Playing Nedda — the actress who makes all the men around her crazy — is lyric soprano Jennifer Goode Cooper, making her fourth appearance with Opera Memphis. Her voice is superb, and she clearly enjoys letting Nedda run with all the emotions: fearful, amorous, selfish, teasing, aggressive. Cooper impressed in 2014's Midtown Opera Festival's "Ghosts of Crosstown" and again in the 2015 festival in the powerful "Glory Denied." Her voice is lovely and liquid but is entirely capable of cutting like a razor when needed.

~Jon W. Sparks, The Commercial Appeal

 

"Cooper’s voice is an ideal conduit for the kinetic energy of Farney's music and Frost's text, her scorching upper register offsetting the frigidity of the poet's imagery."  ~Joseph Newsome, Voix des Arts

 

 

"The performers... are breathtakingly good... Soprano Jennifer Goode Cooper is Older Alyce, who looks back on the nine years as a time when — even as her husband was helpless — she had to make decisions about their four children and her own life. With no assurance that her husband was alive, she told the kids he was dead and she sought to have him declared dead. She met another man and started a relationship with him. As she says, “He went through Hell, but so did I.” When Thompson forgives her, she snaps back, “What have I done that calls for forgiveness?” Cooper’s beautiful voice takes on a hard edge during these moments, and she is electrifying."

~Jon W. Sparks, The Commercial Appeal

 

 

"In the title role, Jennifer Goode Cooper was simply superb. Her rich, fluid voice, compelling physicality, and nuanced acting conveyed the stages of grief experienced by an innocent wrongfully convicted by her peers and abandoned by those few she trusted."

~Sally Vallongo, The Toledo Blade

 

"Cooper imbues Rosalinde with resonant Romantic qualities, using lustrous vocal flourishes and body language to full effect... Cooper's second act solo, a traditional Hungarian folk tune, showcases her perfect comedic timing and expressiveness..."

~Linda Loomis, The Post-Standard Syracuse

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“There was brilliance all around... Deeply moving work was done by Jennifer Goode Cooper in the chilling “Ivonne” composed by Nathaniel Stookey...”    

~Jon. W. Sparks, The Commercial Appeal

 

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Ms. Cooper “brings a penetrating voice and steely eyed ferocity to the character” as Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at  New York City Opera. 

~Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times                                        

 

"Jennifer Goode Cooper as Miss Jessel unfurls a voice both ripe and imbued with the shadows and torments of the netherworld. "

~Marion Lignana Rosenberg, The Classical Review                                   

 

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“The excellent cast featured Jennifer Goode Cooper, a lustrous soprano, as Titania and Hippolyta; she threw off a few Queen of the Night-ish roulades with great aplomb.”  

~Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal 

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"Jennifer Goode Cooper, double cast as Titania and Hippolyta, was a joy to listen to. Just shy of her New York City Opera debut, she stole the spotlight every time she stepped on stage, particularly when as Titania she serenaded the donkey-eared Bottom in her crystalline soprano voice at the end of Act I."

~Jonathan Devin, The Daily News