REVIEWS ARE IN: Les Martyrs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
“Joyce El-Khoury was absolutely stunning in the role of Pauline, as demanding a role as Polyeucte. She has the ability to pluck pianissimi from thin air, while at full tilt, her soprano has tremendous agility and power. Her Act I aria “O toi, qui fus témoin de l’amour de Sévère” displayed these qualities in abundance.”
-BachTrack
“Best of all was Joyce El Khoury as Poliuto’s tormented wife…she sang with sparkling clarity and stylistic sensitivity.”
-Telegraph
“Joyce El-Khoury’s soprano flamed fearlessly, but could also taper off into an exquisitely vulnerable half-voice.”
– London Times
“The evening’s linchpin, though, was the glorious and practically uninterrupted singing of Joyce El-Khoury. The sole female singer among five men, this silver-toned soprano sustained the steady beauty of her delivery throughout a giddy spread of coloratura peaks and quicksilver dynamic switches.”
-Whatsonstage
“impressive, sung in a big, glinting, mettlesome soprano that gained in focus to meet all the role’s demands.”
– The Guardian
“The role of Pauline varied between dramatic declamation and ravishingly elaborated coloratura; it seemed as if Pauline’s response to stress was to break out in roulades. El-Khoury not only sang these beautifully, but used her lovely smoky voice to give dramatic weight to Pauline’s more vehement moments. You could imagine the role being sung with more weight and bite, but the original Pauline was Julie Dorus-Gras who created Berlioz’s Teresa and Eudoxie in Halevy’s La Juive – both roles with roulades galore. El-Khoury brought dramatic commitment as well as technical poise to create a highly sympathetic and ravishing performance.”
-Opera Today
“Joyce El-Khoury sang Pauline, Polyeucte’s wife. Her part is blessed with some very beautiful moments, some decorated by superb writing for the two harps, passages which had the ethereal quality of light: divine light, perhaps, because Pauline has to choose against her father, her faith and her place in Roman society. El-Koury (who impressed in Opera Rara’s Donizetti Belisaro) negotiated the elaborate trills and passagework that create Pauline’s feminine sensibility.”
-Classical Iconoclast