REVIEWS
“Mark Saberton exudes strength as Starek, the Mill Foreman.” Charlotte Valori, Bachtrack, Starek, Longborough Festival Opera
“Mark Saberton as the mill foreman and... contribute sharp, well-sung vignettes.”
Stephen Walsh, Arts Desk, Starek, Longborough Festival Opera
“The smaller roles all made telling contributions - Mark Saberton’s Foreman...keeping the standard of Janacek’s inimitable vocal characterisation high.”
Peter Reed, Classical Source, Starek, Longborough Festival Opera
“Mark Saberton made a fiery Schaunard.”
Martin Dreyer, Opera Magazine, Schaunard, Swansea City Opera
“As played by Mark Saberton, the Major Domo was a bit of a mouthy geezer, but he was having to lord it over an unusually assertive Music Master...”
Yehuda Shapiro, Opera Magazine, Major Domo, West Green House Opera
“Suffolk born Mark Saberton was simply brilliant as Mephistopheles, totally believable treading the fine line between seductive and wicked.”
Suzanne Hawkes, One Suffolk, Mephistopheles, Swansea City Opera
“Mark Saberton (Mephistopheles) dominates the stage, as he should. He has a camp bravado that the other cast members gravitate towards and his charisma seems to carry the plot through to the conclusion.”
Daniel Bowen, Nouse, Mephistopheles, Swansea City Opera
“Mark Saberton’s first appearance, as Mephistopheles, conjured up associations with voodoo as he sported a top hat, Astrakhan coat and kohl eyes. Suitably demonic and malevolent, his was the finest display of acting and he carried off all his arias in bravura fashion.”
Mike Tilling, Bridlington Free Press, Mephistopheles, Swansea City Opera
“Baritone Mark Saberton, the Satanic puppet-master, played a particularly flamboyant and horny Devil, dolled up as a Victorian witch doctor who raised a few smiles as he strutted, danced, and pelvic thrusted his way through his fiendish charade.”
Mark Rees, South West Evening Post, Mephistopheles, Swansea City Opera
“The operas biggest dramatic role is Mephistopheles and Mark Saberton did not disappoint as the panto villain of the piece. This fitted rather well with this almost Victorian Music Hall boo hiss approach to the opera.”
Mike Smith, Wales Online, Mephistopheles, Swansea City Opera
“Sabertons devil was a wonderfully disturbing creation of pure evil who knows exactly how best to tempt us.”
Alison Ashmore, County Woman, Mephistopheles, Swansea City Opera
“However, the stand out performance for me came from Mark Saberton who was wonderful and played a suitably evil Scarpia.”
Claire Faulkner, Nantwich News, Scarpia, Heritage Opera
“Mark Saberton, one of the most impressive character singers of his generation: a major star this, or any, company should forthwith engage to sing Verdi’s (or Salieri’s) Falstaff, for he is tailor-made for the role. Saberton’s seething arrival amid imprisoned entourage lifted this Aida onto an entire new plane. Here is a singer whose talent and experience place him on a European, even worldwide, plane. The voice, like the persona, are stupendous. Saberton knows how to produce the notes, and to mould them: he delivers them with astounding authority, firmness and ferocity. Rolling those mesmerising, suffering eyes, Saberton (he was Kentish Opera’s vile, beastly Rigoletto) is an electrifying performer to watch and a sensational one to hear. It’s his performance that puts this Aida into the realm of a great production.”
Roderic Dunnett, Exeunt Magazine, Amonasro, Kentish Opera
“Demonstrating significant natural stage presence Mark Saberton was in his element as the physically deformed hunchback Rigoletto the bitingly tongued court jester who cleverly demonstrated the softer side of his character as the loving and protective father of Gilda. Sabertons expressive rendition of Pari siamo! (We are alike!) was a highlight of the production.”
Michael Cookson, Seen and Heard, Rigoletto, Heritage Opera
“Saberton dug deeply into Rigoletto’s character, capturing both his viciousness and his moments of tenderness and pathos.”
