Rossini: Arias

"A natural comedienne, she combines a vivacious stage presence with graceful, finished phrasing and an apparently effortless coloratura technique . . ." Gramophone, June 2013

"She tosses off Rossini's elaborate writing with the greatest of ease. This is an impressive Rossini recital." --Classicalcdreview.com, July 2013

"Dazzling . . . Kurzak combines a warm and richly colored low register with tireless, technically precise fireworks . . . the theatrical fearlessness of her delivery and the fluidity of her phrasing throughout make this an enjoyable and deeply impressive offering." --San Francisco Chronicle, August 2013

A natural comedienne, she combines a vivacious stage presence with graceful, finished phrasing and an apparently effortless coloratura technique . . . [she is] triumphantly celebrating her erotic power in the Act 2 "Rond� e finale" from "Matilde di Shabran" . . . Without ever over-egging the pudding, Kurzak acts vividly for a "blind" audience, alive to verbal nuance and using coloratura not merely as a vote-catching circus trick, but to enhance character. Lustily abetted by the Sinfonia Varsovia, she is especially good at generating a crescendo of delirious, dizzying glee that is such a hallmark of Rossini's comic art. But this is not all about frolicsome virtuosity and bright-pinging top Ds and Es. Kurzak can find warmer, deeper . . . colourings within her silvery soprano . . . [a] tenderly sculpted performance of Amenaide's prayer in "Tancredi" . . . she rails with passionate ferocity as the banished wife in the rarely aired "Sigismondo" and catches the mingled dreaminess and excited anticipation of Semiramide's "Bel raggio lusinghier" . . . elegance of style and expressive delicacy (she always cares for the text) . . . Kurzak brilliantly caps her recital with Fiorilla's Act 2 scena from "Il turco in Italia", beginning in intense pathos and ending in coruscating bravura . . . This regularly brought the house down at Covent Garden, and on this evidence it's easy to hear why. --Record Review / Richard Wigmore, Gramophone (London) / 01. June 2013