
CD Reviews: Donizetti’s Belisario Opera Rara
“Joyce El-Khoury, as Antonina, Belisario’s wife, is a formidable talent whose open-toned voice allied to vocal sensitivity and characterisation is too rare these days.” -Robert J Farr, MusicWeb-International.com, full review
“Sample a section online of Antonina’s Act 1 cavatina, Sin la tomba, gloriously sung by the young Canadian spinto soprano, Joyce El-Khoury, who crowns her ensuring cabaletta, O desio della vendetta , with a thrilling top D (CD 1, tracks 5 – 7). Likewise the soprano leaves nothing to be desired in her visceral rendering of the opera’s magnificent final scene. Clearly this young lady is destined for a great career.” -William Charlton-Perkins, ArtLink.co.za, full review
“…at the dawn of an especially promising recording career is soprano Joyce El-Khoury, who sings Antonina with a dramatic abandon…. Indeed, Ms. El-Khoury’s performance is refreshingly ‘old-fashioned’ in the sense of bringing to the rôle the kind of take-no-prisoners intensity that was a hallmark of Leyla Gencer’s singing of Antonina. Bel canto leading lady she is, but a delicate songbird Antonina is not, and Ms. El-Khoury discloses at her first entrance that hers will be a performance that neglects none of the character’s less glamorous elements. She also neglects none of Donizetti’s musical demands, filling her performance with stretches of wonderfully stylish singing.” -Joseph Newsome, Voix des Arts, full review.