LES HUGUENOTS - Deutsche Oper Berlin, Premiere on November 13, 2016
Juan Diego Flórez and Olesya Golovneva prove at Deutsche Oper Berlin that there are again the right voices for Giacomo Meyerbeer’s operas … Olesya Golovneva as a sensual Valentine descending to deep mezzo-intimacy and rising easily and surely to the highest coloratura-soprano labyrinths. She nearly stole him the show …
(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Great applause for Juan Diego Flórez and Olesya Golovneva. With the delicate timbre of her bright voice Russian soprano is ideal cast of Valentine.
(Musik heute)
This is only possible, if next to him (Flórez) stands a Valentine like Olesya Golovneva , who is able to show credibly the fragility and finally the determination of this girlish soul...
(Welt)
In Olesya Golovneva Flórez has a adequate and captivating partner with her clear and expressive soprano, both with splendid top notes...
(Der Neue Merker)
Beside the Peruvian star-tenor Flórez Olesya Golovneva excels as Valentine …
(Focus)
The Russian soprano … is absolutely convincing and meets all vocal requirements of the role. In the big duet of act 4 she reminds me a little of Martina Arroyo. Her voice develops great radiance and she even spurs Flórez for a passionate love scene.
(GB Opera Magazine)
Olesya Golovneva is his (Flórez) perfect opposite, with passionate intensity and profound humanity, in a nuanced and moving performance.
(Financial Times)
In Les Huguenots it’s first of all about the stars, virtuoso singers, walking a tightrope without a safety net, demonstrated impressingly in this performance in Berlin by Juan Diego Flórez (and) Olesya Golovneva as Valentine (and Patricia Ciofi). (Online Merker) … Florez and Olesya Golovneva ... are a real dream couple of opera.
(Online Merker)
JOLANTHE - Kölner Philharmonie, October 2014
Kitajenko’s glorious Iolanthe – an opulent, musically touching opera performance at the highest niveau … Young Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva sang a touching Jolanthe and was completely absorbed in her role … an interpretation, in which highest beauty was realised in the most beautiful way …
(Pizzicato)
Olesya Golovneva was stunning in the title role with her clear and in the high register luminously oscillating soprano. The singer started as coloratura soprano, but roles like Natascha and Tatjana mark her stronger roots in the lyric-dramatic repertoire … with her emphatic singing she succeeded in portraying a convincing maiden...
(Der Neue Merker)
LA TRAVIATA - Deutsche Oper am Rhein, February 2014
Olesya Golovenva’s Violetta is a dream: Young, enchanting beautiful and fragile, she cultivates a soprano full of colours with a wonderfully effortless and intense top register, intoxicating pathos and desperate piano – her performance is gorgeous!
(Rheinische Post)
Tender and fragile Olesya Golovneva presents Violetta with enormous intensity and her grandiose art of singing. The soprano is effortless over the whole spectrum, the voice is beautiful and the technique impeccable … It was her grand night...
(Opernfreund)
Standing Ovation for Verdi’s „La Traviata“ at Deutsche Oper am Rhein. With endless bravos the audience cheered especially for Olesya Golovneva...
(Neue Rheinzeitung)
EUGEN ONEGIN - October 2013
The soprano not only looks like the dream cast for Tatjana, she is not only an excellent interpreter of fragil maidens, but first of all she has the right vocal configuration, for the naïve dreamer of the beginning as well as for the passionate exuberance of the matured woman...
(Opernfreund)
The audience applauded enthusiastically young Russian soloist Olesya Golovneva, whose melting-beautiful soprano in the role of the unhappily loving Tatjana touches the hearts of the public
(Express)
Olesya Golovneva shows Tatjana’s development with an absolute preciseness, without any mannerism or “operatic attitude”. Accordingly she sings the role sensitively and clearly – simply terrific!
(FAZ)
The crown goes to Olesya Golovneva as Tatjana … The soprano from Russia has given splendor to many opera performances in Cologne and has ennobled even weaker productions – like “Anna Bolena” – due to her art of singing and characterization. As Tatjana in “Eugen Onegin” she convinces especially in the great letter scene with a perfectly shaped exuberance, which is at no time hysterical and which she is able to keep until to the end. Her voice possesses a remarkable power, effortlessness and beauty in the high as well as in the middle register.
