Attila, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, January 2016

 

“ At Attention' for Maria Jose”
“The real warrior of this Attila is the soprano Maria Jose’ Siri … with her voice, touching each primordial sentiment in every note of the opera, she commanded ‘Attention’ from everybody.”
Gregorio Moppi, La Repubblica

“But the merit award goes to Maria José Siri (Odabella), of mellow and beguiling sound, rich in harmonics, of fine phrasing and well-controlled breathing (in the coming months she can be heard in such complex roles as Tosca and Norma).”
Biagio Scuderi, Amadeus

“Maria José Siri (Odabella) is an appropriate performer for this role, which requires a large but not unwieldy instrument, and executed with equal appropriateness both the dramatic expressions of revenge and the more intimate passages without ever weighing down her singing.”
Valentina Anzani, Il giornale della musica

“Maria José was a solid Odabella, secure even in the most arduous and fearsome parts of the role.  She fully delineated her character, creating a strong and determined woman to whom she associated a thoroughly respectable vocal production and high notes that were solid and clean.  Her elegant phrasing and vocal skill made her without a doubt the most interesting voice of the evening.”
Mirko Bertolini, Opera World

“Odabella is a fearsome role for its jumps in tessitura and the vocal power it requires.  Maria José Siri proved herself to be master of the situation and…rendered everything tastefully and with intelligence, stressing the more intimately meditative aspects of the character and demonstrating masterful security in the central and high registers.”
Alessandro Cammarano, OperaClick

“One must certainly value Maria José Siri’s approach to the role of Odabella for her prioritizing intelligent musical portraiture over cocky exhibition.  In other words, thinking of the pitfalls of ‘Oh! Nel fuggente nuvolo’ before the pyrotechnic explosion of her opening aria.  For the role is by no means a walk in the park after ‘Santo di patria,’ and if the primadonna makes her entrance blazing up and down the staff with bellicose boldness, her whispering remembrance of her father and her lover in the solitude of the wilderness is no less arduous.  She offered solid vocality, with appropriate fullness and projection (the same remarks made about Kybalova in the alternate cast apply here: it’s less important the quantity of voice with which these roles are sung than the way in which they are sung), prominent high notes…the result was effective and convincing.”
Roberta Pedrotti, L’ape musicale

“His female counterpart was a Maria José Siri of warrior-like manner whose voice corresponded to her character, becoming almost villainous in its fullness.  Odabella showed off fine phrasing, solidity in the high register, and the vocal production of a true warrior.”
Maria Teresa Giovagnoli, MTG Lirica

“The queen of the evening, Maria José Siri, conferred on the provocative heroine Odabella a fury, as well as a vocal enthusiasm, which overwhelmed the audience.  Debuting the role, Siri immediately showed off her vocal stuff in her first phrase, ‘Santo di Patria indefinito amor.’  One must approach Odabella’s vocality knowing how to balance force and rather hard accent against passionate tenderness.  In ‘Allor che i forti corrono’ Siri delineated the rather marcato and sometimes rough, vindictively spirited aspect quite well with solid vocality which I would almost call ‘di forza’ without ever exaggerating, succeeding even in dosing and weighing every single sound with intelligence and style.  A different character and color emerged in ‘Oh nel fuggente nuvolo,’ in which the coloratura, legato, elegance, and grace were all present to confer on the aria its true significance as memory, tenderness, passion, and love, thanks to Siri’s splendid legato and a measured sonority with pianissimi of great effect.”
Simone Tomei, Gli amici della musica

“As vocally powerful as this mass of men may have been, Maria José Siri sang them into the ground.  She was debuting the role of the Aquileaian aristocrat Odabella.  Wide-ranging interval leaps and cascades of coloratura driving to the extremes of the soprano range, often accompanied by brass-heavy orchestration, make this role undisputably one of the most difficult Verdi roles, period, along with Abigaille (Nabucco) and Lady Macbeth (Macbeth).  But the Uruguayan soprano offered exemplary intonation and a powerfully intense voice even in the register extremes and virtuosic passages.  In the aria ‘Allor che i forti corrono’ she authentically provided the vengeful fury that Verdi calls for and rose effortlessly into dramatic heights with her dark timbre in the following cabaletta ‘Da te questo or m’è concesso’.  At the beginning of the first act Odabella stands alone and unobserved on the stage and, surrounded by nature, laments the murder of her father by Attila.  Maria José Siri integrated her voice with complete intimacy and abandon into the filigreed web of sound made by the English horn, flute, harp, and cello.”
Florian Amort, Opern-Kritik.de

“At his side (Attila) the mighty Odabella interpreted by Maria Jose' Siri, the Uruguayan soprano that is in constant uplift vocally and interpretively and that is enjoying a wonderful artistic zenith. The voice is a full lyric soprano with a color that well suits the dramatic conflict of a woman torn between the desire for vengeance and love, with fearless octave jumps in her first entrance and then again in the ensembles, capable of fading to pianos and pianissimos with rare beauty, all this while still firmly holding the musical line admirably. Wonderful performance and applauses which momentarily blocked the continuation of the opera.”
Andrea Merli, La Rubrica dell'Impiccione Viaggiatore