Bach Track
Bass-baritone Christian Pursell made a memorable impression as Elmiro
CAMERON KELSALL
Otello at Philadelphia
opera today
Rising Californian bass Christian Pursell, who today sings small parts in big houses and big ones in smaller ones, was (for me) the surprise of the evening.
ANDREW MORAVCSIK
In Review: Otello
opera news
In other company debuts, mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce and bass-baritone Christian Pursell displayed beautiful, resonant instruments and fine acting ability as Emilia (a larger role here than in Verdi) and Elmiro, Desdemona's implacable father.
DAVID SHENGOLD
Opera Philadelphia excavates a fascinating rarity with Rossini’s tri-tenor “Otello”
WASHINGTON classical review
Christian Pursell’s medium weight bass-baritone pleased in the music for Desdemona’s father Emilio, though casting a younger singer as this authority figure sacrificed verisimilitude in the dynamic between the overbearing father and vulnerable daughter.
ALEX BAKER
Review: Otello (Opera Philadelphia)
The New Yorker:
Alek Shrader made for a grimly eloquent Iago, Christian Pursell a golden-toned Doge.
ALEX ROSS
Wolf Trap Opera’s Susannah: A Powerful American Opera
OPERA GENE:
Christian Pursell who portrayed Reverend Blitch is an outstanding bass-baritone who sang beautifully, but in this role also had challenging dramatic demands. He met the demands both as the charismatic preacher and as the contrite sinner who had forced himself on Susannah.
OPERA GENE
REVIEW: Melodramatic Susannah (Wolf Trap Opera)
ARTS NATIONAL:
The show’s standout visual moment is the visceral, churning chaos of the public repentance scene in Act II – also one of the best vocal moments for bass-baritone Christian Pursell, whose Reverend Olin Blitch is revealed by this staging as a calculated, practiced (but deliciously voiced) manipulator of those around him. This is one of the strongest moments in the melodramatic conceit, foreshadowing the character’s darker turn in a later scene.
BASIL CONSIDINE
Floyd’s masterful “Susannah” makes its belated debut at Wolf Trap
Washington Classical Review:
Bass-baritone Christian Pursell roared and crooned as the Rev. Olin Blitch, an itinerant preacher who comes to town to lead a revival. Slender and handsome, Pursell made real the conflicts of the character with vocal prowess, in an especially explosive sermon scene in Act II. In a trope now somewhat familiar in American life, the preacher is guilty of the very sin he condemns in Susannah, lusting after and eventually forcing himself on her (“I’m a lonely man, Susannah”).
CHARLES T. DOWNEY
Awakenings, Harvey Milk, Carmen and The Magic Flute
Opera News:
Christian Pursell’s dashing Escamillo matched Mesko’s magnetism and intensity, and theirs seemed to be the tragically doomed romance.
JOANNE SYDNEY LESSNER
Opera Review: 'Carmen' through the looking-glass at Opera Theatre
KDHX Community Media:
As the toreador Escamillo, Carmen’s saner and more realistic petit ami, bass-baritone Christian Pursell is the textbook picture of swaggering self-confidence, with a big, bold voice to match—as he demonstrated in the famous "Toreador's Song."
CHUCK LAVAZZI