity to cope with Haydn's demanding long runs. Helen Bailey (soprano) - how does she hit those top Cs so easily? -, Robin Bailey (tenor) and Gavin Horsley (bass) are all professional opera singers. And this added greatly to the performance when, towards the end of the work, Gavin as Adam and Helen as Eve sing the duets "By thee with bliss" and "Graceful consort". These were high spots of the evening: not just singing, but performance, too.

click here for the full review

Royal Academy Opera: Haydn - La Vera Costanza (Rosina)

The star, however, and rightly, was the Rosina of Helen Bailey; the heroine of the opera, though the sister of a fisherman and much despised by titled snobs. Haydn, everyone agrees, was not strong on characterisation, the main reason that his operas never become repertoire works. Bailey made Rosina into a moving, passionate character with her powerful acting and her lovely, expressively employed voice.

Michael Tanner, The Spectator - click here for the full review

I was especially taken with Helen Bailey’s portrayal of the sentimental – in the eighteenth-century sense – heroine Rosina, abandoned by the Count as a consequence of the Baroness’ machinations. A distinctive voice which, allied with stage presence, ought to mark her out in the future.

Mark Berry, Seen And Heard International - click here for the full review

Hampstead Garden Opera:
Purcell - Dido and Aeneas (Dido)

There were commendable performances... above all from Helen Bailey as a warm and secure Dido, who delivered her lament in an interesting way: not as grand tragedy, but as the pale, exhausted monologue of someone numbed by grief.

Michael White, Hamstead and Highgate Express / Catholic Herald

Hampstead Garden Opera:
Floyd - Susannah (Susannah)

The musical tour-de-force in the piece is Susannah's aria, The Trees on the Mountains, which was sung with stunning grace and power by Helen Bailey. [Her] performance took my breath away: she gave out the clarity of diction and conversational feel of a folk singer, while hitting the high notes and runs with plenty of operatically-trained power.

David Karlin, Bachtrack - click here for the full review

A lovely young, clear-voiced but warm soprano, Helen Bailey, in the lead.

Michael White, The Hamstead and Highgate Express

It's not easy, with lead roles that demand both vocal and theatrical prowess. The cast was held up by the superb soprano Helen Bailey, who applied full, gritty lower range and wide-eyed dramatic sincerity to the salt-of-the-earth teenage Susannah.

Kate Molleson, Opera magazine (July 2009, Vol. 60 No. 7) - click here for the full review

Royal Academy Opera: Vaughan Williams - Riders to the sea (Cathleen)

Cathleen and Nora, substantially sung by Helen Bailey and Sara Lian Owen, their voices taut with emotion, were differentiated as characters, age conferring wisdom on Cathleen's authoritative words to restrain the impulsive Nora.

Margaret Davies, Opera magazine (December 2011, Vol. 62 No. 12)

Hampstead Garden Opera: Mozart - The clemency of Titus (Vitellia)

A wonderfully hysterical and ultimately touching villainess Vitellia, Helen Bailey.

Michael White, The Hamstead and Highgate Express