Search - Aleksandra Kurzak :: Bel Raggio

For her second album, Bel raggio, Aleksandra Kurzak focuses on the bel canto classics of Rossini; offering a beguiling mix of the virtuosic, the lyrical, and the comic. Joining her are Sinfonia Varsovia and Pier Giorgio Morandi.

The programme contains highlights from Le comte Ory, La donna del lago, La gazza ladra, Guglielmo Tell, Semiramide, Il turco in Italia, and more, pieces which remain at the heart of her stage repertoire.

Her 2012/13 season sees her returning to Covent Garden for L elisir d amore, followed by performances in La traviata (Frankfurt and Warsaw), as Gilda in Rigoletto (Zurich), Marie in La fille du regiment (Vienna) and Adina in L elisir d amore (Barcelona).

In December 2012 she released a hugely successful Christmas album in her native Poland which has shipped platinum.

Kurzak is a coloratura specialist, and shines in Rossini's florid music . . . she sings up a storm. It's clear that she adores dishing out all the tricks of the coloratura trade, and she does it superbly. Runs, trills, roulades, extra ornaments -- you name it, shell fling them out easily, and do so with infectious joy . . . [an] electrifying voice Concert Review Il barbiere di Siviglia, Bloomberg.com, Warwick Thompson 21.01.2011.

. . . this is Kurzaks evening . . . so convincing is she that when she makes a feint at the stalls, people in the front row instinctively cower in fright. Her coloratura is smooth and accurate, and her tone can turn from silk to steel in a flash; shes both a consummate farceuse and a commanding vocal presence - Concert Review Il barbiere di Sivigli, Independent (London), Michael Church 19.01.2011.