Und dann wäre da noch besagte Iwona Sobotka, die mit der Arie "Ah core mio" aus der Händel-Oper "Alcina" diesem Abend zweifellos das Glanzlicht aufsetzte. Mit einer Stimme, so mühelos, so strahlend, so perlend leicht in den Höhen und doch auch so innig im Ausdruck, mit der sie diese Abschiedsarie gestaltete, dass man sich allen Ernstes fragt, warum man diesen Namen nicht öfters hört und liest.
This soprano! Iwona Sobotka, stepped in at short notice, had no trouble to exhaust Verdi's soprano's abundant attributed drama with pleasure in composing and yet far from all operatic attitude. At the same time she gives its intimacy color and warmth, forms a brilliant crescendo, makes her voice shine in the fortissimo passages over each and everything - this is first class!
Но певица удивила еще раз – вечером, когда исполнила знаменитое произведение Рихарда Штрауса с таким мастерством, таким вдохновением, что зал сначала онемел, а потом разразился оглушительными овациями и криками «Браво!». Стало ясно, что в Воронеж заглянула звезда мирового уровня. Ивона Соботка и в самом деле – одно из самых известных сопрано на планете. Певица владеет филигранным мастерством, у нее теплый полетный голос, безупречно сглаженные регистры. И она – подлинный художник, соавтор композиторов и поэтов, создававших произведения в разные годы.
Überwältigend in der Titelpartie Iwona Sobotka, ein Sopran absoluter Weltklasse mit berückendem Timbre, lupenreiner Höhe und lyrisch-dramatischer Ausdrucksfülle
Polish soprano Iwona Sobotka stole the show as Vespina. Her gorgeous, flawless and versatile voice and stage presence made for an effortless performance. She's got a huge, blinding, solid middle voice that flips into the most delicate and elegant coloratura, wholly light and tranquil, never forced. Her first act aria "Come piglia si bene la mira" was so natural and unaffected, and she sliped into a pure workspace that the other soloists couldn't even touch. Her recitative was weightless and airy. She easily morphed into her six separate characters and owned each one individually without ever a sense of overbearing.
Sobotka is relatively young but she is perfectly at ease negotiating the composer’s tricky turns of phrase and intonation. Her pure, clean tones elide the trills and melisma with elegant grace. When she sings lines like “mi go zal” (ist mir so leid) , unaccompanied and alone, she breathes an earthy personality into the words, enhancing their meaning, even if you don’t understand a word of Polish. She has recorded the complete Szymanowski songs with the superlative young tenor, Piotr Beczala and others, so she, too, has a claim to being immersed in the composer’s idiom. Indeed, in the second song, Slowik (Nightingale), she creates a truly mysterious atmosphere, turning the elaborate vocalise into an almost abstract meditation.
