Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice - Aria: Senza un addio?
Steffani Duets of Love and Passion with the Boston Early Music Festival - Winner of the Diapason d'Or, January 2018
Serpina in La Serva Padron, Boston Early Music Festival, 2017. Photo credit: Kathy Wittman
"Soprano Amanda Forsythe was dynamic and self-possessed in some of the showpiece arias heard on her new solo Handel album with the group. Her staccato...
Photo Credit: Arielle Doneson
Amour in Gluck's Orphée (with Juan Diego Florez) at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

"The outstanding young American soprano Amanda Forsythe is pursuing a flourishing stage, concert and recording career to great acclaim..Forsythe’s lovely soprano offers clarity of timbre, fleet coloratura, accurate intervals—and considerable creativity and range in decorations. Fans of Handel’s operas and this remarkably accomplished soprano will definitely want to hear this recording"

Opera News/ David Shengold

 

"This is Amanda Forsythe’s first and long overdue solo recording of Baroque music...Forsythe shows here why she deserves top rank. Her agility, her invention and her voice - a straight core sound wrapped in luminous timbres - are remarkable. Her programme alternates familiar with unfamiliar Handel arias, all fine showcases for her strengths. Particularly in allegro moods, Forsythe sets arias on fire; her handling of war-horses like ‘Da Tempeste’ (Guilio Cesare) will amaze even the jaded connoisseur...Forsythe’s stunning execution makes this a disc worth having."

 BBC Music Magazine/ Berta Joncus

 

“It is no mean feat to produce a Handel opera aria recital containing two of Cleopatra’s most popular showpieces (‘Piangerò la sorte mia’ and ‘Da tempeste’) and also Morgana’s flashy ‘Tornami a vagheggiar’ without things running on autopilot, but Amanda Forsythe’s intelligent and characterful singing means there’s no risk of these being merely yet another slog through audition warhorses. [In] the shepherdess Dorinda’s exasperated mockery about the folly of love (‘Amor è qual vento’)...Forsythe’s sparkling delivery shares a knowing wink. The lightweight top-heavy orchestral balance...works elegantly in Partenope’s whimsical observations on the vagaries of romantic attraction in ‘Qual farfalletta’ – and in both of these arias Forsythe’s lightly nonchalant delivery of Martin Pearlman’s embellishments is dazzling.“  

Gramophone/ David Vickers

 

"It is a joy to hear a singer rethinking much of this familiar music without ever distorting it, such that the CD’s 55 minutes of singing truly impresses like a first hearing. And you never tire of Forsythe, as you might with other light-and-high-voiced singers. A bauble such as Atalanta’s flirtatious “Un cenno leggiadretto” from Serse has such character that it enchants anew. She has no fear of leaning on her voice but she never forces or makes an ugly sound; drama comes from inflection and diction."

Classics Today/ Robert Levine

 

"…young American soprano Amanda Forsythe has proved that she's one to watch. This new album only reinforces that – a collection of Handel arias that balances glossy coloratura brilliance with real tragic dignity and poise. It's a heady combination."  

Sinfini Music/ Alexandra Coghlan

 

"There’s not much about Amanda Forsythe’s new album, The Power of Love, a collection of arias from eight Handel operas and the ballet suite from Terpsichore, that, from the first downbeat, doesn’t impress. Forsythe sings this repertoire with such sure technique, dramatic understanding, and tasteful embellishment that it’s hard to escape the feeling that she simply owns this music. And so she does, at least for this album, which, from the opening “Amor è qual vento” (from Orlando) to the concluding “De Tempeste” (from Giulio Cesare), places her spectacular coloratura front and center."

The Arts Fuse/ Jonathan Blumhofer

 

"This is a thoroughly enjoyable disc. Amanda Forsythe has a bright, agile and flexible soprano, at home equally in the passionate music for Almira or Armida (Rinaldo), the dramatic depths and heights of Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) and the teasing cynicism of Atalanta (Serse). She displays formidable technique, for example in the precise semiquaver runs in the B section of ‘Piangero’ and also in the remarkable range of vocal colour she brings to Agilea’s deceptively simple continuo-accompanied ‘Amarti si vorrei’ which (as so often with Handel) packs an overwhelming emotional punch."

Early Music Review/ Alastair Harpe

 

"Start with the second track of this excellent survey of George Frideric Handel’s expertise in writing for the soprano voice and its realization through the supple vocal chords of Amanda Forsythe. “Geloso tormento,” from Almira, the 19-year-old composer’s first opera, shows how ravishingly Handel and Forsythe can depict both rage and lament in the course of a single aria...Amanda Forsythe is simply astonishing in her vocal acrobatics, most impressively in the aria “Tornami A Vaghegglar” from Alcina, bedecked with dazzling melismas and ornaments."

Cleveland Classical/ Daniel Hathaway

 

"Soprano venue des Etats-Unis, Amanda Forsythe se distingue de certaines de ses consœurs par une qualité de timbre qui exclut toute froideur, un chant dénué de cette impassibilité qu’on a pu reprocher à quelques-unes de ses aînées. La soprano américaine a de nombreux atouts à faire valoir : la virtuosité, bien sûr (très orné dans sa reprise, « Tornami a vagheggiar » tourne un peu à l’air d’Olympia…), mais aussi le fruité de son timbre et une réelle capacité à faire passer une émotion dans son chant."

Forum Opera/ Laurent Bury

 

"Amanda Forsythe is een geraffineerde, luisterrijke en expressieve zangeres. Haar versieringen zijn prachtig beheerst en glanzend."

Opera Nederland