It takes a brave singer to present a programme in which not a single song is a popular favourite. But Sarah Connolly is such a revered artist that she can draw a near-capacity audience at Wigmore Hall for an exploration of the byways of the French repertoire. Whether many in the audience would choose to revisit those particular chemins, given the opportunity, is a moot point.  The texts of the opening Roussel group spoke of balmy nights, trembling grass and whispering gardens. There was a hint of sensuality in Nuit d’Automne (so warm was the autumn night that “you could fall asleep naked”) but Roussel’s music is restrained to a fault. In Fauré’s late song cycle Le Jardin Clos (The Walled Garden), passion is also kept well below the surface. The melodic lines and harmonies are as fragile as the imagery (a bird on the sea, a sleeping fairy). The rich, sensuous piano sonorities of Dans la Nymphée (In the Grotto) evoke the presence of a lover but it turns out to be a dream. There are brief flashes of passion but the ardour of the younger Fauré has given way to renunciation. All this makes for something of a challenge for the performer. Connolly knows how to make the most of subtle nuances and half-lights but it was difficult to feel that these songs exploited her full expressive potential. The first half ended with Chausson’s Chanson Perpetuelle, in which the only outburst of passion is generated by the absence of the lover. No wonder those impressionable young Frenchmen such as Chausson and Chabrier fell under the spell of Wagner, sobbing uncontrollably and fainting at performances of Tristan und Isolde. But we heard nothing of them in unbuttoned mode. Instead, after the interval, we had five pithy songs by Honegger, Petit Cours de Morale of 1941. Then came three Lorca settings by Poulenc, dismissed even by the composer as “of little importance”. André Caplet’s La Croix Douloureuse (The Cross of Pain) inhabits a similar world to Debussy’s The Martyrdom of St Sebastian, where mortification and pain are the spurs to passion. Satie’s Three Love Poems to his  own texts are knowing and characteristically dispassionate but even Connolly was hard put to it to stimulate any appreciative response. A final group by Turina, written after his return from Paris to Spain, raised the emotional temperature by a degree or two. Consummate artistry from Connolly, ably accompanied by Malcolm Martineau, and a programme of undeniable rarity value. Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 02 May 2013

The towering central performance of Sarah Connolly. Singing with coruscating power, acting with white-hot intensity, she makes Medea’s journey from mother to monster, via jealousy and humiliation, nightmarishly plausible.

Richard Morrison, The Times, 17 February 2013

Connolly, at the peak of her powers, has done nothing finer: she takes us with her every step of the way on a terrifying emotional journey.

Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 17 February 2013

Sarah Connolly carries all before her in the title-role: here is an artist majestically in her prime, singing with total technical assurance and radiating baneful charisma.

Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 17 February 2013

Sarah Connolly is excellent at stepping up to the extraordinariness of the role: her singing, along with her dramatic presence, is the indispensable factor of the show.

Matthew Ingleby, Play to See, 16 February 2013

A power-suited Sarah Connolly stands apart. Her Medea chafes against the confines of her role and gender, exploited then discarded at the whim of a libidinous husband. Vocally dwarfing her colleagues, her struggle to repress herself into this world of social hierarchies is mirrored visually and musically. Forging her own path through Charpentier’s fluid tempo-transitions and moods, she never lets her hand slip from the psychological string that guides us through the endless corners and corridors of recit. Her miniature aria of grief once Jason’s abandonment is certain coaxes tears, while her final invocation of the forces of Hell partners that earlier fragility with a reckless blood-lust. We feel for her, even as we know the small, pyjama-clad bodies are coming, and in her final ascent (not descent, interestingly) to darkness she is at once magnificent and horrifying.

Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk, 16 February 2013

The disintegration from the elegantly coiffed princess of the first act to the dishevelled harpy summoning the powers of hell to avenge her showed the singer at her formidable best. In the big aria “Is this what love is worth?” Connolly vividly evokes a woman losing her grip on all that she values and turning to the path of utter destructive fury.

