Reviews
Fidelio, Oper Frankfurt, 1 June 2008
Erika Sunnegårdh as Fidelio/Leonore towers above the rest with a voice like a volcano and a musical ardor and so nuanced a vocal expression that it defies description.
Perhaps this is Beethoven’s true Utopia; with a wonderful soprano break apart the chains of tyranny.
Wolfgang Sandner,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 June, 2008
But Erika Sunnegårdh as Leonore is in every regard the central figure in this production, whose expressive, in every register assertive and unforced soprano, marks the highpoint of the evening.
Hans-Jürgen Linke
Frankfurter Rundschau, 3 June, 2008
Leonore, with boyish, wiry appearance, shows from the very beginning a strong social interest in all human beings; and in her great aria, the fierce and dramatically driven soprano of Erika Sunnegårdh has a heroic, sweeping impact.
Wolfgang Schreiber
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 7 June, 2008
Salome, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee 15 February, 2008
Erika Sunnegårdh’s Salome was rather extraordinary; few in memory have so convincingly embodied an image of willful adolescence while maintaining such an impressive degree of musical integrity. One might complain of some weakness in the lower-middle register, but the top is brilliant, and the sheer amplitude of sound emanating from such a petite figure is undeniably exciting. The erotic choreography by Kathryn Posin was exceptionally well done, including a moment of blatant sexual sadism as Salome coolly taunted Herodes before dropping the final veil to stand nude before him.
Mark Thomas Ketterson
Opera News Online, May 2008
Tragic Seduction
Once in a great while someone comes along whose talent leaves you breathless. Swedish soprano Erika Sunngardh’s performance of the title role in Richard Strauss’ opera Salome last weekend at Florentine Opera was nothing short of magnificent in every regard.
I have left about 10 other productions of Salome with a shudder, essentially creeped out. Sunngardh inhabited this deranged seductress so thoroughly that the psychological melodrama was elevated to high tragedy, the instability of her character and decadent environment made dramatically discernible, as directed by John Hoomes. The notorious dance of the seven veils scene—the undoing of many sopranos—was thrilling and captivating in choreog- raphy by Kathryn Posin. A critic once described the voice of another Swedish dramatic soprano, the legendary Birgit Nilsson, as a sunbeam hitting an iceberg. Sunngardh’s high range is a shade warmer, but that phrase rings true about her sound. Her singing of the role equaled any ever recorded, which is saying a great deal. Even in the era of Deborah Voigt, Sunngårdh is poised to become the world’s reigning Salome, with any opera company lucky enough to get her.
ExpressMilwaukee.com
Classical Review by Rick Walters
Erika Sunnegårdh, in her first-ever “Salome,” stunned the Florentine Opera audience Friday at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. The least of it was baring all in the Dance of the Seven Veils. Sunnegårdh’s singing was at once huge and intimate, and intimidating and insinuating. It remained ravishing through the most gorgeous and grotesque lines that Richard Strauss dreamed up for opera’s most bizarre diva role.
On top of that powerful and exquisite voice, Sunnegårdh flitted sure and lithe as a cat up and down the staircase that fills most of the stage, and she danced astonishingly well. Choreographer Kathryn Posin gave her a real dance with real jumps. Sunnegårdh not only stuck them, she phrased with clarity and purpose. The arc of this Seven Veils made the final nudity inevitable rather than gratuitous.
Sunnegårdh’s Salome is no scheming vamp, sophisticated beyond her years. She is a child – willful, impetuous, sensual and privileged to act as she will without consequences. Every aspect of Sunnegårdh’s well-thought-out character makes the shocking climax – the delivery of the severed head of John the Baptist, to satisfy her whim – horrifically credible.
“Salome” turns on the woman in the title role. Friday, Erika Sunnegårdh fired a shot that will resound throughout the opera world. Great Salomes are hard to find. Now there’s one more.
Tom Strini
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 February, 2008
Salome in Concert with the Swedish Radio Symphony and Myung-Whun Chung, Berwaldhallen, 5 October 2007
Powerful performance gets better and better
… We could quickly establish that opera houses in the US and Europe soon will have a powerful vocal characterization of Salome. Much has been said about Sunnegårdh’s voice, whose deep luster and strong expressivity runs through the entire registration. Here she has a dream role, where the tipping points between the erotically possessed and the stark raving mad calls forth a chameleon-like adjustment to the shifts in the orchestra. This was a preview that leaves you wanting more!
Thomas Anderberg, Dagens Nyheter, 6 October 2007
Sunnegårdh Spellbinds…!
… Sunnegårdh’s soprano has acquired a wonderful silvery quality you just can’t get enough of…
Carl-Gunnar Åhlen, Svenska Dagbladet, 6 October 2007
FIDELIO with the Auckland Philharmonia, Auckland Town Hall, 10 August 2007
AN EVENING WHEN PRAISE WAS SIMPLY INADEQUATE
…Erika Sunnegardh was an incandescent Leonore, from nervous young man to loving wife. Emotions mingled in her magnificent Act One aria, most effectively when unmitigated fury was transformed to vibrant optimism.
