“Karita Mattila … has returned even more emotionally intense now than before. Giving everything she has to the role, she movingly pours love over Jenůfa, pleads heart-rendingly with Števa to marry Jenůfa and, after the murder of the child, seems to be hurtling to the limits of sanity. Few singers of the role embrace such a wide range of feelings and she can be forgiven some touches of melodrama”

“Karita Mattila embodied an intense Kostelnicka, shining both vocally, with impeccable tonal quality and stylistic precision, and acting, with an energy that made her descent into desperation palpable.”

“She… brings home a memorable interpretation and receives unanimous applause at the end: completely in the role, master of the stage, able to keep the entire theatre in suspense in the key moments of the second and third acts.”

“To cast Karita Mattila as the Princess was an inspired choice; Mattila snarls and purrs in full ice-queen malevolence and this Angelica”

“Karita Mattila’s fur-clad Foreign Princess looks sensational and she sings and acts the treacherous (in all senses) role with admirable aplomb.”

“Karita Mattila, a singer who has given unforgettable moments.”

“The Kostelnička of Karita Mattila, one of the great singing actresses of our time, is an overpowering creation … Mattila’s voice … packs an emotional punch that takes you into the heart of her dilemma.”

“Finnish soprano Karita Mattila [gave] a fascinating dramatic portrait of remarkable textual and musical subtlety [as Ortrud]”

“Karita Mattila sounded (and looked) ever-young, ever-agile as the kittenish Foreign Princess.”

“Karita Mattila’s fierce, iconoclastic take on the elderly, ill Prioress …was wracked with horrific pain from her first appearance…Then, as the Prioress lost control, Mattila unleashed her dramatic soprano in giant waves of steely sound.”

“Karita Mattila: a force of nature impossible to resist…there’s no denying that Karita Mattila socks it to an audience through a star quality all too rare on the classical scene today…she can still sing softly to generate a warm tonal glow and at the climaxes above the stave she raises the rafters without a hint of vibrato or tremolo. Even more impressive than this is her commitment: whether it’s exuberant gypsy songs by Brahms or the slyly deductive cabaret number by Friedrich Holländer, she inhabits what she sings, making it vivid, real, immediate, personal.”

“Her identification with the character is almost frighteningly complete. She sings with a rapture that borders on recklessness.”

“The requisite atmosphere was only one virtue of the incandescent production of Jenůfa that welcomed back Karita Mattila to San Francisco as the Kostelnička, a new role which the Finnish soprano added to her repertory in a now-legendary London concert performance in April. Mattila’s interpretation of the title role has been acclaimed for decades; her stage debut as the stepmother whose agonized act of infanticide propels this 1904 music drama dominated the performance…her soprano remains blessedly even and expressive throughout its range.”

“Karita Mattila was Emilia Marty, quite literally…she incarnated every aspect – glamour and charm, wiles and caprices, cynicism and compassion – of this mercurial character. And this wasn’t mere histrionic posturing: her singing was gloriously rich and expressive.”

“Whether we knew it or not, the operatic world has been waiting all this time for Karita Mattila to sing the role Kostelnicka…She finally did so at the San Francisco Opera and the results were even more intense and brilliant than we could have hoped…there was no mistaking that the focus of attention was on Mattila, in a performance of unforgettable theatrical intensity and vocal brilliance…With Mattila, there are no compromises…her vocal endowments are, if anything, more opulent and finely honed than ever. Throughout the opera, and especially during Kostelnicka’s climactic moral crisis at the heart of Act 2, Mattila unleashed great torrents of sound – now burnished to an extraordinary lyrical sheen for moments of introspection, now pouring forth in a practically unhinged expression of psychic anguish. And as a singing actor, Mattila is nonpareil. The combination of provincial rectitude and maternal tenderness that make Kostelnicka such a tricky character to embody onstage shone through with telling clarity in her performance…One way or another, everything in this production works perfectly – and Mattila’s exquisite performance most perfectly of all.”

“Mattila is among the greatest contemporary exponents of Jenufa — which she sang at Covent Garden in 2001 — so she has chosen a good time to make the transition to the other title role. Now 55, she looks the part of the staunch matriarch, yet her voice is still in prime condition, a big lyric soprano with a penetrating edge to it. She sings Kostelnička’s notes more beautifully — and accurately — than any other soprano I have heard live (more than 40)… She will take the role into her stage repertory, first in June in San Francisco, later in Munich and at the Met. Let’s hope the Royal Opera has joined the queue.”

“Dominating it in every way was Finnish star soprano Karita Mattila…She threw herself into the role [of Kostelnička] with the recklessness that only a great artist can manage. She was every inch the iron matriarch…Mattila was the glowing centre of [this] performance”

“Karita Mattila was sounding at her incandescent best”

“Karita Mattila, as Ariadne…returned to [the role] with complete confidence…there’s a compelling intensity to the portrayal, a moving commitment that’s impossible to resist…but the power [of her voice] – in terms of both expressiveness and decibels – feels undimmed.”

“Mattila’s unflagging intensity and emotional generosity were absolutely gripping…Her performances were expertly paced with an intelligent narrative arc, dreamy without sacrificing expressive clarity. Mattila sang with a great commitment to character, painting detailed psychological portraits.”

“[Mattila] sounds ravishing throughout her ordeal…A high-powered actress who takes the stage just by stepping onto it, Mattila’s unfailing in her commitment and electric presence. She’s the best part of the this show.”