"Once in a generation, a true dramatic soprano comes along, with a rare voice built for the works of Wagner and Strauss in an opera house the size of the Met. Deborah Voigt is the real deal."        – Where, April 2004 Deborah Voigt's "All My Heart" with pianist Brian Zeger, on Angel/EMI Classics [ more ] Deborah Voigt as Helen in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Richard Strauss’s “The Egyptian Helen.”     Photo © Nick Heavican/Metropolitan Opera Deborah Voigt in concert in Toulouse, France, February 3, 2005.     Photo courtesy of www.ResMusica.com

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PERFORMANCE REVIEWS:

• Ariadne auf Naxos, Royal Opera House Covent Garden,
  June 2008
• Tristan und Isolde, Metropolitan Opera,
  March 2008
• Met Orchestra Concert, Carnegie Hall,
  February 2008
• Die Frau ohne Schatten, 2007
• Ravinia Festival, 2007
• Die Ägyptische Helena, Metropolitan Opera
• Salome, National Symphony Orchestra
• Salome, Lyric Opera of Chicago
• Un Ballo in Maschera, San Franciso Opera
• Tosca
• La Forza del Destino
• New York Evening of Cabaret
• "Debbie and Ben Show"
• More performance reviews

As Ariadne in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, June 2008

“Voigt has a gleaming tone with a touch of steel, ideal for Straussian roles such as Ariadne. Her diction is crystal-clear and her animated line projects the words with genuine feeling for their significance. There’s a nice irony in that the work is in part about the pressures to which great art is subjected.”
   – Evening Standard, 6.17.08 [Barry Millington – 5***** of 5]

“Ms. Voigt looked elegant and sounded in fine form in her first Covent Garden appearance since 2001 ... she sounded lustrous as she pleaded for death, her huge, gleaming voice as commanding as ever in her signature role. ... There was plenty of chemistry between [Robert Dean Smith as Bacchus] and Ms. Voigt during the opera’s conclusion under a star-studded sky.”
   – The New York Times, 6.18.08 [Vivien Schweitzer]

“Once she gets bewitched, bothered and bewildered, in the sumptuous 15-minute duet where Bacchus (robust Robert Dean Smith) turns the whining, pining Ariadne into an ecstatic lover, she is magnificent. And the new compact curves look good too.”
   – The Times (London), 6.18.08 [Richard Morrison]

“In the vehement, all-stops-out final duet with Robert D Smith’s sterling Bacchus ... she finally [struck] gold and [showed] the Covent Garden audience why she is rated elsewhere as one of the world’s leading Strauss sopranos.”
   – The Telegraph (London), 6.18.08 [Rupert Christiansen]

“As the backstage drama queen transformed first into a grieving woman and then into an ecstatic goddess, [Voigt] is really rather wonderful. Whether hurling imprecations at Kristine Jepson’s Composer or abandoning herself to the blandishments of Robert Dean Smith’s Bacchus, she acts with refinement, glamour and passion. ... she seems to have found greater expressive freedom, etching words with tremendous vividness and generating an emotional charge that hits you in the solar plexus.”
   – The Guardian, 6.19.08 [Tim Ashley]

“Voigt Soars – Deborah Voigt’s blazing performance at London’s Royal Opera House makes you forget that a scandal once was attached to her. ... She looks stunning. As a woman deserted by her lover who longs for death, her acting is both passionate and dignified. More importantly, her voice is gorgeously glossy, and it opens out in huge thrilling waves of sound the higher she sings. In short, she’s a sensation.”
   – Bloomberg.com, 6.19.08 [Warwick Thompson]

“Deborah Voigt, now fitting in that little black dress, can rattle the rafters with her money notes.”
   – The Independent, 6.18.08 [Edward Seckerson]

