“In what is perhaps the most beautiful soprano role in the entire Mozart repertoire, Brenda Rae convinces with a real sense of style, diction, and nuances of dynamics and colours that bring the character to life”

“The coloratura flows in majestic elegance like the Danube, her voice shimmers nobly, glittering and sparkling like the Ligurian sea in the moonlight and the additional decorations that Mrs. Rae incorporates are not only flawless, they never seem mannered or artificial, but relaxed and refreshing throughout the evening”

“It is necessary to highlight the performance of the American soprano Brenda Rae, who in her debut role, demonstrated a way of singing and stage craft only within the reach of a singer at the point of optimal personal artistic maturity”

“In the title role, Brenda Rae fascinates us all treading the coloratura tightrope, so that just listening to her takes your breath away and you easily believe her rise to madness”.

“No one more so than the soprano Brenda Rae as Semele, who rarely leaves the stage and is given one of the show’s most athletic arias, ​“Myself I shall adore.” As an actor, she sympathetically traced a downward plunge from hesitation to ecstasy, then harried despair and hollowed catatonia”

“As it should be, the highlight of her performance was the ​“mad scene.” It showed her vocal qualities, a strong middle register, and ability to color the voice by adapting it to the several sudden changes of emotions of the character. Strong and projected high notes, like the high C, ​“Oh! Gioija che si sente,” and a showcase of vocal pyrotechnics: staccato high notes, fast scales, pianissimo high register, and clean trills. She performed the traditional cadenza and coronated it and the cabaletta, ​“Spargi d’amaro pianto,” with two bright and secure high E‑flats. But, her incarnation of the psychotic young girl, who just murdered her husband and was constantly hallucinating, was memorable. Not only could the soprano go through different emotions with truth and projection, but she also maintained the ​“character state” throughout the scene. And this is something that very few sopranos manage to do. Her ​“mad scene” was really hair-raising.”

“Brenda Rae as Maïma radiated charm and wit with her coloratura”

“Brenda Rae as a cool beauty and fury with a clear coloratura soprano at the highest altitudes”

“Rae’s voice is ravishingly beautiful, especially in the uppermost notes of her range. Her Zerbinetta wasn’t so much a coquette as a savvy, lusty woman of the world with pluck and heart. Her showpiece aria, ​“Großmächtige Prinzessin … So war es mit Pagliazzo,” was dispatched with astonishing ease.”

“Brenda Rae has a slender figure and tremendous ease that allows her to take on the many choreographed passages of the production with breathtaking brilliance. Like many artists from across the Atlantic, she is a show-woman. But above all, Brenda Rae is a singer, with a round, heady tone that is perfectly practiced in the art of baroque vocalizations. In the role’s many arias, her instrument never seems to struggle, whether it is the virtuoso ​“Voglio amare insin ch’io moro” which she interprets in the manner of a cabaret number, dressed in an elegant tuxedo, or the arietta ​“Qual farfaletta” in which she dialogues with the violin with a remarkably strict tempo. At the end of the last act, Rae sings ​“Si, scherza, si” alone on stage, curtain closed before she rises for the drama’s conclusion: isolated in the spotlight, like a jewel in its setting, her voice unfolds all its delicacy and shows how sensitive the singer is to nuance and expressiveness.”

“Ophelia’s mad scene, with Rae in mud-soiled underwear, matted hair and a men’s tailcoat, pounding on her chest as she sings to make the notes tremble, is eerie without overstatement.”

“Yet there are some very sparky performances too…Brenda Rae menaces her vividly as the Queen of the Nigh”

“With a hotline to wrath and vengeance, Brenda Rae’s Queen of the Night was excellent in her first aria and then swept all before in her in a stupendous ​‘Der Hölle Rache’”

“However, it was Rae’s coquettish, radiant Zerbinetta whose aria – as usual – stole the show.”

“Everything was in the most beautiful proportions [including] the finely agile voice of Brenda Rae…”

“The American Brenda Rae is also a debutant at the Teatro Real and surpassed herself in her second act arias in which the comic gives way to the resolving romanticism of Nemorino and Adina.”

“She duly made ​‘Myself I shall adore’ a captivatingly glamorous showpiece, sprinkling it with just the right amount of diva self-parody.”

“In the role of Semele, Brenda Rae was exceptional!…displaying her magnificent technique, especially in the famous aria of Act III ​‘Myself I shall adore’”

“The casting for this production could hardly have been better. In her Lyric Opera debut as Ginevra, Brenda Rae lit up the stage with her big, bright soprano voice, handling with ease both the high-flying vocal acrobatics and the dark emotions this role demands.”

“in her debut as Elvira in I puritani, Brenda Rae was beautiful in every way.”

“Brenda Rae thrills in Hendrik Müller’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto in Frankfurt…Shortly before leaving Frankfurt’s opera ensemble, the soprano Brenda Rae once more proves to be perfect casting, not only as the girl with enchantingly effortless coloratura …but also as the determined young woman.”

“her mad scene makes this production…she both acts and sings this exceptionally difficult aria with a theatrical sense of insanity quite stunning in its depth of expression.”

“Brenda Rae as Gilda: contrasting the chaste and cool figure she plays, her soprano excels with variable nuances of warmth, a rich palette of piano colours and a meticulous negotiation of the coloratura passages.”

“A stellar performance by soprano Brenda Rae, in both her company and role debut as Amenaide, affirms her consummate mastery of Rossini’s elaborate ornamentations and her engaging acting skills, as she constantly astonishes with pure mellifluous voice, flawless executive of extended passages of coloratura, and profound emotional commitment to the compelling role of an honourable woman who would sooner give up her own life than betray her true love.”

“Brenda Rae in the title role is less of a rapacious flirt than conventionally played, but this is also her strength, enabling us to see the character as a flesh-and-blood woman; her singing of the part is a tour de force.”

“Excellent Brenda Rae makes a suitably capricious femme fatale”

“I doubt that Brenda Rae’s Aminta could be bettered in any theatre today. Just as sure of note and line as the orchestra and with greater, contrasting warmth, especially at those wonderful revelations, through the disguise of Timidia, of the fundamental humanity of Aminta, this was a performance to savour.”