Sieglinde in DIE WALKÜRE
Deutsche Oper Berlin
“Heidi Melton, who started at the Deutsche Oper Berlin several years ago as an apprentice and returns after a stint at Karlsruhe, sang an extraordinary Sieglinde. A rich voice with enormous bloom on top, she soared with the orchestra through Wagner’s biggest phrases and handled the difficult low tessitura of the role extremely well, despite the youth of the voice. This is a performer and singer of huge potential who is already at home in demanding repertoire.”
-Lorenzo Bassi, GBOpera
"We all breathed a sigh of relief when we read the name Heidi Melton (as Sieglinde) on the package - so a new one and one of the younger ones! Yes, she saved the endless dark-tunnel evening... Only Donald Runnicles was Heidi Melton’s equal, as he preferred a more streamlined, transparent reading of the score ..."
-Andre Sokolowski, Kultura-Extra
"Those stories were brought to life through the inspired musical direction of Donald Runnicles and – in the Siegmund of Peter Seiffert and the Sieglinde of Heidi Melton – two of the finest vocal performances in the entire cycle. The success of Walküre’s first act depends largely on the strength of its Siegmund and Sieglinde and, on this evening, the performances were about as strong as they come. Heidi Melton’s Sieglinde was magnificent. Although a young singer, Frau Melton’s voice in her earliest scenes had a mature weariness that immediately established the depths of Sieglinde’s suffering. Added to this was a wonderful, if chilling, moment where an affectionate advance from Siegmund was met with an instinctive recoil, which told you everything you needed to know about her marriage to Hunding. However, as Sieglinde’s confidence began to increase, so Frau Melton’s voice grew more radiant; her description of the wedding feast and the sword in the tree was one of the most captivating moments of the evening, and her eventual exclamation ‘Du bist der Lenz’ came close to matching Herr Seiffert in terms of pure ardour. Indeed, the final twenty minutes of the first act – which also featured some rapt playing from the orchestra – were an undisputed highlight, both of the evening and of the cycle as a whole."
-Jesse Simon, Mundo Clásico
"Impressive singing resounded from the brother/sister roles of Siegmund (Peter Seiffert) and Sieglinde (Heidi Melton). She also took on Gutrune and Third Norn in Götterdämmerung. What a star! Her delicate and moving soprano voice was simply pure delight and her deep sadness matched her brother's fate."
-Tony Cooper, The Opera Critic
“Heidi Melton as Sieglinde aptly employed her great low and strong middle voice in her scenes and, with that, provided excellent contrast with the high part of her beautiful voice. She moves wisely between the jugendlich-dramatisch phrases to the dramatic outbursts of this difficult role.”
-Opernfan.de
“Heidi Melton's Sieglinde stole the show with her huge, expressive voice and powerful singing…she was never once drowned out by the orchestra, as were some of the others. Further, she's a good actress, and brought across Sieglinde's hope, fear, and grief very well.”
-Operapalais
“Sieglinde is a tricky role and three times is hardly a lifetime – and the good news is that what lays ahead promises to be very exciting...First, her jugendlich dramatisch soprano is extremely pleasant on the ear, well-focused and rich in its lower reaches. Second, she is an elegant, musical singer. Third, she has a radiant stage presence and proved to be a particularly alert and engaged actress. Moreover, she could find the right note of vulnerability in her Sieglinde – and her expression of gratitude to Brünnhilde in Act III was powerfully, richly and most sensitively sung.”
-I Hear Voices