Reviews

Opera Magazine: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"As for Kathryn Lewek, she is fabulous in the title role: her technique is superlative, with a school trill, exceptionally smooth vocalizations and amazing high notes, but more willingly delivered pianississimo, even pianississimo or filés, rather than fortissimo. A tightrope walker’s art - including on stage - of total mastery, which never seeks the exploit, but always the most accurate theatrical and psychological expression."

Ôlyrix: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"The Lucia of the American coloratura soprano Kathryn Lewek offers a physical, vocal and expressive composition in a concentration of emotion and sensitivity, from coloratura pyrotechnics (high notes, trills, vocalizations) to quasi-veridical dramatism (realistic in snatches of speech, cries, sighs and whispers, sketches of onomatopoeia). A whole precious repertoire is brought together during the dementia scene. Her physical presence, in the costumes that hinder her, is strong, valiant. Her timbre combines the flower and the fruit of the cherry tree, ethereal and pulpy with, around the hard core of her craft, a cantabile (singing) animated by light vibratos. They streak through the air like little paper planes."

- Ôlyrix

Crescendo: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

We discover an exceptional Lucia played by the American soprano Kathryn Lewek. She is breathtaking in her mastery of the vocal line as well as in the art of vocalization. Her range of nuances and pianissimi are produced with magnificent tones. Every word is articulated to the full. She has flawless technique, power and subtlety, which she combines with an overwhelming stage presence. In the famous aria of madness, there are even more ghostly and hallucinatory lights and shadows in her voice. Pure ecstasy that flies away in a vocal whirlwind. She sings like the sopranos of the past.

- Crescendo

Bachtrack: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"The latter gives an emotional Lucia: her cries, vocalisations and vibratos are always subtle and without exuberance. At the end of the second act, a slight agitation is felt in the audience: "it is the aria of madness", one hears whispering discreetly. Indeed, the highlight of the show has come! The soprano, in the grip of hallucinations, strings together ornaments without losing her finesse."

- Bachtrack

Toute La Culture: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"Kathryn Lewek is an overwhelming Lucia. In her great arias, so eagerly awaited by the public and heard so many times by unforgettable artists, she is very modest. Indeed, she does not seek the admiration of the audience, even in the most difficult notes. She does not pose, but interprets her role with great finesse, supported by the delicate direction of Andriy Yurkevich. The soprano gives voice to the full range of emotions that her character feels. Lucia is only "mad" in the last act; before that she is in turn a lover, a rebellious woman who dares to confront the law of men, to go beyond the rights that are deigned to grant her."

- Toute la Culture

ResMusica: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"But if one is looking for a particular reason to hear this Lucia, it is to be found above all with the singer of the title role, Kathryn Lewek. With a rather common tone colour, the American attracts with a near-flawless vocal technique (one acidic passing note to be deplored in Quando rapito in estasi, before an exceptional counter-grade!), with a power and a length of breath to make the last treble of the sextet last more than ten seconds! Very clear in the vocalisations and with an impressive capacity to spin the notes, the soprano sometimes reminds us of Sutherland by her dramatic coloratura style, and provides a real bel canto lesson until the madness scene!"

- ResMusica

Première Loge: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"Kathryn Lewek is no stranger to French audiences, having recently played a memorable Queen of the Night at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (a role she will soon reprise at the Metropolitan Opera). Her technical perfection (precision of the coloratura, assurance of the high notes, mastery of the tessitura over its entire range) as well as her sensitivity (cantabile of "Regnava il silenzio" or of "Alfin son tua") or her dramatic sense (her scene of madness is far from being reduced to a simple lesson of "beautiful singing" but really impresses by its dramatic commitment) earns the singer a triumph. The voice being particularly wide and of equal projection over the whole range, theatre directors would be well advised to offer her the Donizetti queens, where she would undoubtedly be extremely convincing - and for which the incumbents are today not legio"

- Première Loge

Diapaso: Lucia Opera de Nice 2023

"No Lucia di Lammermoor without a prima donna. In Nice, Kathryn Lewek takes the title role and triumphs. By an incandescent art of embodiment, with a seasoned Belcanto science, with unified registers, a stratospheric treble extending a fleshy midrange whose small vibrating grain makes an impeccably held line throb."