(Kölner Stadtanzeiger)
The great Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva sings the key scene not only with thrilling intensity she gives as well an impressing example for the art of acting, which is formative for the whole evening
(Bonner Generalanzeiger)
It is nearly unbelievable that Olesya GOLOVNEVA made her role debut as Tatjana. The Russian soprano, versed in coloratura, convinces in the lirico-spinto repertoire as well (roles in Cologne were Konstanze, Anna Bolena, Natascha in Prokofjev’s „War and Peace“) and fulfills the lyric-enthusiastic maiden with incomparable fervor (Der Neue Merker)
The way Oleysa Golovneva sings and acts Tatjana … is theatre at it’s best. With a fresh, that means flexible and at the crucial moments brillantly flourishing voice, with a very natural declamation and an interpretation focusing more on naturalness than on a rounded sound, she is nearly a perfect Tatjana, credible as naive young girl in the first act as well as as married, self-confident woman in the third act.
(OMM)
LUISA MILLER - Deutsche Oper am Rhein, June 2013
Olesya Golovneva was the evening’s sensation. She has everything to become an international opera star. She sings the high virtuosity of this role perfectly and with ease, having real big tones and a very good low register.
(WDR 3 Mosaik)
Olesya Golovneva’s Luisa is a miracle. She sings and places the tones with complete naturalness. The voice masters the free swinging coloraturas as well as the low register, sounds fresh and very natural. She sings and acts with great intensity and delivers herself completely to the stage concept. Fantastic!
(Theater Pur)
Olesya Golovneva sings Lusia touchingly, with a bright soprano without any breaks, free swinging coloraturas and total acting identification with the role
(Die Deutsche Bühne)
With her easily led soprano Olesya Golovneva was as well vocally the unrivalled star
(Ruhr Nachrichten)
Fortunately there is the wonderful Olesya Golovneva in the title role
(RP Nachrichten)
Maiden-like, clear with a brilliant, effortless high register and a strong charisma Olesya Golovneva sings the title role. An exceptional achievement.
(Der Neue Merker)
THE TALES OF HOFFMANN - Opera Malmö/Sweden, April 2011
... the Russian Soprano Olesya Golovneva ... causes the composer to smile happily in heaven, with her talents allowing her to accept this huge challenge. With impressive voice and persuasive acting, she presents - with perfect coloratura trills - the mechanical doll Olympia, the heart breaking arias of the dying Antonia and the seductive behavior of the courtesan/absinthe fairy Giulietta.
(Helsingborgs Dagblad, April 2011)
The surprise of the evening was Olesya Golovneva in the roles of Stella/Olympia/Antonia/Giuletta ... A tiny creature with a totally unlimited soprano, well controlled, trilled in the upper register and warm and rich in the lower. On top of this acting as a top actress with marvelous agility; her Olympia was nearly scary in the illusion as a mechanical doll. It would not surprise me, if Olesya Golovneva is in a few years a worldwide known name. She has all requirements for this.
(Skanskan, April 2011)
In the earlier days the mistresses were all performed by four different sopranos. In the Kaye and Keck version all four roles are performed by the same person and, unlike the earlier versions, there are coloratura elements in all of them. At the premiere, the four women roles were performed by the Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva: "It is not more difficult than to sing Traviata. I accepted this offer because it was so thrilling to perform the different roles. I thank God that I have got a voice so that I can sing the different roles" she says.
(Sydsvenskan)
The young Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva is absolutely impressive as the girlfriend of Hoffmann and her three incarnations in The Tales. But she also possesses the totally right elements to perform, with her flexible and clear voice. As the doll she is madly frightened and quite incredible - and actually what could be better than an equilibristic soprano voice at the edge between screaming, wimping and sighing to stage mental illness and mental disfunctionality? Or as Antonia, who is lured into the art in spite of warnings and who is choosing to die singing on the stage instead of getting married and being ordinary.
(Politiken)