Yarra Valley Opera Festival / Léirmheasanna

"The action unfolds in mostly cold and distant, pseudo-mechanical movements. Offred appears the exception, a character that American mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel depicted with achingly dark tones, strength and resilience. Unsurprisingly, Offred not only carries the bulk of the vocal output but almost always on stage and Heltzel never let down her guard in giving the best of both. Heltzel interpreted Offred’s lines like they were hers and one especially stands out. At a doctor’s visit for a gynaecological examination, she sings “It used to be my instrument to do my will” and in that she summed up hers and many women’s complete loss and violation."