ALEKSANDRA KURZAK

OPERA

Elisabetta in DON CARLO - Opera de Paris, October 2019

As Elisabetta di Valois, Aleksandra Kurzak probably tackles the heaviest role of her career. She is breathtaking: the voice is always as pure as at the beginning of her career, while having gained power and resonance in the low range. Kurzak gives a vocal lesson tonight: the singing line is superb, the top notes are radiant. She goes through the fifth act in a state of grace that leaves the audience greatly moved. - Revopera

Aleksandra Kurzak successfully faces the difficulties of a role...Without ever forcing her resources, she sets up a touching and voluptuous Elisabeth with a clear and limpid voice. The high range is radiant and the low notes are audible. She sprinkles her singing with ineffable “fil di voce” and mezzavoce of the most beautiful effect, just as her messa di voce on the word "Francia" in "Tu che le vanità. - Forumopera

Aleksandra Kurzak offers a vivid demonstration of her art. [...] The soprano's voice perfectly fits [the] character, so much Kurzak embodies, in the first part, this fragile femininity with a voice with a great deal of nuances, airy highs and admirable ‘fil di voce’ notes. Her "non pianger, mia compana", when, in addition, she has to abandon her lady companion, sounds like a moving lamentation. Then as the Queen takes her place, governs this depressed husband, assumes her love for Carlo, the woman frees herself. Her singing then becomes darker and leads to an absolutely supreme "tu che le vanita." At the end of the opera, Elizabeth, completely liberated and finally resolved to die, will provide, in the duet with Carlo, a sublime singing, in zero gravity, from which a heartbreaking melancholy will emerge. By building this moving character, step by step, Kurzak embodies a very different Elizabeth from the strong women who face their fate from the beginning, and stunningly adds that role to her already rich career. - Paul Fourier for Toute la culture

Pour sa prise de rôle, Aleksandra Kurzak a réussi à cerner la complexité d'une femme qui renonce à l'amour par devoir et fait montre d'une impressionnante maturité. Aigus lumineux, médium épanoui, phrasés riches en nuances et demi-teintes, la soprano polonaise convainc sans faillir. - Philippe Venturini pour Les Echos

Aleksandra Kurzak made her role debut as Elisabetta di Valois that night. And her interpretation was instantly iconic. This role I find the most disputable of Verdi’s because only for Elisabetta does a soprano has to combine extraordinary submissiveness with powerful and low-register singing. Where most of the sopranos give up on convincing acting, Kurzak was prepared to stand to the last moment. Her high notes were clean and bright, and she could head into hysteria, rapture or despair that her pure character was meant to explore. And even from there, she seemed to effortlessly drop her voice to the solid and strong low register. It was a display of precise voice solidity. Fortunately, she had an opportunity to show up amazing chemistry between her and her husband Roberto Alagna at the beginning. Then she furiously confronted a crushed Eboli played by Anita Rachvelishvili. [...] Their interaction were of the highest level. - Operawire

Very great Desdemona at the beginning of the year, Aleksandra Kurzak continues her vocal evolution and today meets the challenge of Elisabeth's role. Facing this role [...], her sincerity and commitment are often disarming. It must be said that she benefits from a foolproof belcantist technique and that her musical intelligence overcomes the difficulties, especially in the "Tu che la vanita" lighter than usual, but with sumptuous top notes and 'fil di voce' sounds as well as a sufficiently strong low notes. For the rest, the soprano sprinkles her rendition with welcome nuances and mezzavoce that give substance to her embodiment, always moving. - Steeve Boscardin for Resmusica.com-english

Aleksandra Kurzak was exquisite in her interpretation, with a very round but agile voice, well projected and with dramatic contrasts from open and powerful low notes to pianissimi in ‘fil di voce’ that impressed the audience. - OperaWorld, David Farrés

Aleksandra Kurzak successfully made her debut as Elizabeth. Kurzak is a lyricist who dares most, wisely monitoring her means in an immaculate singing line, with subtle mezzavoce sounds and pianissimi. - L'ape musicale, Gustavo Gabriel Otero

An exceptional vocal cast. Elisabetta finds in Aleksandra Kurzak a performer matching [Roberto Alagna’s Don Carlo]: what a beautiful couple, both scenically credible and vocally ideally paired. The Polish soprano has further enlarged her vocal base and manages to pass from the shivering young bride of the first act to a Queen at once dignified and anguished, to the emotional density of the final duet. Even the terrible "Tu che le vanita" at the beginning of the 5th act does not trip her up: she never tries to force her capabilities but knows how to color her singing with tenderness, for example to express her nostalgia for her native country (fine messa di voce on the word "Francia"), but also with affirmative ardor. She always finds the ideal projection, that of a young lady who was made to love and who was forced to another role of which she shoulders the nobility, also vocally. - Alain Duault for Opera Online