press
cyndia sieden soprano
Mozart & Haydn with New World Symphony
… the highlight of the concert was Sieden’s performances of vocal works by Mozart.
The fresh, youthful quality of Sieden’s voice perfectly matched the music of Mozart’s early Exsultate Jubilate. She sang the quick melodic lines with a tightly focused voice, effortless virtuosity and joyous buoyancy that recalled the early Mozart instrumental concertos with which this work is often compared.
In the concert aria Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio! Sieden produced smoothly ornamented melodies and melting pianissimo melodies at the top of her register. In No, no che non sei capace, she gave a performance of fiery virtuosity in the passionate, rapid-fire coloratura.
South Florida Classical Review, 28 October 2012
Dionysos – Holland Festival
While Cyndia Sieden added another role, Hoher Sopran/Ariadne, to a list including Ariel in Adès’s The Tempest that will be well-nigh impossible to cast when she retires.
Opera, November 2011
Neither – New York City Opera
Cyndia Sieden was dazzling here, singing with uncanny focus, impressive stamina and ethereal beauty....Sieden was a wonder
The New York Times, 28 March 2011
Kudos to soprano Cyndia Sieden for an outstanding performance of a challenging piece. Singing beautifully is one thing...but Sieden went the next step into artistry by imbuing every phrase with significance — not self-consciously, but with genuine urgency.
Washington Post, March 2011
Cyndia Sieden delivered...with an exquisite, pure sound that seemed to come out of nowhere as it floated above the orchestra. The Classical Review, March 2011
Soprano Cyndia Sieden, in a black dress with a long train, uttered the libretto’s words syllable by syllable in a deliberately laconic, often perilously high, vocal part. … It’s not easy to look and sound good under such deliberately awkward circumstances, but Sieden managed to do both, singing with silvery tone and providing this slow moving “non-story” with a riveting focal point.
Musical America, March 2011
Partenope – New York City Opera
Cyndia Sieden wielded her agile soprano effectively as Partenope
New York Times, April 2010
The Tempest - Frankfurt
The indispensable Cyndia Sieden again demonstrated that the stratospheric writing of Ariel’s part may need rethinking when she retires.
The Sunday Times, January 2010
Carmina Burana at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Soprano Cyndia Sieden soared and was the one performer who supplied a hint of eroticism.
Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2009
The Tempest on EMI Classics
Many of the outstanding cast created their roles in the original 2004 staging, including … Cyndia Sieden as Ariel, leaping to her stratospheric high notes with ethereal agility. Her set pieces, such as "Five fathoms deep/ Your father lies" and "He and your brother/ Stare and shudder" beautifully capture the character's supernatural, asexual nature.
The Observer, 14 June 2009
The most striking aspects are the contrasts of register, especially between Simon Keenlyside’s majestic baritone Prospero and Cyndia Sieden’s stratospheric soprano Ariel, a darting, sprite-like presence: the “five fathoms deep” conclusion of scene six becomes a gossamer keening breath, arresting and mysterious.
The Independent, June 2009
Cyndia Sieden is phenomenal as a stratospherically high coloratura soprano Ariel
The Financial Times, June 2009
… it's hard to think of another singer who could manage the stratospheric writing for Ariel more effortlessly than Cyndia Sieden.
The Guardian, 19 June 2009
Cyndia Sieden finds Shakespearean depth in a role that starts so stratospherically high as to be unintelligible. As the tessitura gradually comes back to earth, so her Ariel becomes ever more human, a flesh and blood creature to be pitied and loved.
CD of the Month. Gramophone, August 2009
For many, the most memorable writing in The Tempest comes attached to Ariel’s vocal high-wire act. Few coloratura sopranos are able to dispatch it like Cyndia Sieden, whose sound lends special colour to the performance …
Gramophone, August 2009