” …the clear star of the evening was Nadja Michael, who made a spectacular Lyric Opera debut as Lady Macbeth. The slender German singer possesses a big gleaming soprano, evenly produced from top to bottom, and able to encompass the considerable vocal demands of this role. She served notice with an imposing rendering of her opening cavatina, flinging out powerful top notes in Vieni t’affretta, while displaying nimble agility in the ensuing cabaletta, Or tutti sorge. Michael’s performance increased in power and intensity with her lilting, desperate Brindisi and in the dramatic Act 3 duet. Her climactic sleepwalking scene was as beautiful sung as it was sensitively acted, Michael bringing cinematic detailing to the villainess’s disordered mind and encroaching insanity. Michael’s sexy villainess commanded the stage, stalking like a caged lioness, drinking it up in the banquet scene and impatiently grabbing the dagger from Macbeth to finish off King Duncan… ”
Lawrence A. Johnson, www.chicagoclassicalreview.com, 02.10.2010
” …The soprano’s lethal Lady was a fascinating, feral creature, encircling herself with candles during her incantatory first aria, blazing through the second half of “La luce langue” with enough strength to ride the orchestra, turning the sleepwalking scene into a tour de force of vocal and histrionic intensity, … Lyric’s lady had both the lower voice and coloratura for this vocally grueling role. The German soprano delivered a superbly detailed portrayal of evil at its most calculating – you couldn’t take your eyes off her…”
John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, 03.10.2010
” …it was the powerful performance by Nadja Michael as Lady Macbeth that anchored the opera. Michael’s acting produced a wrenching character evolution fueled by guilt. Her fabulous wide-ranging soprano mesmorized us throughout. I was transfixed and thoroughly delighted by the spectacle and the quality of the staging that enhanced the scope of Hampson and Michael’s engaging performances… “
Tom Williams, www.chicagocritic.com, 07.10.2010
” …Lady Macbeth, who tries to shake him out of his terror, tugs on his cloak from below the table, not seeing what he feels and we (alone) see. Her attempt to distract the other guests, always a little strained, is made more difficult in Verdi’s opera. Shakespeare had her dismiss the guests, but Verdi wants to keep them around for the act-ending chorus of mixed emotions. This “Lady” (as Verdi referred to her) does this by getting nervously tipsy, giving variety to her repetition of the drinking song (drinking she exemplifies as well as encourages). The scene is brilliantly sung and acted by the German mezzo-turned-soprano Nadja Michael. Her nervous drunkenness continued a subtle characterization that Gaines induced to foreshadow the final crackup in her sleep-walking mad scene… ”
Garry Wills, www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog, 18.10.2010
” …Nadja Michael was THE Lady Macbeth you would want to see in this opera. She had the commanding presence of a stage diva, with the vocal prowess to support it … Michael’s Lady Macbeth was a triumph. The Wagnerian largess of her voice, even through dark and expansive chest tone, is completely satisfying in this role… ”
www.ialmonteviews.blogspot.com, 02.10.2010
” …Nadja Michael (Lady Macbeth) drove her husband to kill and nearly did the same to me. Her first act arias proved her ability to sing “like a banshee” while slinking around and writhing like Gozer, the destructor. She’s one you either love or hate, and for me, unfortunately, I loathed having her on stage, flaunting her hot bod and wailing hysterically. [For her curtain call, nearly half the audience stood.] … All that being said, her Act IV aria was bone-chillingly haunting; I finally felt sympathetic to her character, whom I had been killing off in my head since the beginning…”
Evan Kuchar, www. chicagonow.com/blogs/beyond-words, 06.10.2010