Roderic Dunnett, Opera Now, Rigoletto, Heritage Opera
“Made of sterner stuff was Mark Sabertons memorable Sharpless. Saberton reveals himself as a fine rich baritone, in control of his scene, and his was the vocal cement holding this production together.”
Antony Craig, Gramophone, Sharpless, New Cornwall Opera
“The rumbustious rustics did Britten proud though, with Mark Saberton's Bottom weaving his own magic and, as he should, stealing the show.”
Rian Evans, The Guardian, Bottom, Midsummer Nights Dream, Longborough Festival
“Of the singers, Mark Saberton as Bottom was easily the most dominant, amusingly bumptious in his scenes with the other mechanicals, almost poetic with Tytania. His words were clear, too,”
Michael Kennedy, Opera, Bottom, Midsummer Nights Dream, Longborough Festival
“The Rude Mechanicals in their Morris costumes were well differentiated with the magnificent Mark Saberton as the over-enthusiastic Bottom.”
Roger Jones, MusicWeb, Bottom, Midsummer Nights Dream, Longborough Festival
“…but outshone by the antics of the rude mechanicals. Inspired perhaps by morris-dancing Cotswold yokels, they take their thespian duties very seriously, and are headed by a Bottom from Mark Saberton which breathes the endearing sweetness of Pat Roach’s Bomber in Auf Wiederseh’n Pet and an astonishing ability to acquire the body-language of an ass.”
Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post, Bottom, Midsummer Nights Dream, Longborough Festival
“Mark Saberton was outstanding as a larger-than-life Bottom, and achieved some realistic ass-like movements while under Puck’s spell.”
Nicola Lisle, Oxford Times, Midsummer Nights Dream
Longborough Festival
“Mark Saberton was an inspired casting as Rigoletto… His first quizzical entrance consciously cloaked by palace frolickings, Saberton's sinister characterisation grew massively in strength by the ensuing scene, … and even grimmer as his revenge gnaws its way into focus. Impish prankster, emerging monster; jovial, agonised; lion or mouse - Saberton, when goaded can wriggle into all these roles. Gesturally and facially (eyes glowering like a Robert Newton leer), he is a formidable Shakesperian presence. With strong direction he is a natural Falstaff (as he proved in Salieri's version, for Bampton). Vocally his middle range is magnificent, and he has the bluster of a fine buffo too; a casting director's dream.”
Roderic Dunnett, Opera Now, Rigoletto, Kentish Opera
“Mark Saberton was a most convincing Rigoletto, not over-doing his handicap as an ungainly hunchback (which sometimes happens in this part). His attractive baritone voice was clear and strong when needed, but he also brought out very well his despair at the end of the last act, when he realised that he had been responsible for the murder of his own daughter. His acting was always consistent with the part and I found him to be well cast as Rigoletto, gradually gaining sympathy as his tragic fate was sealed.”
Pippa Hare, Music and Vision, Rigoletto, Kentish Opera
“Indeed there wasn't a single weak vocal performance, only varying degrees of strength and subtlety; qualities which applied in spades to Mark Saberton's poacher and which made the scene leading to the vixen's death the most powerful and affecting of the evening.”
Rex Harley, Music and Vision, Poacher, Cunning Little Vixen, Longborough Festival
“The human characters are touchingly portrayed by...and Mark Saberton’s braggart Poacher.”
Richard Morrison, The Times, Poacher, Cunning Little Vixen, Longborough Festival
“I loved the droll Cockney gardener (Mark Saberton), straight out of Only Fools and Horses.”
John Walsh, The Independent, Antonio, Figaro, Savoy Opera
“At the opera's core the fat man, gloriously played by Mark Saberton, worked wonders with arias such as 'Nel impero di Cupido'.”
Roderic Dunnett, Opera Now, Falstaff, Falstaff, Bampton Classical Opera
“Mark Saberton, a wide-ranging baritone of marked potential in the Pizarro-Scarpia mould, made a strong if pantomimically villainous Eutifronte.”
Roderic Dunnett, The Independent, Eutifronte, The Philosophers Stone, Bampton Classical Opera