Otello | Oper Köln, Cologne | May 2014

…a feast of operatic singing that was also dramatically inspired. One hesitates to distinguish anyone at this rarefied level, but Anne Schwanewilms’s Desdemona was outstanding.A Straussian and Wagnerian, she sings this difficult role with a marvellously natural, unaffected innocence and purity. Each note is rich in substance, each legato arc fulfilled. The sotto voce climax to the ‘Ave Maria’ is pitched with absolute lightness and goes straight to the heart.

Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Markus Schwering, May 20, 2014

 

Sometimes such a singer [as Jose Cura, singing Otello] can easily out-sing his colleagues. But not Anne Schwanewilms’s Desdemona. Her generous but tender, melting soprano captivates and touches with every note.

Express Köln, Christof Ernst, May 20, 2014

 

Anne Schwanewilms sang Desdemona, the innocent victim. Celebrated worldwide for her Strauss and Wagner roles, the soprano here held back her voice with an impeccable technique, subdued by humiliation, in order to let its dynamic potential flare up in one single, forte cry of lamentation.

Kölner Rundschau und General-Anzeiger Bonn, Olaf Weiden, May 20, 2014