Vos critiques
11"The emotional center of the performance is the WaitressTerwza and Jenny Carlstedt achieves greatness in this role. Her anguished body language makes a convincing impression on the stage and vocally she masters the entire fireworks of emotions, from tender melodies to dramatic outbursts and musty low alto notes"
Wagner Tristan und Isolde/ debute Brangäne / Helsinki Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki Stuart Skelton, Isolde Lise Lindstrom, Brindley Sheratt "The highlight of the evening was Jenny Carlstedts enormously beautiful and expressive sounding Brangäne. Her full-bodied and warm mezzo-soprano was perfect for the role, moreover she had a perfect German pronunciation and suitably empathetic facial expressions. One can only hope she gets the chance soon to sing it on the big international stages."
Critiques de productions passés
5"Jenny Carlstedt, the Finnish-Swedish mezzo-soprano, seemed to take into herself all that had gone before: hers is not a large voice, but her identification with Nietzsche’s meditation on human suffering was total. As the embodiment of Earth’s sorrow (to borrow a phrase from Das Lied von der Erde) she became the focal point of the whole symphony, rather as Dame Sarah Connolly did in Sir Simon Rattle’s performance of the Second Symphony in last year’s Proms. In Urlicht, the mezzo’s passionate longing is to ascend to heaven; here, it is to find the joy that lies deeper than pain. Carlstedt seemed not to notice when the movement ended and the next began; she seemed no part of it, frozen in her D minor anguish as the choirs carolled brightly around her in F major. It was most moving; and it made the sensation of balm as the violins stole in to begin the finale all the keener."-/ "This was music-making of a high order; and – as a performance of this work ought to be – a great experience. At the end, the mezzo-soprano Jenny Carlstedt had to wipe away tears before taking her bow. I don’t imagine that she was alone in doing so"
"Carlstedt’s voice was like the starlight in Mahler’s inky black orchestral sky. Flowing and clear,-"
Sällan har jag suttit i en operasalong och med jämna mellanrum påmint mig själv om att andas. Men så är fallet under Kaija Saariahos senaste opera Innocence, komponerad till Sofi Oksanens libretto i nära samarbete med dramaturgen Aleksi Barrière, tonsättarens son. Verket är ett av de tätaste musikdramer jag sett och håller åskådaren fastnaglad i knappa två timmar utan paus. Trots att jag redan sett operan i strömmad version och därmed känner till de centrala vändningarna tränger sig verket under huden på ett skakande sätt. Ämnet är minst sagt aktuellt och angeläget: ett skolskjutningsdrama och dess konsekvenser. I centrum står de trauman alla inblandade bär på: de som var med rent fysiskt, de som har familjeband till offer och förövare, de som kunde ha förhindrat det. Dramaturgin är rasande skickligt sammansatt med dubbla tidsplan – under en bröllopsfest tio år efter tragedin rullas händelseförloppet så småningom upp. Inget framställs svartvitt och alla huvudpersonernas tankar får plats. Oksanens libretto fångar sitt ämne på kornet.
The dynamic Finnish conductor was preparing to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first-ever performances of Debussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" – already a formidable task, given the daunting demands this operatic masterpiece places on performers. This semi-staged concert performance was the much-anticipated centerpiece of the CSO's "Reveries & Passions" festival of French music curated by Salonen.
