El-Khoury “deftly navigated the arc from youthful passion to mature, steely resolve. She has a voice tailor-made for the composer’s melodic flights.” – -Toronto Star
Let us say it right away: the performance of the Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury is miraculous. In the fire of the live performance, all the imperfections which could be a bother in a recording become assets. We’re left open-mouthed with admiration: the infinite length of her breath, the science of chiaroscuro, her projection in the high register, the quality of her pianissimo, the variety of accents, by turns strong and vulnerable, included in the extraordinarily lively recits, like we haven’t heard them since Callas. As for the bewitching cantilena, no Imogene had reached such heights since Caballé! – -OPÉRA Magazine, translated from French (Bellini's Il pirata, Opéra National de Bordeaux)
“…the infinite length of the breath, the science of chiaroscuro, the projection of the treble, the quality of the pianissimi, the variety of accents, in turn authoritarian and vulnerable, including in extraordinarily lively recitatives, as we had not heard them since Maria Callas. As for the bewitching final cantilene (<<Col sorriso d’innocenza>>) no Imogene had reached such summits since Montserrat Caballé.” – -OPÉRA Magazine, translated from French (Bellini's Il pirata, Opéra National de Bordeaux)
The soprano Joyce ElKhoury interprets Imogene with a highly placed voice. Her limpid timber swells with emotion in the lower register and in the piano moments, with a thread like sound fleeing from her nearly closed mouth. In a palpitating finale, her acting talents, unbothered by any mise en scene, are shining: her eyes cry, hope, lose themselves and beg in the folly of a character too virtuous to live her illegitimate love, but too in love to live without him. – Olyrix, translated from French
