Desdemona in OTELLO - Opera de Paris, March 2019
Aleksandra Kurzak offers a nice and delicate portrait of Desdemona. Her flexible and unctuous voice is not sparing with nuances, her opalescent 'fil di voce" sounds are exquisite. During her clashes with Otello, she renders a well-controlled and audible low range. Finally her willow song and her Ave Maria, strongly charged with emotion, earned her a well deserved ovation .- Christian Peter for Forumopera.com
Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, one of the great performers of the classical repertory, delivers a dignified and subtly restrained performance, first victim of this Machiavellian drama. In her acting and rendition, we can feel from beginning to end this fatal premonition, this death that rodes everywhere in the atmosphere. - Christophe Mary for France Net Infos
Aleksandra Kurzak knows how to put her capabilities and sincere love at the service of gentleness. She offers her eloquence to the pure Desdemona, subtly singing the willow aria with an audible light sound before going up, always suave, with soft lyrical impetus. Her fruity voice is greatly sustained in the medium and, by rounding her pronunciation, she knows how to draw on her chest voice for the bass, full of breath. Her very recited Ave Maria then goes up with a sky-rocketting "Jesu" in the top range. A cresendo of volume and emotion thus responds to the rest of her performance that sticks around in the decrescendo to a heartrending fil di voce, pure and well placed. - Charles Arden for Ôlyrix
Opposite [Roberto Alagna], Aleksandra Kurzakis captivating with this warm vocal tone that Paris recently discovered in La Traviata. There are moments when it works wonders and it is in adversity that the soprano brings her most beautiful accents, especially in the scene of public humiliation that reminds, in many ways, the similar scene where Alfredo throws money in Violetta 's face. [...] We remain enthralled by her magnificent technique and her superb "fil di voce" sounds. - Paul Fourier for Toute la culture
Aleksandra Kurzak does not give rise to the slightnest reservation as Desdemona: well-balanced and powerful from one end to the other of her vocal range, her ample voice does not show the slightest weak point, her intonation is perfect, her vibrato moving and her projection generous, without ever sounding forced. Poignant climax of the work, her willow song arouses such an emotion that spectators will try to break the course of the opera with their applause, whereas Verdi's score offers an uninterrupted musical utterance. - Tristan Labouret for Bachtrack
Aleksandra Kurzak, who was rarely heard so beaming with light! From the opalescent shine of the duo to a heartbreaking willow song, everything was radiant in the Polish soprano's singing, each sound well-controlled, conveying an expressiveness whose emotion touched the entire room (reflected by the huge ovation that greeted her at the curtain calls!): she seemed to both support her husband, Roberto, and show Otello that she was embodying that absolute purity he was not able to see, appearing as the exact emotional counterpoint to the Moor's darkness. - Alain Duault for Opera Online
Aleksandra Kurzak’s voice evolved in a very short time and was considerably enriched in the low and the medium range. We are fascinated by the beauty of her vocal tone, which has become more homogeneous over the entire tessitura, by her “fil di voce” sounds of beautiful delicacy, by her expressiveness in the confrontations with Otello and by her singing line of supreme elegance in a suspended "Ave Maria". On top of all of this, she seems to share with Roberto Alagna a great attention to the meaning of the text and a remarkable dramatic commitment. Rarely have we seen and heard a Desdemona’s murder so right, so powerful with striking “true to life” accents. - Steeve Boscardin for ResMusica.com
The onstage incandescence of the couple formed by Roberto Alagna's Otello and Aleksandra Kurzak's Desdemona has little equivalent. [...] Aleksandra Kurzak is as well a huge Desdemona with a perfect mastery of recitato melodico. Vibrant, brilliant and of a total accuracy, she composes a passionate wife with irresistible sparks (supported by a flawless voice) and yet capable of the finest nuances - with these superb pianissimi of the fourth act. She greatly upholds Desdemona's pathetic feelings, as a sensual and innocent defamed lover, painfully surprised at being treated this way and finally ready to die despite her fear. This couple on stage and in life is defintely offering us an unrivalled happiness, that of the truth of flamboyant feelings - those of the best theater drama. - Christine Ducq for La Revue du spectacle
Aleksandra Kurzak [and Roberto Alagna] form together the real central pivot of the show thanks to their natural love alchemy, of course, but also thanks to a great complementarity of voices, subtle and finely “fil di voce” sounds produced by the Polish soprano, which takes more powerful and realistic accents at times of great tension. They echo this unique entirety we can hear in his husband's expressions. - by #Formalhaut
On this unshakable wall of unreason and paranoia, the assaults of sincerity of Aleksandra Kurzak"s Desdemona end up exhausting her, killing her. Sensitive, sincere and moving, she proves convincing actress skills, in addition to her lyrical talent already noticed as Violetta this year. The Polish singer stands out in this much anticipated production, thanks to her graceful singing line, her precise diction and sense of melody and the right nuances, as in Act IV, where her firm bass and her refined top notes allow her to sing a magnificent Piangea cantado, leaning on touching pianissimos. - Quentin Laurens for Webtheatre
Major interest [of this revival], the Moorish couple is far superior to those of the last occasions. First of all, thanks to Roberto Alagna’s Otello, in this penultimate evening, in a particularly great scenic and vocal form. To his well-known flame and beauty of timbre that does not age - one of the most radiant possible today to perform this so tense tenor’s role - is added a unswerving valiance and soundness of the vocal line. Aleksandra Kurzak spoke with us about her career development to heavier roles than before. After her Traviata, already particularly interesting at the beginning of the season on this same stage, [her performance in this role] of Desdemona is a real success story, so much the brightness of her timbre and her belcantist technique fit her score, until a superb prayer followed by an angelic Willow Song. - Vincent Guillemin for Altamusica.com