Opera MAG -[…] “A dream opportunity to hear Anna Pirozzi in the title role. With great restraint, the Italian soprano tackles her demanding role with bel canto technique: mastery of nuances, elegance of line, nobility of phrasing. An internalised Gioconda, free of any superfluous effects, whose sincerity becomes increasingly touching as the evening progresses.”

Forum opéra– … “Anna Pirozzi is one of the few singers today capable of taking on the role of Gioconda, in all its vocal range, with a sense of phrasing and Italian style that make her truly moving. Capable of powerful, wide-ranging and timbrally defined high notes, she also seduces with her ability to lighten up in the second part and with the almost bel canto flexibility of some passages (in particular the last scene).

Diapason– …“The artist showcases her powerful soprano voice with its smooth registers at every moment, revealing a touching, Callas-like vulnerability in the high notes. She also displays remarkable stamina, leading to a “Suicido” with a sustained line and ample breath control that she maintains right up to her final confrontation with Barnaba.

Cult news– ..“With Pirozzi, a Gioconda carried by the force of a dramatic soprano”

It is sometimes difficult to define the vocal range of certain heroines of the great Italian opera of this era, given the multitude of emotions they must convey within a single work. For example, in La Gioconda, we are dealing with a wounded woman who, alone, must confront everyone to defend her mother, to battle the monster Barnaba, or because Enzo loves another. Lyrical passages are followed by moments that demand the vocal resources of a dramatic soprano, particularly for the expansive phrases and register leaps of “Le Suicidio.” And if there is indeed a great dramatic soprano today capable of moving seamlessly from Abigaille in Nabucco to Medea in Cherubini, to Madeleine in Andrea Chénier , or to Adrienne Lecouvreur, it is Anna Pirozzi.

There is no doubt that the first part of the work requires her to master her instrument to the fullest extent (which allows her, for example, to utter the famous phrase “Enzo adorato! Ah! come t’amo!” on a sublime piano note that then expands into a resonant high note). She will reproduce one of her magical moments, full of nuance and finely controlled power, when she laments at the end of the first act, on that expansive “O madre mia” when she realizes that she saved her rival out of love for Enzo, and then, at the very end, when she has just left Laura and Enzo.

From the duet with Laura (“E un anatèma!”), Anna Pirozzi is able to use her dramatic soprano strengths in this battle of lionesses, and her Gioconda, ample, conquering, with formidable high notes, sets out to confront her destiny. The opera’s ending, which begins with her “Suicidio,” is extraordinary. The soprano, now completely free from the constraints of the staging (and probably from the natural stress of the premiere), varies the colors of her heroine, who must fight on two fronts, her arrows first reserved for the ungrateful Enzo, then for the despicable Barnaba. And for a moment, in a passage reminiscent of her performance in La forza del destino at the Paris Opera, her voice lightens, and the beauty of Ponchielli’s writing appears in its fullness as the composer concentrates all his energy on his Gioconda, now free and resigned. The end is an almost bel canto moment where she uses ironic accents in a style that she masters perfectly, right up to this ending – which Oliver Mears saw fit to modify – but which fortunately, thanks to the performers, has lost none of its power.

Iefimerida– …”Pirozzi, a dramatic soprano of rare power, moved confidently in the arias that define the role: from the inner storm of “Suicidio!” to the sweet fragility of the moment when she saves Laura. “Suicide! In these wild moments / you alone are left to me… and my heart is tormenting me. / The final voice of my destiny, / The final cross of my path!” And, indeed, Pirocci’s voice there passes from anguish to acceptance.  At this moment, the opera does not remain simply a drama as before, studied, full of elegance but with distance. It becomes an inner mystery: Gioconda faces her fate, not with a scream, but with a whisper that travels through the hall. Her voice, supple, with metallic clarity and controlled passion, carried the emotion even when the directorial choices led us to surprises. When the direction was unexpected.

Klassik magazine– …“In Athens, Anna Pirozzi took on the title role, giving it character and meaning with her deeply emotional middle register. But Pirozzi did not hold back even in the face of Gioconda’s outbursts, loving Enzo fiercely and making clear every abrupt change of heart. The character’s name, as Mears explains in the programme notes interview, is a euphemism: in reality, “l’Allegra” is a figure who oscillates between melancholy, jealousy and suicide.”