Tristan und Isolde, Metropolitan Opera, March 2008

A ‘Tristan und Isolde’ Well Worth the Wait
“On Friday, acclaimed Wagnerians, tenor Ben Heppner and the soprano Deborah Voigt, seemed to feed on each other’s intensity and determination. ... Mr. Heppner again gave an impassioned, courageous and vocally thrilling performance. ...
And Ms. Voigt sounded liberated. With a Tristan who could match her in sheer power and vocal charisma, she, too, took risks as she sent gleaming phrases soaring over the orchestra. But what may especially linger in the memory were the moments of tender lyricism and the aching exchanges of desire during their Act II love duet.”
   – Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 3.30.08
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Met Orchestra Concert, Carnegie Hall, February 17, 2008

“Deborah Voigt did glorious battle with the final scene of Richard Strauss's Salome. ... this is a soprano of penetrating power and clarity.”
   – Bernard Holland, The New York Times, 2.19.08

As the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Lyric Opera of Chicago, November-December 2007

Lyric’s ‘Frau’ casts a mighty shadow
“Lyric has cornered the market on the leading Strauss voices of our day, including two great dramatic sopranos – Christine Brewer, in a spectacular house debut as the Dyer’s wife; and Deborah Voigt, following her triumphant Salome last season with another triumph as the Empress, the eponymous woman without a shadow.”
   – John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, November 19, 2007
Read full article

Lyric’s dream team casts a giant ‘Shadow’
Voigt, Brewer, Smith astonish in Strauss’ adult
fairy tale
“American soprano Deborah Voigt of course owns the part of an Empress caught between supernatural and human worlds and torn as well by questions of fertility, marriage and the expression of the self. Never one to disappoint, Voigt adds a real acting presence to her arsenal and builds from strength to strength over her character’s three-act transformation. Her earthly counterpart, the Dyer’s Wife, is given the meat of the vocal writing and the weight of the opera’s heaviest emotions; American soprano Christine Brewer, making her long-anticipated Lyric debut, is never less than astonishing. With her bottomless sources of beautiful sound and her commanding stage presence she elevates her character’s laments to the highest plane.”
   – Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun Times, November 19, 2007
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Recital at the Ravinia Festival, August 23, 2007

“There are certain singers who you just can’t help but love. … American-born and -trained Deborah Voigt is one of them, at the top of her field but shunning diva attitude and trappings ... The program’s second half ... allowed Voigt just to be herself – an old friend sharing her own joy and pain and not those of operatic characters. Seven songs of Leonard Bernstein … made the storm-reduced audience feel as if we were gathered in Voigt’s parlor. And when encores included Irving Berlin’s ‘I Love a Piano’ with Voigt joining Zeger on the Steinway for some well-executed four-hand ragtime and ‘Can’t Help Lovin’ dat Man’ from ‘Showboat,’ we were with a very grand singer indeed, happily far from the world and the stage of grand opera that she normally must call home.”
   – Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times

Helena in Die Ägyptische Helena, Metropolitan Opera, March-April, 2007

“Ms. Voigt’s creamy, radiant soprano, fortified with some necessary steel, made for a potent Helena.”
   – Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal

“With her pleading sexuality, alluring confidence and yard upon yard of unspooling melody, Helen requires a soprano of majestic talents. Voigt’s got them.”
   – Justin Davidson, Newsday

“Voigt filled the house with her lustrous silvery soprano, adding to her string of Strauss successes following the title roles in ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ and ‘Salome,’ [the Empress] in ‘Die Frau [ohne Schatten]’ and Chrysothemis in ‘Elektra.’”
   – Ronald Blum, Associated Press

“It was hard to ponder the opera’s shortcomings in the presence of Ms. Voigt’s splendid portrayal. She sent Strauss’s lines soaring with gleaming tone and unforced power. In one climactic moment, standing atop the prompter’s box, she capped a defiant outburst with a high C that, like some ‘Star Wars’ light saber, threatened to slice the auditorium right down the middle. Yet Strauss’s lyrical effusions must have grace and lightness as well, qualities that as always came naturally to Ms. Voigt.”
   – Anthony Thommasini, The New York Times

“[Voigt] looked splendid in the slinky dresses of the world’s most famous femme fatale and soared through the piece’s only well-known music, the ‘second wedding night’.”
   – Manuela Hoelterhoff, Bloomberg News