- Diapaso

Die Zauberflöte – The Metropolitan Opera 2018

“Lewek has to be the finest contemporary Queen of the Night, bar none. Her two main appearances were spectacular—along with the chops, she brings a fierceness and vocal excitement to the role, a great balance of camp and seriousness. This shorter version means the Queen’s appearances have larger proportions, and with her giant, dazzling wings, Lewek counterbalanced the comedy with darkness.”
– New York Classical Review

Lucia di Lammermoor

“With a rounded yet clear tone, a silvery upper register, incredible flexibility, and never-fail control, Lewek is a natural fit for the role. Moreover, her acting matches her wondrous voice — lots of physicality, strong stage presence, an ability to go the dramatic distance.”
– The Blade

Benvenuto Cellini

“But in my opinion, the most perfect casting was the choice of Kathryn Lewek as the innocent, lovely but playful and spirited Teresa. Lewek’s pure, beautifully clear voice and emotional range was wonderful to experience”
– Barcelona Metropolitan

Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail

“In Constance’s tour-de-force aria "Martern aller Arten," Kathryn Lewek really shows off astonishing bell-pure fluency and virtuosity.”
– Die Welt

Ariodante

“In addition to Bartoli's Ariodante, the role of the Ginevra is a vocal sensation: the American Kathryn Lewek dominates the merciless radiance of the princess, as well as the tragic injuries of the father's prisoner.
Breathtaking in the lines of the music, which is evenly distributed into the highest regions, the intonation was unbreakable, the legato and the alternation of the register, the uniquely shimmering yet firm quality, the intensity of the melting of the sound, Charming grace.
Such a rich (and richly differentiated) soprano voice could not be experienced for a long time”
– Salzburger Nachrichten

Ariodante

“The singing star of the evening may have been Ginevra. Kathryn Lewek, an American coloratura, was very convincing with impressive security and vocal variations, culminating in the intimate Io ti bacio, o mano augusta, in which she is condemned to death by her father (bass Nathan Berg) and his strict but wavering hand between father-love and state reasons.”
– Die Tagespot

Queen of the Night

“Soprano Kathryn Lewek was spectacular in the role. The character’s arias have a fame far beyond their dramatic context, and the bravura technique they demand exhilarates audiences. Yet her singing was exciting beyond sheer articulation, intonation, breath-support, and color—she was fully in character throughout, expressing first benevolent superiority in “O zittre nicht, mein liber Sohn”, then power, finally malevolence. Her Act II aria, “Der Holle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen,” was blistering and thrilling, making one hold one’s breath until the final note.”
– New York Classical Review

The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera

"Kathryn Lewek, who made her company debut as the Queen in 2013, did a remarkable job in all aspects of her fearsome music. The tone, consistently rounded and attractive, has sufficient thrust not only for the fireworks—including five stellar high Fs—but for the weightier "Zum Leiden"; the musical challenges, triplets and all, were aced with seeming ease. Lewek's Act II aria won the sustained cheers that her first had also merited.”
– David Shengold

Ariodante

“Kathryn Lewek brings to light all the facets of her stupendous virtuosity. The loneliness, turmoil, and modern ego-abandon that Kathryn Lewek has to put into the three arias of the last tragic scene before the happy ending moved us to tears.”
– Dreh Punkt Kultur

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

“Not only did Lewek reach higher notes in her coloratura flights, she also conspired to deliver more comedy. From the moment she launched into the famed "Una voce poco fa," proclaiming Rosina's devilish tendencies, it was obvious the Lewek was capable of meeting the pyrotechnical demands of this showpiece. … Lewek delivers these passages with sudden surges in volume to enhance the effect. Sensational and comically seductive at the same time.”
– Broadway World

Messiah

"...the standout of the evening was the soprano Kathryn Lewek...Ms. Lewek’s soprano has an appealing weight and warmth across its range, with blooming, unforced top notes. Combined with voluptuous phrasing and careful attention to the text, those qualities gave each of her solos lasting emotional resonance."
– The New York Times