Sebastian Petit, Opera Britannia, 16 February 2013

In the title role Sarah Connolly was on fire. Over the course of a gripping staging the formidable mezzo-soprano descended from sophisticated power-dresser to bug-eyed monster, and she did so with utter conviction each step of the way towards her final coup de théâtre. Her singing was not only beautiful it was also alive to every nuance both in the score and in Christopher Cowell’s excellent translation. “Vengeance must learn to wear a mask” declares Medea early on – which is exactly what Connolly did until the moment when, blade in hand, she ripped the mask away and all Hades broke loose.

Mark Valencia, Classical Source, 16 February 2013

The A-list cast is, as one would hope, A-list magnificent. As Medea, Sarah Connolly is at her vocal and dramatic best, with a powerful and technically superb voice that conveys Medea’s rage and anguish – she stands out even amongst a stellar cast. 

Julia Savage, Bachtrack.com, 18 February 2013

The first thing that must be said of this UK stage premiere is that Connolly’s presence in it is its greatest strength. The word “presence” is overused but in her case the voice and manner exude it. Her commitment to each idea, each word, each musical inflection has been thought and felt through – and when she is not on the stage you feel her in absentia.

Edward Seckerson, 16 February 2013

In an opera peopled by morally frail, dishonest men, Sarah Connolly portrays Medea as a powerful heroine driven by a combination of fiery anger, eloquent finesse and sharp intelligence. From the opening of Act 1 the profound depths of her character are evident: her passionate love, her jealousy, her pride, her tenderness. It is the powers at her command which set her apart, as is evident in the pulsing accompaniment of her first recitative and the tempestuous cascading string lines which frame it. Her softer side is revealed in Act 2, accompanied by strings and dulcet recorders, preparing us for the pathos of her brutal, inhuman murder of her children in order to inflict pain upon the man who has rejected her. Connolly’s compassion as a mother was evident throughout Act 2, and her powerful soliloquies in Act 3, when she laments Jason’s betrayal and the futility of her love and loyalty, evoked tender empathy in the audience, before her invocation of Satanic darkness injected her thoughtfulness with a terrifying, nihilistic blackness, inspiring both terror and wonder. In her aria-moments Connolly combined warm, shapely lyricism with an elegant declamation of the text, ever alert to Charpentier’s unique arioso which is itself responsive to both word and affekt.

Claire Seymour, Opera Today, 17 February 2013

[Charpentier's Medea] provides a gift of a vehicle for one of our great singing actresses, Sarah Connolly. She’s not a woman to be trifled with, and Charpentier charts her spiralling descent from insecure lover to unhinged filicide in music of extraordinary emotional power. Connolly’s assumption of the role is not only characterised by singing of immense beauty but she even manages (with the help of Euripides and Charpentier) to make us sympathise with this wronged woman.

Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 18 February 2013

Connolly gives a performance which is at once commanding and heart-rending: the long recitative in which she is transformed from a scorned and self-harming wife into an avenging fury has blistering authenticity...her singing – with its very high tessitura - is a delight.

Michael Church, The Independent, 18 February 2013

Sarah Connolly on magnificent form as Medea.

William Hartston, The Express, 18 February 2013

Sarah Connolly’s business-suited interpretation is still and steely, gradually ratcheting up the tension, as injustice at her husband’s infidelity eats at her soul and unthinkable violence becomes her only resort.

Simon Thomas, What's on Stage, 19 February 2013

It was Sarah Connolly who suggested Charpentier to the management, and there is no mezzo-soprano today better equipped to impersonate his monster-mother from Greek mythology. Connolly’s refined timbre and sure musical instincts are the ideal medium for Charpentier’s highly charged but chaste idiom. Thanks to her skill at harmonising the human qualities of the part in the first two acts with its heinous qualities in the last two, Connolly enjoys a deserved triumph.

Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 18 February 2013

Connolly's incandescent performance may have been the largest single factor in the production's success..  
That act belonged wholesale to Connolly, who in both voice and bearing brought a sense of vulnerable humanity into her imperious performance. Erica Jeal, Opera, April 2013

As often happens, though, the Angel stole the show. Sarah Connolly sang superbly, at one point investing the word “Alleluia” with such radiant humanity that all trace of religiosity evaporated. Evening Standard, 28 January 2013

Sarah Connolly is, as it were, one of The Dream of Gerontius’s archangels. She sang with her characteristic warmth and radiance, giving a gentle momentum to the Angel’s dialogue with Gerontius and, at the end of "Softly and gently", fading her voice into the choir’s to magical effect. What a consistently wonderful artist she is. Peter Reed, Classical Source, 26 January 2013

...the arc of her performance was fully considered and all the more powerful for it. ‘Yes – for one moment thou shalt see thy Lord,’ offered perhaps the most radiant singing of the evening, though I might equally have said that of her final solo, ‘Softly and gently, dearly-ransomed soul’. Seen & Heard, 27 January 2013

If there’s a better Angel singing today, I have yet to hear them. Church-pure and Wagner-large by turns, Connolly’s “Alleluia” is a prayer that would move the sternest God, thrumming as the emotional pulse of the performance. Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk, 27 January 2013

Sarah Connolly was the Angel, beautifully poised and sung... Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 28 January 2013

The evening’s best performance undoubtedly came from Sarah Connolly, whose impeccable Fricka must have had Wagner sighing contentedly in whatever corner of hell he has been assigned - 'that’s how I meant my music to be sung'. Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 27 September 2012

[Terfel] has, in Sarah Connolly, the ideal Fricka. She shows us how complex the character is, just as eager to lay hands on the ring as a delightful adornment as she is to ensure that her sister Freia shouldn’t be used to pay the giants for Valhalla, still finding her husband attractive and making physical contact with him whenever possible. Connolly’s voice is now quite large, and incredibly lovely, so that Fricka takes on a fullness that we aren’t usually shown. Michael Tanner, The Spectator, 06 October 2012

In an inspired piece of casting, Sarah Connolly plays [Terfel's] consort, Fricka. Barry Millington, The Evening Standard, 27 September 2012

Sarah Connolly’s grand-scale Fricka easily quashes Terfel’s Wotan in their matrimonial dispute in 'Die Walküre'. George Hall, The Stage, 02 October 2012

Sarah Connolly's gorgeous Fricka Paul Levy, Wall Street Journal, 04 October 2012

Sarah Connolly cements an outstanding role debut as Fricka. Erica Jeal, The Guardian, 27 September 2012

Warner’s take on ‘Die Walküre’, a superbly assured conception, triggers the most exquisite suffering, via the agency of Sarah Connolly’s coldly censorious Fricka. Michael Church, The Independent, 27 September 2012

Sarah Connolly’s gleamingly sung Fricka Neil Fisher, The Times, 25 September 2012

Sarah Connolly sang her first Fricka with eloquent legato. Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 27 September 2012

Many singers are new to the production, and none makes more of an impression than Sarah Connolly, who brings to Fricka a vocal richness and intensity of presence that hints at an unusually gripping power struggle to come between her and Wotan. Erica Jeal, The Guardian, 25 September 2012

Fricka, is newly cast: Sarah Connolly gives notice of a fine assumption to come with her natural sense of line. Barry Millington, The Evening Standard, 25 September 2012

Sarah Connolly makes a dignified Fricka. Richard Fairman, The Financial Times, 25 September 201

Sesto’s sublime aria 'Deh per questo istante solo', sung with supreme eloquence by the mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.  George Loomis, New York Times, 19 July 2011

Dominating the stage throughout was Sarah Connolly’s imperious Sesto, almost unrecognizable in frock coat in what must surely be the finest thing she has ever done.  I will long treasure her ‘Parto Parto’... Peter Brown, Musical Opinion, September/October 2011

The Aix Festival rounded out its opening week with a stellar performance by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly...who virtually walks away with the show—tall, lithe and totally in command, vocally and dramatically, in the trouser role of Sesto. Judy Fayard, Wall Street Journal, 14 July 2011

…glorious singing from Sarah Connolly. Francis Carlin, Financial Times, 08 July 2011