As Salome, with the National Symphony Orchestra, January 2007

Voigt Delivers in the NSO’s Stellar Salome
“What impressed me most about Voigt was the nuance and freshness her voice retained even after singing at or near the top of her lungs for well over an hour. She never sounded steely: It was always recognizably a fellow human being, rather than a singing machine, making those lush and opulent sounds.”
   – Washington Post, January 19, 2007

“Opera stars often hit a peak early on, and spend the rest of their careers trying not to disappoint a world that witnessed it. So when Deborah Voigt delivers one performance after another that her fans didn’t dare anticipate a decade ago, you see why she’s adored unceasingly, and rarely more than at Thursday’s concert performance of Strauss’ Salome with the National Symphony Orchestra. ... Voigt’s Salome is a thought-through characterization worth traveling for. ...
   “The fact that you can even talk about characterization is evidence of Voigt’s gratifying inversion of artistic priorities. Once a voice-based singer, she’s now a word-based singer, which isn’t just important with the dense, Oscar Wilde-adapted text in Salome: It’s everything, assuming the right vocal equipment is there.
   “And it is. Though Voigt can handle the truck-driver requirements of Isolde, her Salome wasn’t just lyrical but mostly kept within a specific, lightish ‘head voice’ supported by a frigid core of a character capable of demanding St. John the Baptist’s head after he has spurned her. The sound is alluring, not rich, and it ever so slightly nags at the ear, as Salome should.
   “The overall performance bordered on extraordinary.”
   – Philadelphia Inquirer, January 20, 2007 [David Patrick Stearns]

“Voigt sizzles in a hot ‘Salome’
“Voigt delivered a soaring, searing performance of the taxing title role ... [she] looked radiant Thursday in an appropriately blood-red gown, and she sounded radiant, too, her voice confidently riding the orchestral crest and penetrating to the musical heart of the matter. In almost all cases, top notes were not just secure, but gleaming, while intimate moments in the opera inspired beautifully shaded phrasing. Even after the long, daunting finale scene, Voigt sounded fresh. ... the soprano was still a fireball of drama. Her face and gestures reflected every sick twist in Salome’s thinking, from would-be seducer of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) to near-necrophilic monster.”
   – Baltimore Sun, January 20, 2007 [Tim Smith]

“As Salome, the inexhaustible Miss Voigt is onstage and singing throughout most of the evening. Her Salome stealthily evolves, morphing from naive young girl into sexual predator, expanding vocally from lyric tenderness to Wagnerian power and majesty.”
   – Washington Times, January 20, 2007 [T.L. Ponick]

As Salome, Lyric Opera of Chicago, October-November 2006

“Voigt’s superb instrument sounded ideal in this Salome, retaining its quicksilver girlishness even when dominating the most grueling orchestral climaxes. Every phrase, from the coyly glittering dispatch of ‘den Kopf des Jochanaan’ to a bile-laden final scene of protean force, was infused with singular meaning and glamour. One veteran Lyric subscriber declared Voigt’s Salome to be the most formidable since that of the legendary Ljuba Welitsch; this was lofty praise indeed, but Voigt’s performance was inarguably a standard-setting one.”
   – Opera News

“It was a personal and artistic milestone for this beloved Illinois-born soprano, who must have felt as if she were making a second professional debut. It was also a personal and artistic triumph. Ms. Voigt, who looked great, exuded confidence and won a tumultuous ovation. What matters, though, is that she sang thrillingly … I have never heard her sing with such fearless intensity. That she can now move with newfound agility seems to have empowered her singing as well as her acting.”
   – The New York Times

“Her singing was gleaming and voluptuous, its power and warm, womanly vocal quality undiminished. … Voigt poured out the grueling final scene in a mad exultation of opulent, radiant tone.”
   – Chicago Tribune

“In depicting Salome, Voigt relied on well-chosen movements and the power and subtleties of her voice. ... She made the listener understand her character, and that can be a frightening thing. The audience members shot up at the end for an automatic standing ovation, and they clapped and cheered for a straight 12 minutes before the stage lights were turned off. But as they left the opera house, many of them were strangely silent.”
   – Associated Press

