❠ Soare’s Dominating Performance Nor can the fault for the work’s inability to create a positive impression be attributed to the singers, who all produced strong performances. The opera is dominated by the role of Olga, who is rarely off the stage and is at the centre of almost all of the major dramatic incidents. It is both an emotionally and technically demanding role, for which soprano Andreea Soare proved herself more than up to the task. By turn, she was loving, feisty, assertive and desperate; the emotions poured out to produce a breathtaking, compelling performance. Her voice is wonderfully secure, able to move with an impressive degree of flexibility across the range, seamlessly incorporating leaps and intricate chromatic passages into the line, and able to push forcefully into her upper register without any sense of vocal anxiety. It is also a lyrically appealing voice that allows her to spin out long lines of intense beauty. Time and time again, it was the expressivity of her singing, in which she delved deeply into Olga’s strongly felt emotions that caught the attention. Her confrontation with de Ruys was so intensely expressed that one assumed she was about to become physically violent. When begging Serge not to assassinate the Grand Duc, her pain and fears were seared into her voice. And on realizing that Serge is dead, in the final scene, she suffers an emotional overload and descends into madness, for which she enveloped her voice with her suffering, despair and anxieties. It would be no exaggeration to say that she single-handedly raised the performance of “L’Aube Rouge” to a higher level.

Alan Neilson - OperaWire

❠ Andreea Soare was magnificent in the role of Olga. She dominated every scene in the opera and was excellent in ratcheting up the dramatic tension at key points. She was firm and resourceful in facing up to the Police in Act I; she displayed steely determination in separating from de Ruys in Act II, and desperation as she later pleaded with de Ruys to save her lover. She has a very powerful voice which continually rose above the assembled orchestral forces, and she was strong throughout the vocal range. She also demonstrated great tenderness and delicacy in the quieter moments of the opera as she reflected on her love for Serge. There was much to admire in this production and Andreea Soare is clearly one of the stars of this year’s festival.

Robert Beattie - Seen and Heard International

❠ The big redeeming quality of the performance was soprano Andreea Soare as Olga, who features in practically every scene. Possessing a huge range and heft, her mellifluous voice soared up on high, dazzling all before her. Her acting was superlative too. She weeps, she beseeches, she loves intensely. Her begging of her former fiancé (a surgeon in Paris) to heal her lover was brilliant, alternating between utter desperation and heartrending entreaty. It was nothing short of magical the way she unfurled the most delicate pianissmo on her high notes as she sang of her (soon-to-be short-lived) happiness in Act 4.

Andrew Larkin - bachtrack