Titus règne, mais c’est Sesto qui triomphe !  La distribution est dominée par le Sesto de Sarah Connolly, magistralement tenu, tant sur le plan scénique que vocal : très à l’aise dans son costume masculin, elle aborde le rôle avec une palette de couleurs extrêmement large, qui lui permet de rendre, avec de subtiles nuances, tous les états d’âme par lesquels passe le personnage. Des moyens vocaux sans faille (magnifiques vocalises en duo avec la clarinette dans l’air 'Parto, parto', suscitent à la fois l’émotion et l’admiration du public. Claude Jottrand, Forum Opera, 13 July 2011

Sarah Connolly’s Sesto, macho, seductive and wonderfully sung. Hugo Shirley, The Telegraph, 11 July 2011

[an] unforgettable star turn—Sarah Connolly in La clemenza di Tito. Judy Fayard, France Today, 10 July 2011

Jeune et fraîche, la distribution ne manque ni d'abattage et de talent : le Sextus sensible et tragique de Sarah Connolly. Marie-Aude Roux, Le Monde, 09 July 2011

Du coup, la soirée reposa presque entièrement sur la mezzo anglaise titulaire du rôle travestis de Sesto – l’admirable Sarah Connolly. Jacques Doucelin, Concert Classic, 07 July 2011

The splendid mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, in excellent form, makes a sympathetic character of Phèdre, whose fatal infatuation with Hippolyte is as repellent to her as it is to everyone else. George Loomis, New York Times, 26 June 2012

Connolly's Rofrano is a wonder Russ McDonald, Opera, April 2012

Octavian is Sarah Connolly, who now defines this production just as her role defines and names the opera. The voice is in perfect form: immaculately groomed, deliciously and darkly tinting every ensemble [and] her hilariously laconic and refractory northern wench in the company of Baron Ochs in Act III is a huge treat. Donald Cooper, The Times, 30 January

It would be hard to better Sarah Connolly’s beautifully sung and breezily boyish Octavian.  Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 03 February 2012

Connolly’s superbly rangy and virile Octavian...[she] is now peerless in the role... Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 29 January 2012

Mezzo Sarah Connolly is Octavian, the dashing cavalier of the title. With her youthful swagger and luxurious voice, she commands the stage. Warwick Thompson, Bloomberg, 03 February 2012

Sarah Connolly, [is] superb here and throughout the course of an opera that she and her character dominate. Mark Valencia, What's on Stage, 01 February 2012

Sarah Connolly combines her secure, resonant voice with a range of subtle gestures that perfectly capture the predicaments that Octavian, who becomes the Rosenkavalier, finds himself in. Sam Smith, Londonist, 30 January 2012

Connolly’s glowing Octavian. Her top register is so powerfully resonant that it allows her to reveal this adolescent’s supremely cocky self-assurance. Then, just when you’ve earmarked her character as headstrong, she stops the heart by simply standing still, her eyes filling with tears as the Marschallin gently dismisses her. Connolly also dignifies the problematic third act with wit (and a proper Yorkshire accent) rather than the hammy “comic” overacting beloved of lesser mezzos. David Benedict, The Arts Desk, 30 January 2012

As the Rose Knight of the title, Sarah Connolly succeeds in impersonating a teenage boy, and in the even trickier task of undertaking his impersonation of a girl. It's a neat piece of double cross-dressing. She also reveals Octavian's ardour, petulance and emotional uncertainty, with an endless supply of rich, creamy tone. George Hall, The Guardian, 02 February 2012

Sarah Connolly inhabits the eponymous envoy’s breeches with total authority, utterly convincing as the excitable young romancer who learns that the path of true love never quite runs smooth. By turns ebullient and grave, bullish and wistful, Connolly has unostentatiously mastered every nuance of character, even adopting a convincing rural brogue for the Act 3 deception of Ochs. Particularly resounding in her upper register, Connolly’s doubtful hesitation when forced to choose between past and future loves is painfully touching.  Claire Seymour, Opera Today, 08 February 2012

...the excellent Sarah Connolly provides a lovely, intimate reading of 'Urlicht...

