wiener staatsoper: thomas adès: the tempest: ariel
Thomas Adès's score compares all performers with implausible musical difficulties, both in terms of rhythms and tessitures or ambitus, but the whole distribution overcomes them with admirable aplomb. Actually, it is hard to believe that it is possible to sing so divinely the trebles and extreme intervals that Ades has composed for the melancholy aerial spirit Ariel. Not only is the young Norwegian Caroline Wettergreen not dizzy when she is suspended from a gigantic chandelier that overlooks the scene or when she stands in equilibrium on a deck, but she tries and peppers like a bird, climbing the stratospheric colors of the score with phenomenal ease.
- Opera Online
Caroline Wettergreen, as Ariel, masters the heights of the tones just as confidently as the acrobatic demands of flying as a metallic bird above the good State Opera choir.
- Der Standard
By far the most demanding role has to be tackled by the Norwegian coloratura soprano Caroline Wettergreen. As Ariel, she sings heavenly beautiful. Her voice is extremely supple and bright in her house debut, but the singer is also physically challenged when she floats across the stage as a ghost.
- Online Merker
The singing ensemble is presented with crazy tasks by Ades, both in terms of rhythm and the extreme tessitura - the vocal range. The ensemble solves it with admirable aplomb: it's actually hard to believe that you can actually sing such highs and such extreme intervals as Ades devised for the air spirit Ariel. But the young Caroline Wettergreen is not only free from giddiness, for example when hanging from the huge chandelier, but can also chirp and twirl like a bird a climb the stratospheric coloratura cascades with phenomenal bravura.
- Kurier
Prospero's helper is the air spirit Ariel. For the singer, Adés came up with coloratura at extreme altitudes - in contrast, the Queen of the Night's arias almost seem like simple etudes. Caroline Wettergreen overcomes the challenge in a remarkably safe manner. The fact that she also has to complete difficult gymnastics exercises has increased my respect for her performance even more.
- Klassik Begeistert
Caroline Wettergreen was an impressive air spirit. Her Ariel gyrated through the stage set, swung in chandeliers while producing the prescribed notes, transformed herself into a griffin - in short, she was present throughout the evening as Prospero's alter ego.
- Der Merker
