Liu in TURANDOT - Royal Opera House London, July 2017
This was Aleksandra Kurzak’s role debut and what a debut it was! Even at the fringes of the action Kurzak never switched off for a second and was totally engaged in the performance. But it was the beauty of her sound that caught the ear and was at its very best during her uninterrupted confession to Calaf ‘Perché un dì, nella reggia m’hai sorriso’ and the steady stream of sound – poignant and heartfelt – culminated in a delightfully suspended piano.
Jim Pritchard, www.seenandheard-international.com.
Andrei Serban’s classic 1984 production of Puccini’s Turandot, conducted by Dan Ettinger, is back at the Royal Opera House with two casts. I heard the second, with Lise Lindstrom, sensational as the fair Miss Frigidaire of the title, Roberto Alagna bursting with renewed vocal strength as Calaf, and Aleksandra Kurzak as Liú. It was Kurzak’s night. At once powerful and fragile, ardent and tender, she communicated every nuance of her agony, with Brindley Sherratt’s old Timur heart-rending in his remorse at her death. From cradle to grave, opera covers all eventualities.
Fiona Maddocks - The Guardian
Both these stars [Lindstrom and Alagna] are usurped by Aleksandra Kurzak as Liù, whose soprano soars in her arias and who acts with a poignant mix of fragility and sacrificial strength.
Amanda Kendal http://thevoluptuousmanifesto.blogspot.co.uk
Power and Brio. Husband and wife team Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak are the obsessive Calaf and the tragic slave girl Liù, and both were on fine form at their second performance. [...] Alagna's famous high register was firm and heroic and he emoted like a true actor in 'Nessun dorma'. Kurzak was vocally heartrending as the opera's second soprano lead, and she fully inhabited her character."
Mark Valencia www.whatsonstage.com