David Gutman, Gramophone, January 2012

In short, Connolly and her supersensitive accompanist, Malcolm Martineau, ideally recorded, are throughout simply ideal in this treasurable repertoire. Piers Burton-Page, International Record Review, October 2011

Sarah Connolly, with her clear, fresh mezzo, here tackles a delightful, wide-ranging sequence of English songs...  In all these [she] sings immaculately with impeccably sensitive accompaniment from Malcolm Martineau in sound both clear and perfectly balanced. Edward Greenfield, Gramophone, January 2012

It is good to find an English singer in her prime championing the lesser-known art songs of her native tradition, and making them sound not so much twee as magical: listen to Connolly’s artless handling of Britten’s “Corpus Christi Carol”, the quiet rapture she finds in Howells’s “Kind David”, the fun she has with the Foxtrot from Richard Rodney Bennett’s “History of Thé Dansant”. Accompanied by Malcolm Martineau, Connolly just gets better and better. Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 29 October 2011

One of today’s most intelligent musical mezzo-sopranos, Sarah Connolly is in gloriously fluent and expressive voice for an imaginatively programmed selection of mid 20th-century English song. Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 27 October 2011

Connolly and Martineau make an impressive double act.  The former has performed this material live to glowing reviews, and you can hear why.  Her voice has such a pleasing weight and texture - it is womanly rather than girlish; velvet rather than satin - and her sense of drama is never overstated.  She excels, therefore, in capturing the masculine melancholy of Britten's lullabies and Bennett's brittle, unpredictable scenes from a long marriage.  Martineau responds throughout with charactaristically flawless, subtle and intuitive accompaniment. Anna Britten, Classic FM Magazine, December 2011

Sarah Connolly reveals Phaedra’s stature, summoning such word-sensitivity and classical poise that you wonder why this remarkable piece is not heard more often in the concert hall.  Better still the stage: Connolly turns Racine’s heroine into the protagonist of an imaginary monodrama. Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 28 May 2011

Spurred on by Gardner’s keen sense of theatre, Sarah Connolly goes straight for the drama.  Though there are points where memories of Janet Baker’s very individual accents are impossible to erase, Connolly uses her larger voice and breadth of scale to create a veritable operatic scena. Richard Fairman, Gramophone, July 2011

...her plush mezzo is in prime condition. Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 02 May 2011

Sarah Connolly is tremendous in this new recording…her diction is impeccable and her sense of dramatic involvement is enormously impressive. Connolly is a warm-toned, utterly secure and very touching advocate. Nigel Simeone, International Record Review, May 2011

The ‘Charm’ is a total winner…and phrased by Connolly with alternate tenderness and edginess.

David Nice, BBC Music Magazine, July 2011

... the tragedienne Clairon, played wonderfully by the rich-voiced mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly. Anthony Tomassini, The New York Times, 29 March 2011

The marvelous sounding mezzo Sarah Connolly as full-of-herself actress Clairon. David Finkle, Theater Mania, 30 March 2011

Mezzo Sarah Connolly sings sumptuously and ensures that the famous actress Clairon has ample character. George Loomis, The Classical Review, 29 March 2011

Sarah Connolly gave a sharp edge to the lines of Clairon, the actress... Mike Silverman, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 March 2011

...in the first act – she shaped Mary’s aria of nostalgia with lovely soft-grained tone and firm legato, and spitting pure venom in the fictitious confrontation with Elizabeth – she rose to even greater heights in the second, making the confessional scene with Talbot almost frighteningly intense and bringing the magnificent finale to a thrilling vocal and emotional climax. All her customary musicality was radiantly in evidence: she is an artist incapable of singing a broken or ugly phrase, and her ornamentation was exquisite. She looked wonderful, too, and presented Mary’s fatal impulsiveness with an empathy that stopped short of sentimentalising this enchanting but infuriating character. Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 07 June 2010

...the grand expressivity of Connolly’s singing is outstanding. George Hall, The Stage, 08 June 2010

