“…the sold out Smetana Hall proved that the blonde singer has a large number of admirers in this country. Along with PKF-Prague Philharmonia and her husband Karel Mark Chichon, she prepared an exceptional experience – Gounod’s Repentir opened the concert and determined its course. The singer did not try to break listeners’ hearts with soft heights, she did it with an exceptional determination in delivering expressive and ambiguous arias; she mastered their inner drama perfectly… along with an absolute vocal purity and clarity, Garanča brought the audience to fervor. She did so in the Italian arias (Donizetti, Verdi, Cilea, Mascagni) as well as Bizet’s Carmen, her signature role which ended the official part of the evening…’
Vladimír Říha, Novinky
The evening… had a very sophisticated dramaturgy… Elīna Garanča proved at the opening song that she is still the same – a singer with an exceptionally even-tempered voice, of a rich and broad register. Her breathing is spotless, she astonishes with trouble-free heights and she fully embodies the spirit of the arias. The warming melody of Repentir drew the listeners into the charismatic charm of the singer where they remained till the end of the evening. The expressive possibilities of the singer were manifested in the subsequent numbers. She never gives up on the perfect phrasing, her approach to music is exceptionally sensitive, and yet very rational. She treats her voice with a great tenderness; she weights dynamics on the perfect scales. You can hear the softest (sounded) pianissimo, as well as very powerful… She can totally rely on Karel Mark Chichon. Their collaboration is perfect and sets a great example how a singer and a conductor can unite in acoustics and expression, and how to cooperate on the stage – many of our conductors should follow this example…. Chichon manifested his works mainly in orchestra pieces; PKF – Prague Philharmonia was working very hard to meet his requests. The conductor builds the compositions on unusually swift and contrasting tempos, he is dynamic, rhythmical, he often emphasizes individual instruments groups, his demands on the orchestra often border virtuosity… if the singer proclaimed, she is moving towards more dramatic repertoire, then Leonora’s Pace, pace, mio Dio! is probably the outer boarder of this tendency. The very difficult aria which proves dramatic powers of sopranos was almost a provocative choice. Ms Garanca sang the aria with no mistakes, with befitting heights and without any difficulty… I truly admire her Carmen whose seductiveness and witty temperament are not so obvious… she is able to create a Carmen, who is irresistible because her temperament is almost hidden, yet it penetrates through her charismatic expression; this required a lot of drama ability. Carmen of Elīna Garanča can be blonde, she can even look like a cold northerner; yet her charisma does the job done. She is desperately seductive and she cannot be conquered by Don José, or any other toreador. The audience went wild… Elīna Garanča is a great singer; due to her perfect harmony with Karel Mark Chichon, the evening was an exceptional experience…
Olga Janáčková, operaplus.cz