Lunga EricHallam

Press

• L'elisir d'amore

  Sunday in the Park with Lyric's Rising Stars, Lyric Opera of Chicago

  Sep 2021

  • In the music from L’elisir, tenor Lunga Eric Hallam was a persuasive Nemorino as his supple voice shaped the lines of this familiar comic masterpiece. Hallam combined his technical mastery of the role with fine stage presence, something that is not always easy in concert performances of opera. The amusing feigned drunkenness made the first duet appealing, and the audience could hear Nemorino’s ardor in the concluding duet, ‘Prendi, per me sei libero’.

    • Seen and Heard
    • 06 September 2021

• Semele

  Wolf Trap Opera

  Jun 2023

  • Lunga Eric Hallam, a tenor from South Africa, was a standout as Jupiter, definitely an emerging artist to take note of. He sang with clarity and sweetness in all his arias, with romantic appeal singing “I must with speed amuse her” and a special pathos in “Whither is she gone, unhappy fair.

    • Opera Gene
    • 25 June 2023

  • Lunga Eric Hallam’s Jupiter proved the major find of the cast. The South African tenor had a majestic ring when needed, but he impressed even more in his floated head voice, put to remarkable use in the work’s most famous aria, 'Where’er you walk'.

    • Washington Classical Review
    • 26 June 2023

  • In what was one of the best summer opera seasons at Wolf Trap in the last decade, this vivid production of Handel’s Semele stood out. The all-around excellent cast of young singers featured the local debut of the outstanding South African tenor Lunga Eric Hallam as Jupiter, heard later in the season in equally fine turns in Don Giovanni and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

    • Washington Classical Review
    • 22 December 2023

• Don Giovanni

  Wolf Trap Opera

  Aug 2023

  • Lunga Eric Hallam, already a sensation in the company’s Semele earlier this summer, nearly stole the show with an exquisitely phrased “Dalla sua pace” in Act I. A tenor truly worthy of keeping both of Don Ottavio’s arias from the cutting room floor, his musical sensitivity and tall frame made this often ridiculed character a model of noble sentiment rather than the sniveling simp he too often becomes

    • Washington Classical Review
    • 12 August 2023

  • Surprisingly Lunga Eric Hallam as Don Ottavio (“surprisingly” because the role is the least interesting of the seven and most tenors disdain it). But as his role is paired with Richardson’s their duets were the most musically-enjoyable of the evening. Hallam is a true vocal artist, with sensitive coloring, and lovely, tasteful ornaments on the reprises of his two arias. I’d love to hear him in larger roles, like Ferrando. Gilstrap had power and superior diction that stood out; Madamina (the “Catalog Aria”) was a highlight of the show.

    • A Beast In A Jungle
    • 14 August 2023