William Dart, The New Zealand Herald, 13 August 2007
…Her voice was full of colour and expressed the fear, love, courage, anger and sadness which the part requires. She gave an insight into the character in a way that the libretto often fails to convey.
John Daly-Peoples, National Business Review, Friday 17 August 2007
Erika Sunnegårdh was a radiant Leonore from beginning to end. While her voice is not particularly large she uses it with extreme intelligence throughout the range, both musically and dramatically. Beethoven requires the singer to use all her registers to portray, initially, the boy Fidelio, and then to project ecstatic jubilation as the noblewoman Leonore. Sunnegårdh found exceptional depth of emotion in her aria of hope and resolve, ‘Komm Hoffnung,’ contrasting brilliantly with the vocal fireworks at the moment of reunion with her husband. If there was a weakness it was that the performance seemed a little too controlled. More freedom of voice and expression would have added icing to an already very delicious cake.
www.theoperacritic.com © Michael Sinclair
TURANDOT at the Metropolitan Opera, 21 April 2007
A Substitute No More, a Soprano Gets Her Own Spotlight
Ms. Sunnegardh brings several advantages to the battlefield. She is the rare Turandot who both sings like an object of hopeless desire and looks like one — presentable, agile and reasonably regal in her movements. Her voice is big enough without being explosive, and sounds its best when projecting flat-out and emerging from great masses of ensemble sound. There is still some hard steel at the top of her range (where the part spends much of its time), but Ms. Sunnegardh was steady and often forceful.
She should be pleased with herself.
You forget how much fun this production is. The chorus and orchestra and the dancers seemed to be having as much fun as I was. Everything worked. This is the Met at its best.
Bernard Holland, New York Times, 24 April 2007
TOSCA with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, February 2007
… the drama is amplified by Sunnegårdh’s stylish, pure performance, where an inner fire occasionally breaks through the slender tone. She is completely convincing in this role – fantastic with her focused high voice. How many more breakthroughs must she have before we hear her at the Stockholm Opera?
Bo Löfvendahl – Svenska Dagbladet, 7 February 2007
… then (Turandot, 2004) I was struck by the vocal perfection, and the distancing chill. Now she has matured further. The voice is yet more perfect, but the chill has given way to a solid dose of warmth and liveliness. Her Tosca plays the entire emotional spectrum with an enormous abandon.
Lars-Erik Larsson – Sydsvenskan, 4 February 2007
Nabucco at Teater Hedeland, Denmark, August 2006
Near sensational is Erika Sunnegårdh, who one can’t wait to hear in a good natural acoustic. Her dramatic soprano voice has an unencumbered connection from the lowest, powerfully dramatic chest voice to the glowing, pure and free top, which is intense but neither edgy nor heavy. The musical overview is magnificent, and in her, a nuanced characterization didn’t go missing.
— Jan Jacoby, Politiken, 8-7-2006
Her voice is a slender and glimmering high-dramatic soprano, and she created an absolutely credible portrait of a woman who manipulates her way into power – and desperately clutches to it till the bitter end.
— Bjarne Larsen, Rödovre Avis, 8-9-2006
Carnegie Hall, May 14, 2006
“Sunnegardh followed with her most impressive number, “In questa reggia” from Puccini’s “Turandot.” The killer aria falls in the strongest part of her range, and she soared.”
— RONALD BLUM, The Associated Press
“…there was a newsy touch. Erika Sunnegardh, the soprano who made her Met debut last month in Beethoven’s “Fidelio” and has won attention as a surprising late bloomer, gave a powerful, virtuosic performance of “In questa reggia,” from Puccini’s “Turandot” (which she will sing at the Met next season), its high notes intact and fully supported. And she gave an affecting reading of Sieglinde’s few lines in a scene from Wagner’s “Walküre,” with Ben Heppner giving a knockout performance of Siegmund’s “Siegmund heiss ich.”
— ALLAN KOZINN, New York Times
Published: May 16, 2006
Metropolitan Opera, April 1st, 2006
“Her voice has earthy colorings and warmth. She is especially comfortable in her upper range and has strong, clear top notes. Her midrange singing, though, sounded patchy yesterday.
But after intermission, in Act II, she seemed more relaxed and took greater chances, especially in the climatic scene when she defies the tyrannical governor of the prison and saves the day. She grew stronger as the opera swept forward to its joyous conclusion.
But she has talent, grit and determination. She also had the audience at the Met absolutely behind her.”
— ANTHONY TOMMASINI, New York Times
Published: April 2, 2006
On Fidelio at the Florentine Opera, Milwaukee, November, 2005
“Erika Sunnegårdh convincingly embodied Fidelio’s boyish veneer, as well as an unusually feminine Leonore. ‘Abscheulicher!’ was most respectable, its difficult passagework cleanly in place — but it was in the Act II confrontation that she came into her own — her top register gleaming with a power surprising in so diminutive a woman.”
— Mark Thomas Ketterson, Opera News