“When Voigt first appeared, the signs were promising. Dressed in red wig and flowing gown, she has never looked so lithe and graceful. As the evening progressed, it became obvious that she was in velvety glorious voice, soaring thrillingly at all the key moments, most especially the final ‘the enigma of love is greater than the enigma of death.’ Voigt is smaller, yet the voice remains big. …Voigt emerged victorious as the curtain dropped to tumultuous applause. Standing ovations, I hear, are rare at the Lyric Opera.”
   – Bloomberg News

“Voigt sings the hell out of this role … She is perhaps alone in being able to put the music first and to sing this fiendishly difficult and frequently exposed part with astonishing accuracy, power and beauty. Even if there were no "Dance of the Seven Veils" or a bloody head of a prophet on a silver platter (and there most certainly are in this production), Voigt's Salome alone could tell the entire story.”
   – Chicago Sun-Times

“Lyric Opera of Chicago is presenting its first ‘Salome’ in a decade, with the big news, of course, American soprano Deborah Voigt singing the title role for the first time in a staged production. Voigt, in a word, is fantastic in one of the prized roles of the dramatic soprano repertory. Already one of the world's renowned Isoldes, she has the vocal resources to scale the most demanding heights created by Strauss, in particular the final monologue as she caresses the severed head of Jochanaan, her prize for performing the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ for her lecherous father.”
   – Daily Herald

Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera at San Francisco Opera, September 2006

"The focus of the evening, in the end, was Voigt, who sang Amelia in a breakout performance here in 1990's. ... The outcome was a splendidly etched portrait of a woman torn between love and duty, and Voigt made the dilemma clear in soaring, impeccably shaped melodic phrases. ... The Act 3 showpiece, 'Morrò, ma prima in grazia,' was a masterpiece of musical conjuring."
   – San Francisco Chronicle, 9.11.06 [Joshua Kosman]

Voigt's first Metropolitan Opera Tosca, April 22, 2006

"With her expressive face, she can signal emotions by batting an eyelid. Her anger, rather than building steadily during the evening, exploded in her confrontation with Scarpia at the end of the second act, when she bowled James Morris over a chair as she stabbed the evil police chief. This was no breathy, flighty diva - rather it was a woman intent on getting her way and swiftly eliminating Scarpia as an obstacle."
   – Associated Press 4.24.06 [Ronald Blum]

"A major step. ... Ms. Voigt gave an involving, impetuous and vocally burnished portrayal. ... Her bright and penetrating sound recalls Birgit Nilsson's Tosca. ... When she told Cavaradossi that she had no choice but to kill Scarpia, she leapt to a slicing high C that shook the house as she sang of thrusting the knife into his heart, then plunged two octaves to an earthy low C. ... Ms. Voigt invests the character with personal touches, bringing out Tosca's vulnerability, and sings with daring abandon during the intense confrontation with the villainous Scarpia."
   – New York Times, 4.24.06 [Anthony Tommasini]

"Deborah Voigt, gleaming as the 19th-century diva ... was making her Met debut as Tosca - even more surprising, she'd only sung the role once before. You would have imagined that singer and role were always made for one another, as they here proved. ... Voigt exudes a certain old-time operatic glamour beyond her glorious voice. Here she gave Puccini's spirited heroine with the kind of classiness I recall from my very first Tosca, about 60 years ago - Margherita Grandi as she thrillingly stabbed my first Scarpia, the legendary Mariano Stabile. ... an impressive operatic experience.
   "Bravo, Voigt! Bravo, Puccini!"
   – New York Post, 4.25.06 [Clive Barnes]

