Representative Reviews

DIE FLEDERMAUS Portland State University
"Director Brenda Nuckton deserved high praise for encouraging the principals to embrace the full silliness of the story without compromising any musicality."
Northwest Reverb. Read the complete review. 

"...we wouldn't have wanted to look away for an instant from PSU's outstanding cast." The Oregonian
Read the complete review.

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO Portland State University
"Brenda Nuckton...was again excellent, telling the story clearly, believably, hilariously." The Oregonian
Read the complete review.

TOSCA     Opera Illinois
  “Brenda Nuckton's stage direction is brilliantly theatrical…”    The Peoria Journal-Star

DIE ZAUBERFLOETE   Portland State University 
 “Brenda Nuckton’s savvy and playful stage direction allowed the spirit of Mozart’s comic tale to spill forth from its Masonic trappings like an enchanted computer game…”Willamette Week   

“This “Magic Flute” is …a hugely appealing show, with brisk pacing, striking visuals, several fine performances and, where appropriate, tongue firmly in cheek….The main area of the stage consisted of five platforms joined by ramps and sets of stairs, which abetted Brenda Nuckton’s fluid direction.”   The Oregonian

FAUST    Syracuse Opera 
 “…artists who are not only excellent singers but superb actors.  They make the big emotions and transitions of “Faust” real.  Director Brenda Nuckton’s staging gives great support to the meanings of the music…” The Post Standard. 

“Vocally, the production was superb.   Happily, it was matched by the acting and supported by the lively direction of Brenda Nuckton.” The Post Standard. 

“Director Brenda Nuckton’s “Faust” was, with few exceptions, so deft that it well deserved greater exposure than the two-performance run it received….Entrances and exits by the chorus and supers were exceptionally well-motivated and the second act alone afforded some eye-catching sub-plots of village behavior.” The Ithaca Journal

AIDA     Houston Grand Opera 
 “ The sets are simple yet dramatic, but the most striking visual component of this Aida  is the human one.  Movement and groupings are virtually ideal, with crowd scenes that might have been arranged by one of the old-master painters.  Time and again the eye is struck with the drama and beauty of a formation.”  The Dallas Morning News

DON GIOVANNI   Portland State University 
“Brenda Nuckton’s direction had the facile dramatic complexity of a minuet, but with touches aplenty of the naughty comedy that Mozart adored.” Willamette Week

  SUSANNAH     Lyric Opera of Chicago 
 “Director Brenda Nuckton recreated Falls’ original staging faithfully.  She didn’t push for contemporary political relevance any harder than Falls did.  The idea of woman-as-presumed-seducer, oppressed and ostracized by a rigid patriarchal society, is there in the text.  Nuckton trusted the audience’s intelligence enough to allow us to discover it for ourselves.”
 Chicago Tribune