Lise’s debut with the Metropolitan Opera receives critical acclaim
Last month, Lise made her highly anticipated debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, which ran from 29 November to 21 December.
Described as “the most superhuman of singing Scandinavians”, her performances have garnered rave reviews:
“Davidsen, equipped with both silver-bright top notes and a warmly expressive, mezzo-like lower range, has the elemental gift of being able to fill the gigantic Met auditorium with rich, blazing tone. Such effortless force has not been often heard at Lincoln Center since the retirement of Birgit Nilsson, the most superhuman of singing Scandinavians.”
The New Yorker, December 2019
"The soprano Lise Davidsen, who made a radiant debut at the Metropolitan Opera in The Queen of Spades on Friday evening. Singing with confidence, power and purpose, with both freshness and maturity, Ms. Davidsen, just 32, staked a precocious claim to the great Wagner and Strauss roles that require equal parts youthful flexibility and sheer strength."
The New York Times, December 2019
"The new star is named Lise Davidsen, and her debut performance as Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades offers more than ample evidence she’s got the voice and temperament to be the company’s next A-list dramatic soprano. Davidsen’s voice is a massive column of sound, fascinatingly complex in timbre in middle voice, and then gleaming like platinum in the upper fifth of her range."
The Observer, December 2019
"There’s no question Davidsen scored a major success in her house debut as Lisa. She boasts a voice of startling power, with bright color and warmth from top to bottom, but even more impressive than the voice itself is Davidsen’s astonishing technique. Whether bringing soft glow to an intimate moment in her middle voice, or finding focus in her bright, bell-like top, she was always in complete control of her instrument. Even her highest notes never felt the slightest push, sounding as comfortable as though she had approached them from above.
That complete confidence in her technique opened up a wide range of emotive possibilities in every part of her voice. Her final aria in Act III, “Akh, istomilas ya gorem” (I am worn out with suffering), showed focus and fullness in her upper register, with a warm clarity, that seemed to hang in the air and effortlessly fill the house."
New York Classical Review, December 2019
