ALEKSANDRA KURZAK

OPERA

Santuzza & Nedda in CAV/PAG - Arena di Verona, August 2021

Next to Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak is another amazing stage animal. She plays her part with great intelligence in both roles: Santuzza and Nedda. Kurzak is a true artist and thanks to her skilled, refined accent and an overwhelming passionate charge, she outlines a Santuzza who arouses emotion and an intense, seductive and fascinating Nedda. The Polish soprano is also a very talented actress, also very natural and very generous, without sparing her energy. - Francesco Lodola for Ieri Oggi Domani,Opera.

Double show at the Arena truly engaging and exciting. Splendid, Kurzak outlines a desperate Santuzza but always with great scenic elegance and musicality. Her "A te la mala Pasqua ... Spergiuro" is very impressive, she shouts at Turiddu who is visibly troubled by her curse. […] In Pagliacci too, Kurzak gives a great performance. She has an excellent voice, capable of harmonious trills and powerful high notes, and excellent as an actress, capable of meticulously taking care of both the scenic gesture and the facial expressions. […] In short, two great shows: one at 9 pm ... and the other at 11 pm. A really beautiful evening. - Loredana Atzei in La Barcaccia

The couple of the evening, Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak, really attracted a large number of spectators who certainly surpassed those of the premiere and we must say that they paid homage to the two performers several times during the show. [Aleksandra Kurzak] she uses all the range offered by the voice with a beautiful tone and gives all of herself both to the unfortunate and lost Santuzza, as to the frivolous and alas punished to death Nedda. - Maria Teresa Giovagnoli for MTG Lirica

Aleksandra Kurzak embraces the enormity of Santuzza’s role: her voice covers the entire ambitus with an equal timbre and a projection never altered. Scene after scene she composes a bewildered and sensitive young woman (despite the indigence of the lines the booklet offers her), as opposed to the virago often encountered in the role. In Pagliacci, we find again our three main singers and their qualities. Aleksandra Kurzak leads Nedda’s aria with great precision and rigor. - Yannick Bousaert for Forumopera.com

MIRACLE OF GRAND EVENINGS, ENCHANTMENT at the Arena di Verona. With the flamboyant cast of this night, we hit the top. Luminous Santuzza, more feminine, more complex than usually heard, her timbre makes wonders over the entire range. Duo of anthology with Turiddu that strikes the audience. Kurzak will have reinvented Santuzza in her own way, playing with her golden tone, her own resources and her strong points, using every nuance. She can mark this night as a red-letter day, so much her challenge is successful. After such a first part of performance, Kurzak as Nedda surprises us with the freshness of her voice, her clear top range, and her ease. Splendid performance, one of these great ones that hold very high the quintessence of Italian dramatic opera. by Paul Fourier for Toute la culture

Santuzza was performed by Aleksandra Kurzak with great emphasis and wonderful vocal expression. Nedda was wonderfully interpreted and Kurzak’s singing offered a real masterclass in her part, reminiscent in some aspects of the famous Monserrat Caballé. - Joaquín Gómez Gómez for Laverdad.es

The only performance in the Arena di Verona of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci by Roberto Alagna and his partner in life Aleksandra Kurzak: […] we have attended a predictable and abundantly well-deserved triumph. […] Alagna offers an unusual aspect of the man in love at the same time with two women, still attracted by Lola, who has not waited for his return from the military, and sincerely attached to Santuzza, whom in fact he recommends to his mother in the famous farewell. An affection that transpires, even in the vast Arena's space, for the perfect symbiosis with the Santuzza by Aleksandra Kurzak, to underline the fact that they went on stage without ever having rehearsed on stage before. Between the two, "chemistry" develops in the duet "Bada Santuzza" where Turiddu struggles to refrain from kissing, hugging and comforting her. Both priceless for the palpable emotion that they managed to convey.
In Pagliacci, the couple Alagna - Kurzak hit the mark again [...] Once again the wife murderer acquires unusually human traits, despite the blasphemous crudeness of the text. We understand the emotional upset of Canio who, for a moment almost tries to win back his bride during the Arlecchinata of the second part. Nedda, with the talented Silvio by Mario Cassi, performs a poignant duet after the famous ballatella and finally finds new strength in affirming her independence at the cost of her life. There is something surprising in this singer who a few years ago still sang the Queen of the Night, for her interpretative character. Finally, Alagna's “Vesti la giubba” remains one of the magical moments of the evening in terms of intensity and scenic truth. by Andrea Merli Impiccione Viaggiatore