"[Ms. Voigt] brought vocal charisma and shimmering power to her portrayal, which grew stronger as the performance continued. ... The audience that [first] night gave Ms. Voigt an ardent ovation. ... I heard Ms. Voigt sing the role again on May 5, and she was more confident in her portrayal, both vocally and dramatically. ... she lets more of Tosca's insecurity come through...When the conniving Baron Scarpia, the police chief, leads Tosca into thinking that Cavaradossi is deceiving her ... Ms. Voigt's poignant Tosca, though furious, seems utterly humiliated. ... I'd ask this of those who question Ms. Voigt for her daring: Who are the great Toscas of the last 20 years that she is challenging? No one has dominated the role the way Callas and Renata Tebaldi did in the late 1950's and early 60's."
   – New York Times, 5.17.06 [Anthony Tommasini]

First Tosca at the Vienna State Opera, April 1, 2006

Simply indestructible!
"Deborah Voigt is the 80th soprano to incorporate the role of Tosca in the Vienna State Opera's production, which has been in the boards since 1958. Role-debutante Voigt is a very dramatic, intense Tosca, and has clearly profited from her extensive experience in Wagner roles. In addition to powerful attacks and climaxes, she also provided lyrical moments, thus ensuring the enthusiastic applause of an appreciative audience."
   – Kurier, April 3, 2006 [PJ]

With all her strength
"The 503rd performance of Tosca; the 80th singer in the title role; nevertheless, a major role debut at the Staatsoper. Surrounded by a compelling cast conducted by Vjekoslav Sutej, Deborah Voigt's Tosca immediately put a spell on the audience. "She has triumphed in Wagner roles, but she sings Tosca with appropriate drama, emphasis and power, but also puts her fine lyricism into play ... She was especially impressive in the great climaxes employing intense vocal expression."
   – Neue Kronen-Zeitung, 3 April 2006 [OL]

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The Met's La forza del destino

"Ms. Voigt, the second-cast Leonora in 1996, is now a drawing card in her own right, and she sings the role with a refinement and a nuance that convey Leonora's pain in all its variety - starting with her doubts about leaving her father to run off with Alvaro, and then all the agony that flows from that moment. She has the high notes and the grace to make the last act's 'Pace, pace, mio Dio' into a persuasive cry of the heart."
   – New York Times, February 22, 2006

"Voigt was in superb lustrous voice, and in that final scene produced legato singing of simple radiance."
   – New York Post, February 22, 2006

"Soprano Deborah Voigt, who last portrayed Leonora at the Met a decade ago, attacked Verdi's soaring writing with generous, gleaming tone and much heart ... Voigt's 'Pace, pace' was weary and gentle, a thing of desolate sighs, seconded by Noseda's sensitive conducting."
   – Newsday, February 23, 2006

"Voigt's ample voice encompasses Verdi's dramatic soprano roles with ease, and her Leonora had both vocal power and dramatic authority. ... She made a strong impression in the final scene with a fervent 'Pace, pace mio dio.'
   – Musical America, February 22, 2006 [George Loomis]

"Voigt was Leonora, with power and high notes to spare for her final show-stopper, 'Pace, pace, mio Dio.'"
   – Associated Press, February 21, 2006 [Mike Silverman]

AND: Voigt's first Metropolitan Opera Leonora in Verdi's Forza del destino

"In the monastery scene ... it was thrilling to hear Ms. Voigt's gleaming soprano soar over the chorus and orchestra. And her voice is steady and true to pitch."
   – New York Times, April 3, 1996

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An Evening of Cabaret with Deborah Voigt
Lincoln Center's American Songbook, January 25th, 2006

Deborah Voigt's New York Cabaret Debut Hailed by Variety!
Robert L. Daniels writes:
"Voigt crosses the opera-Broadway boundary with grace and elegance, harboring a strength reserved for special moments. She is also in the possession of a devilish sense of humor, which was delightfully used to frame a lyric with a naughty smile. ... Profoundly aware that each song has a story to tell, her delivery is expressively honest and her voice lustrous and creamy.
   "... Voigt cunningly delivered the double entendres with saucy allure and a wink of the eye. And with John Bucchino's lovely 'This Moment' and Stephen Sondheim's 'Theme from "Reds,"' the diva defined romanticism with a fervent and telling performance."
   – Variety.com, January 27, 2006

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