SEATTLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA—

"Closing the evening was a crowd-pleaser, the Three-Cornered Hat of Manuel de Falla....Shirley Harned, a mezzo-soprano, was the soloist....Harned, who has sung often, and with distinction, at Seattle Opera, sang with assurance and convincing style." —R.M. Campbell

"Seattle Opera's Journeys in Song series opened last night in the Seattle Concert Theater with a program which generated musical and dramatic sparks...'A Folksong Metamorphosis,' songs from the folk-literature of nearly every country from Greece to Brazil to Russia....Shirley Harned, with castanets in her fingers and a red rose over one ear, sizzled her way through several Spanish songs." — Melinda Bargreen

"Symphony shines despite substitution:
"...surprising because of major last-minute changes in soloist and program. [A singer], a soprano on the faculty at the University of Washington, had been scheduled to sing the six Mozart arias. Her name, picture, and biography had even been printed in the program. Because of illness, she was unable to appear. ...An extremely competent substitute was close at hand however, in the person of Shirley Harned, who sings regularly and well with Seattle Opera. Using scores, she performed the scheduled arias with a full measure of aplomb, vocal beauty and control.

"Her 'Voi che sapete,' for example, had a silky sheen. She showed that she is as much at home with the reined-in quality of Mozart as she is with the all-stops-out fervor of Wagner, which she sings regularly in Seattle Opera's Ring productions. — Eugene Smith