Forum Opera
Jean Michel Pennetier
Fire and ice
This season's Lucia di Lammermoor [...] allows her to make a real triumphant debut in the New York theater. Although she does not have the exceptional means of Joan Sutherland, Jessica Pratt is in the exact same path of her illustrious predecessor, with an interpretation based on singing excellence.
The subtlety of her coloratura, the ability to lighten the voice, the variations and the top notes are all ways of constructing a fragile character, initially charged with a timid happiness, and then switching to murderous madness. Pratt also has a beautiful roundness of timbre, a singing purity and a baffling top range: in addition to the classic high notes, the British soprano offered us, for example, a rare high F at the end of the mini duet with Raimondo! In the madness scene she used variations and traditional high notes, with some additional pyrotechnics in the second part. Apart for the purely vocal side, Pratt also knows how to build a character (with probably little or no rehearsals) and the scene gave her the wings that she had been deprived in the concert version given at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
Man in Chair
Simon Parris
Met Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor review
Pratt is at her sterling best in the riveting mad scene, performing the unfolding drama with seeming abandon while underpinning her work with perfect control. Pratt’s Lucia is totally lost in her own world, in which her scrambled logic makes utter sense to her. Accompanied by an actual glass harmonica (played with flair by Friedrich Heinrich Kern), Pratt’s ornamentals are completely secure and are an absolute pleasure to hear. In the final sequence, as the guests stand dumbstruck, so too was the house, in which you could have heard a proverbial pin drop.
Poisonivy
A Grand Slam: Lucia, Luisa, and Three Tall Women
Yes, Jessica Pratt is the real thing: an accomplished high lyric-coloratura who knows this score inside and out and can manage most everything the role requires without trouble. [...] her upper register is another voice -- brilliant, loud, projects beautifully. In the sextet in that final note her voice was the one that carried over everyone else's. As might be expected her cadenzas were written so her voice could sit in the higher tessitura and she capped her big numbers with blazing money notes that the audience loved -- a high F at the end of her duets with Raimondo, two long-held E-flats after both "Il dolce suono" and "Spargi d'amoro pianto." I was sitting in a balcony box and could see the prompter applauding vigorously after "Il dolce suono."
Operawire
Francisco Salazar
Metropolitan Opera 2017-18 Review-Lucia di Lammermoor: Jessica Pratt Is A Revelation As Donizetti’s Tragic Heroine
In the famous cadenza, Pratt displayed vocal fireworks, singing with such refinement but never losing sight of the emotion. Each time the glass harmonica played a line, Pratt followed with exact precision. It all melded with such perfection and the sensation was otherworldly. And as she climaxed the scene, instead of finishing with a forte E Flat, Pratt kept the note mezzo forte.
In her subsequent “Spargi d’amaro,’ the soprano’s Lucia became more agitated. While still keeping the frailness in her movements, Pratt’s vocal fiorturas became unhinged, singing numerous roulades and even going up to an E Flat. And the vocal fireworks would not end there as Pratt ended the mad scene with a final and powerful E Flat until the orchestra finished. And it surely caused an impact that left audiences wanting more. It was the perfect way to end what was already a showstopping evening. One hopes that Pratt returns for more Bel Canto because she showcases the best of both worlds – great acting, and impeccable coloratura.
Andrew's Opera
Andrew Byrne
Best Lucia in years at the Met. Jessica Pratt has it all!
The mad scene was a tour de force and Ms Pratt added quite a few of her own flourishes, all now tasteful and in keeping with the bel canto piece. Her final cabaletta E flat was the longest and strongest E flat I have ever heard and it was simply extraordinary, especially when the rest of the aria was sung to perfection in a stylish manner worthy of any opera house.
Classics Today
Robert Levine
A Shining, Brilliant Star Joins the Cast of Lucia at the Met
The singing was flawless, with hints of June Anderson and–wait for it–Joan Sutherland, in her pinpoint accuracy, spectacular and huge D-flats, Ds, and E-flats (and even an F to close the tedious scene with the Family vicar, Raimondo), and absolute command of coloratura. Long phrases sung pianissimo and a high E-flat to cap the Mad Scene that went on seemingly forever were almost bonuses.
New York Observer
James Jorden
The Met’s ‘Cendrillon’ Will Make Anyone Love Fairy Tales…Yes, Even ‘Frozen’
Offering a welcome whiff of lightness, though, was soprano Jessica Pratt in the title role.
Her singing was old-fashioned in the best sense of the term: technically assured, limpid and unerringly lovely.
Slipped Disc
Norman Lebrecht
DID THE MET JUST HEAR THE NEXT JOAN SUTHERLAND?
Jessica is a British-born Australian. In some quarters, comparisons were being drawn with Joan Sutherland, who owned the role.