Page 3 – Joyce El-Khoury

Let me start with the star of the evening: Joyce El-Khoury. She began learning the role only a few weeks ago, after the announcement of Marina Rebeka’s withdrawal. And let me tell you—learning such a massive role in just fifteen days is no easy feat, especially in a grand opera like Les Vêpres, which lasts over 3 hours and where Hélène’s part is both central and relentless! The challenge must have been immense, but she pulled it off. She embraced the role, delivered magnificent love duets, and crowned it all with a soaring, breathtaking final aria.

– Opera Diary

El-Khoury's Médée was both a vocal and dramatic triumph. From her first appearance, El-Khoury's magnetic stage presence was further enhanced by her wearing an elegant Middle Eastern kaftan...El-Khoury used her beautiful lyric soprano to convey a complex Médée. She is attractive and feminine, yet regal and strong-willed. El-Khourv's diction was impeccable...one could have mistaken her for a French stage actress. Importantly, her acting was natural, never stylized.

– La Scena Musicale

Joyce El-Khoury’s Médée captivated from first to last, her ‘Vous voyez de vos fils’ mesmerising, shot through with steel. El-Khoury’s acting was of both body and voice…El-Khoury made the opera’s terrifying climax unforgettable.

– Gramophone Magazine

Inspirée par la mise en scène, la Médée littéralement habitée de Joyce El-Khoury possède une voix aussi large que longue de tragédienne.

– Le Figaro

13may7:00 pmStiffelioMusik Theater an der Wien

Event Details

Joyce debuts the role Lina in Giuseppe Verdi’s Stiffelio, adding to her vast experience in the Verdian repertoire.

Click here for ticket and production information.

Theater an der Wien: “After returning from a trip, Stiffelio discovers that his wife Lina has cheated on him with the nobleman Raffaele. His immediate impulse is to avenge the deed, but as pastor of a Protestant Baptist congregation, he must justify any decision not only to himself, but also to God and to the people whose role models he is supposed to be, and gets into a deep conflict. Composed immediately before his “Trilogia popolare”, Giuseppe Verdi, with Stiffelio, places such an ambivalent anti-hero at the center of the events that both the censorship authority and the audience were initially overwhelmed by the work premiered in 1850. Also in the 21st. With his partly changed canon of values, Stiffelio’s tornness between what he wants to be and what he must be remains of challenging topicality. As director, Vasily Barkhatov returns to the MusikTheater an der Wien after his interpretations of Der Idiot and Norma, while the conductor Jérémie Rhorer continues his exploration of the undeveloped repertoire of Romanticism after Les Martyrs.”