PREMIERE: W.A.MOZART "LE NOZZE DI FIGARO" [CHERUBINO]
«..The show-stealer was Russian mezzo-soprano Margarita Gritskova, who gave her Salzburg debut in the role of Cherubino. Salzburg has a tradition of discovering and launching young talent that then turn into stars (e.g. Anna Netrebko and Nino Machaidze), and Gritskova will certainly go on to a great career. Possessing a strong and dark voice, the young Russian convinced not only on account of her impeccable technique, diction and control, but also thanks to her disarmingly charming stage presence. Her Cherubino was equally attractive as a boy or as a girl: believable, entertaining and delighting.»Philip Eisenbeiss, Interlude, 21 August 2015
«..Cherubino performed by Margarita Gritskova is awesome. A very attractive “youth” enchants with iridescence of the voice which the singer uses with extremely high professionalism. Among the variety of opera singers her arias looks like rare diamonds».
Friedeon Rosen, Online Merker, 18.08.2015
«..Cherubino was Margarita Gritskova, a Russian mezzo. She was a sparkplug, a shape-shifter, a Cherubino. She walked the line between personableness and hamminess, not an easy walk to walk.»
Jay Nordlinger, The New Criterion, 19 August 2015
«..Margarita Gritskova sang a lovely Cherubino with a quite beautiful voice and a very warm clear timbre. Also her acting was lovely and made her portrayal really convincing. Her voice has such seamless transitions that everything she sings just sounds wonderful.»
Daniel Url, The operatic musicologist, 17 August 2015
«..Margarita Gritskova surprisingly good as Cherubino, which is tough role to handle for a mezzo, with high requirements on acting part, and she did it great making us believe we have teenage boy on the set.»
Operaexplorer, 17 August 2015
«..The singers make sort of mixed impression: the voice of Luca Pizaroni, though elegant, misses eroticism which is tightly associated with the authority of the count; Anett Fritsch is presented as melancholic countess who misses expressiveness; Adam Plachetka as Figaro looks flegmatic; and Martina Janková is too boyish for Suzanna. It is only Margarita Gritskova as Cherubino who attracts with the color of her voice which is full of youth».
Zeit Online, August 7, 2015
«..She strongly realizes that her capabilities not only drive Cherubino (performed by the gorgeous Margarita Gritskova), who suffers from doubts and self-contradictions, to despair, but finally make her husband beg for her good attitude to him. (...) If we were to choose the most impressive scene or singer, we would name the scenes featuring Cherubino which had been so geniously performed and had united magnificent voice capturing with their accuracy and incredible beauty.»
Pagewitzz, August 2015
«..Only once does the director go too far. When the Count decides to get Cherubino, the page, out of the way (here, the delightful mezzo-soprano Margarita Gritskova, looking charmingly boyish), he orders the lad into the military as an officer. Basilio, oddly, looks devastated. In a later moment, Basilio flings himself at the baffled page, grasping his legs with needy desire.»
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 3 August 2015
“..You can’t help but fall in love with boyishly busy Cherubino played by sweet deep voiced Margarita Gritskova”.
Badische Zeitung, August 3, 2015
«..Margarita Gritskova perfectly performed the character of Cherubino, emphasizing her deep voice; being very convincing in the role of the page, she embodies male character of a teenage who dwells in the excitement, better than the other women’s voices, and there is also to say about travesty characters, which, as a rule, tend to androgyny supposed to be more exciting. However, while emphasizing a brighter masculinity, she gives more weight to her character by adding an ounce of maturity, she confidently takes her place in the story and is more capable to excite the Countess and to trouble the Count»
Philippe Currat, Blogspod.de, August 1, 2015
“..Margarita Gritskova appeared in the role of a lively page Cherubino, who nicks in Count’s conversation all the time, but won everyone’s heart for his childlikeness”.
Ernst P.Strobl, Salzburger Nachrichten, July 30, 2015
“..Of course the testosterone-mezzo of Cherubino played by Margarita Gritskova should be noted”.
Ingo Wackenhut, Morgenweb, Mannheimer Morgen, July 30, 2015 Klaus Kalchschmid, Klassikinfo.de, July 28, 2015
“..The sweetest male creature came before the audience played by Margarita Gritskova. Her charmingly careless Cherubino keeps his boyish winsomeness even in a woman’s dress”.
Die Presse, newspaper, July 30, 2015
“..But Cherubino, who was charmingly represented by Margarita Gritskova’s soft mezzo, hides in this very bathroom. Small wonder that not only all women in the castle lost their heads over the lovely hormone shooting lad (and vice versa), but so did even young Don Basilio, marvelously played and sang by Paul Schweinester, who recklessly sought him out during the first act”.
Klaus Kalchschmid, Klassikinfo.de, 28 Juli 2015
“..Margarita Gritskova played and sang her part of Cherubino with silky elegance”.
Der Tagesspiegel, July 2015
“..Cherubino played by Margarita Gritskova is a frisky little imp; and the player herself charms the audience by her boyish and still soft mezzo. When grandiosely anticipative Feydeau and “doors opened – doors closed” farce are shown from the stage in the second act, the audience laughs genuinely”.
DrehPunktKultur, July 2015