[Connolly] was on imposing form in a role given iconic status for U.K. audiences when it was sung by Dame Janet Baker at English National Opera more than thirty years ago. Like Baker, Connolly is an artist who stamps her identity strongly on what she sings. Her musical excellence, the characteristic enveloping warmth of her tone and her flexibility of technique allow her an equally wide range of repertoire in which to shine. Yet she is very much her own singer…her tone flowed free and with a potent sense of expressive direction. George Hall, Opera News, October 2010

Sarah Connolly’s Mary looks alluringly pre-Raphaelite in gentle tresses and off-the-shoulder gowns, but it’s her sense of vocal and dramatic address that really impresses, always stressing the character’s inner conviction and her dignity. Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 08 June 2010

Sarah Connolly’s soulful, plangent, sensuous Mary contrasts ideally with Antonia Cifrone’s Elizabeth. Connolly grew in confidence throughout the evening, delivering a magnificent prayer and final scene as she embraces her Catholic martyr’s death, resplendent in her blood-red gown. Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 13 June 2010

Sarah Connolly's loose curls, sensual movements and wistful horn- and harp-warmed cavatina 'O nube, che lieve'.  [She] triumphs in the last scene, singing with grave intelligence and musicality. Anna Picard, The Independent, 13 June 2010

...there's plenty to relish, especially Sarah Connolly's Mary, noble, dignified and fiery. Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 13 June 2010

Both leading ladies give strong and intelligent interpretations.  Connolly engages immediately with her more sympathetic and melodic part, and is especially expressive in her magnificent final prayer. Lynne Walker, The Independent, 08 June 2010

Connolly’s Mary is so memorably characterised that she dominates even the scenes where she is sadistically humiliated by her arch rival. She is a vulnerable, gentle spirit haunted (literally, in this staging) by visions of her murdered hubby. But she musters heroic spirit to seize the riding crop from Elizabeth in their epic confrontation and spit out her majestic but suicidal stream of invective — a moment of white-hot anger echoed visually by a blaze of light so intense that it bleaches out the landscape. It’s as if everything — Mary’s life, the clash of dynasties, the future of England itself — hangs on this one flash of rage, tremendously delivered. Although Connolly sang throughout with intensity, especially in Mary’s heartbreaking prayer before facing her executioner. Richard Morrison, The Times, 07 June 2010

...a remarkable performance, for Connolly’s is a voice that is beautifully modulated, effortless in even the quietest passages. It is also extremely well integrated into her theatrical prowess, which is never less than intense. The most moving moments come when Mary’s execution is a foregone conclusion. Connolly manages a smoothly credible transition from biting anger and bitterness to forgiveness, even serenity. The progress to the scaffold is moving indeed. Martin Dreyer, The York Press, 07 June 2010

Stars are needed, and in Sarah Connolly Opera North has one…Connolly is an expert in wronged queens, an expert in every shade of regret, recrimination, frustration, resignation and acceptance, using her voice like a great string player uses his bow. Michael Tanner, The Spectator, 19 June 2010

In the Prologue the British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly was the Composer, an impassioned young man who takes himself and his art so very seriously. Ms. Connolly, an admirable singer of Handel and Mozart, has been branching into vocally heavier repertory. She brought rich tone and arching lyricism to her performance and got at the essence of this character: a harried, driven and fatalistic young man. Anthony Tomassini, The New York Times, 05 February 2010

Sarah Connolly dominated the prologue as an exceptionally refined Komponist who shaded exquisite top tones. Martin Bernheimer, Financial Times, 08 February 2010

Sarah Connolly gave the Composer the lush tone and control we’ve come to expect from her many pants roles, such as Giulio Cesare and Ariodante. (Connolly does ‘anguished’ particularly well.) Jennifer Melick, Sunday Arts, 12 February 2010

The standout was a young British mezzo, Sarah Connolly, who played the Composer. It is a complex character. The Composer is in anguish because of what is being done to the creation on which he has lavished so much of his talent and blood. Connolly conveys all his unhappiness and frustration beautifully. But then the Composer declares his earnest idealism and devotion to music as a sacred calling. Here she just soared. It was a spectacular performance. I hope we see her often in the years to come. Howard Kissel, The New York Daily News, 17 February 2010

