01.21.08 | Salt Lake Tribune: TOSCA
"Clayton's performance in the title role skillfully wedded vulnerability and fire. She had believable chemistry with both the male leads, especially in her soaring final duet with [Scott] Piper. Her technical security and poignant expressiveness made her major aria, 'Vissi d'arte,' a show-stopper. "

01.21.08 | Deseret Morning News: TOSCA
"Also remarkable among the leads was soprano Cynthia Clayton in the title role. She has a powerful and dramatic voice that can also be exquisitely lyrical. She was wonderfully convincing as Cavaradossi's jealous lover. She also brought infinite sweetness to her characterization in her tender duets with him."

05.07.07 | Dallas Morning News: CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN
"The star of the show is Hector Vásquez's Forester, his baritone finely focused and flexible and carrying well out into the Brown Theater. The cast in general, mostly drawn from HGO's superb apprentice program, seems really to work at projecting words, Mr. Vásquez especially so."

05.04.07 | Houston Chronicle: CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN
"Hector Vásquez sings with robust force and acts with relaxed naturalness as the Forester, especially strong in his later reflections on aging, time and such."

03.07.06 | Anchorage Daily News: MADAMA BUTTERFLY
"Cynthia Clayton delivers the title role with a solid voice, energetic yet supple, hall-filling without ever becoming strident, fabulously on pitch even in the murderous high notes.... When the music hit a bull's-eye -- as with Clayton's 'Un bel di, vedremo' -- the listener felt transported..."

01.25.05 | Deseret Morning News: JENUFA
"Utah Opera has assembled a strong cast for this production. Soprano Cynthia Clayton is spectacular in the title role. Her lyrical, expressive voice, which can also be forceful, allows her to bring a multidimensional level to her character. Jenufa is a sweetly innocent country girl who loves blindly, but she becomes hardened and resigned by everything life has thrown at her, and Clayton convincingly brings all this to glorious life.

08.12.02 | San Francisco Chronicle: SUSANNAH
“In the title role, Cynthia Clayton gave a performance of heart-breaking tenderness and vitality, using her full-bodied soprano to depict Susannah's harrowing downfall at the hands of mass righteousness. The
melodic phrases of her famous Act 1 aria, "Ain't it a pretty night," arched dreamily with the joy of being alive, while the mournful ballad of Act 2… drew a devastating emotional contrast.”

10.19.99 | New York Times: LA BOHEME
“The American soprano Cynthia Clayton was a becoming Mimi, by turns shy, sweet and flirtatious…Ms. Clayton has a warm, affecting voice…she phrased with lyrical suppleness, and this was overall a lovely
performance.

03.01.97 | OPERA Magazine: FAUST
“Cynthia Clayton sang one of the best Marguerites I have ever encountered. Vocal clarity with beauty of tone made the Jewel Song into a lyric extravaganza. A feeling of totally elegant charm and control
made her performance riveting, a tragic heroine rather than simple village maiden.”