Sarah Aristidou - Æther - Opera News

The result is a unique, smartly conceived program, designed to be experienced in order. While Aristidou’s extensile soprano is capable of vaulting and hanging out above the staff, there’s nothing ethereal about it. Even her extreme high notes are full voice, and her midrange has substantial weight. In the program’s centerpiece, the premiere of Jörg Widmann’s “Labyrinth V” for a cappella soprano, Aristidou proves she’s game for anything. It’s a gripping, unpredictable tour de voix that opens with a mad cackle, shivering, screams and heavy breathing that suggest the reaction of someone who just woke up terrified in a labyrinth.