But of the three [principal singers], only one was, for the Metropolitan Opera, at the highest level: Sarah Connolly…she was as purely ardent a Composer as I have heard at the Metropolitan, and such an invocation as ‘Du allmächtiger Gott! O du mein zitterndes Herz’ will linger in memory. Most strikingly, Miss Connolly’s expression of passion was never ‘forced’. Even in the impersonation of a man, Miss Connolly was completely feminine and yielding, and she drew a portrait of a creative artist, neither neurotic nor angry, who embodies all the power and conviction of first love for ‘his’ work. Richard Garmise, Opera Britannia, February 2010

Connolly was irresistibly right this time for the adolescent, idealistic musician, Strauss’s tribute to his beloved Mozart: clumsy-charming and visibly a-quiver when a seated Zerbinetta casually leaned on his knee. Connolly sang the little air to Cupid and the fervent hymn to Music (the two gods, one might say, who preside over this opera) with a fervent delight that reminded more than one listener of Troyanos and was certainly the most enthralling account of the part to be heard at the Met since her day. John Yohalem, Opera Today, 05 March 2010

Sarah Connolly’s Brangäne excelled in the her dialogue with Isolde in Act 1 and in her warning from the watchtower in Act 2.  Lovely singing. Michael Kennedy, Opera, October 2009

Sarah Connolly as Brangäne needs no introduction – what luxury to have her…  Her assumption of the role was everything a thrilling Brangäne should possess: great reserves of power, nobility of bearing and long-breathed melodic lines, and fabulous musicality in everything she attempted (including some soft legato singing where other Brangänes I have heard tend to harden their register). Her voice placement was rock solid and utterly secure – this was a performance to savour. Her diction and articulation, and this was a feature of all the principals, was clear and precise, with great stress being applied to final consonants. In short, a five star Brangäne that I am sure she will go on to sing many times. Mike Reynolds, Musical Criticism, 18 August 2009

Some of the evening’s best singing comes from Sarah Connolly. John Allison, The Sunday Telegraph, 16 August 2009

Sarah Connolly...has found her métier as Brangäne. Richard Fairman, The Financial Times, 09 August 2009

With Sarah Connolly as a wonderfully eloquent Brangäne… Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 07 August 2009

…gloriously confident and expressive singing. Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 07 August 2009

…the Brangäne of Sarah Connolly…whose ‘foolish devotion’ is carried on singing of great passion and amplitude. Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 07 August 2009

Sarah Connolly was superb in the title role, physically persuasive and vocally exuberant, our generation’s Janet Baker. Russ McDonald, Opera Magazine, July 2009

Returning standouts include Sarah Connolly’s sensitive but manly Caesar. George Hall, The Stage, 27 May 2009

[Connolly’s] gentle singing is exquisite and her portrayal of a haughty but susceptible leader riveting. Richard Morrison, The Times, 25 May 2009

The rasp of [Connolly’s] selective chest notes show [Caesar] is no push over. But how sweetly she scales down her delivery in the heady duet with baroque violin, her whistled interpolations no doubt rehearsed and refined in the Glyndebourne gardens. Edward Seckerson, Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2009

Connolly is predictably the musical star, bringing her flawless technique and control to the role of Caesar that is as challenging dramatically as it is vocally. Connolly's strength lies in her beauty of tone, which is sustained to the extremes of her register, and her committed and convincingly understated acting. Alexandra Coghlan, Musical Criticism, 01 June 2009

Sarah Connolly's worldly-wise and reflective Caesar, impeccably sung, is a connoisseur's counterpoint to De Niese's crowd-pleasing Cleopatra. Martin Kettle, The Guardian, 25 May 2009

This was one of the best performances I have seen from her, as she was very credible on stage and sang wonderfully, and was an outstanding Nero. José M. Irurzun, International Seen and Heard Opera Review, 11 February 2009

Sarah Connolly dibujó un Nerone loco y vehemente. Pablo Melendez-Haddad, ABC, 05 February 2009