The Sunday Times, London
Salome – A Showcase for Sensuality
“Salome can rarely have been projected with such smoldering intensity as here. The American soprano Cynthia Makris is one of the few Salomes with not only the voice for the part, but, shall we say, the parts for the voice. She is young and beautiful and, mooning around the stage in white shift and brown ringlets, she is tantalizing to perfection.
But it was her purely vocal intensity which won the day: her lustful entreaties to Jokanaan were graphically delineated, and her great final monologue had a terrific, musically saturating power.”
Au Courant, Philadelphia
Cynthia Makris: every inch the Goddess in Norma
“But the best reason of all is to hear the stunning voice of Cynthia Makris in the title role and to see her men quake in their boots (or sandals or foot-coverings).
On opening night, when, as Norma, a high priestess of the Druids, she made her regal, almost other-worldly entrance, every pair of eyes were riveted to her progress on the stage. her flaming hair was wreathed with a symbolic tiara of the verbena sacred to the mysterious and bloody rites of her people and she became every inch the Goddess figure. Her expression was wrathful and terrifying. Then she opened her mouth. Bravissima!”
Das Opernglas
La Fanciulla del West, Helsinki
“Cynthia Makris stellte sich dieser vocal und szenisch anspruchsvollen Partie. Die dominante und unberührbare Saloonchefin gelang ihr ebenso wie die sinnliche und leidenschaftliche Geliebte. Auch musikalisch blieben keine Wünsche offen. Die Amerikanerin bestach in allen Lagen mit einem farbenreichen Klangbild. Niemals auf Grenzen stossend, meisterte sie die veristischen Attacken ohne Ermüdungserscheinungen und wurde dem Parlando durch einen nuancierten Vortrag gerecht. Der attraktiven Sopranistin dürften mit diesem Debüt alle Pforten der wichtigsten Opernmetropolen in dieser Rolle offen stehen.”
Buenos Aires Herald
The dead city comes back to life
“Cynthia Makris shown gloriously in her double role, adding an impressive stage presence and a beauty that is essential to the part.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A singer in command succeeds in ‘Norma’
The opera is a soprano’s destination role, and Makris has found her way into the title part by following the music’s lead. Even with her vital stage presence, her characterization is heard as much as seen. Poignance and longing, achieved through her soft, inflected singing, give the ornamented and spectacular vocal line dimensions to present Norma as a complex woman whose awful plight is credible.
Crediblity comes through the singing. Makris does not tour the vocal line as a flight of technical virtuosity, glorying in the etched clarity of each sixteenth note. Instead, she is exacting in presenting phrase and line – and also the pitch, because her line often is sung without instruments. It is her command of all the elements that gives her portrayal strength and gloss.
Sustaining the extraordinary arch of her big vocal scenes was not easy during this performance: Applause regularly halted the action at the end of the cavatina and before the cabaletta.
Nonetheless, Makris made “Casta Diva” a show of sustained line and mood, its asides heightening the irony and struggle within the floating music. She sang the cavatina with poignance and color enough to produce an ovation and used the cabaletta to preserve the conflict, while singing with growing flair.
Das Opernglas
Turandot Savonlinna
“In der Titelrolle konnte man abermals die sensationelle Cynthia Makris erleben, die besonders die verletzlichen Züge der Figur herausarbeitete, der aber ebenso die nötigen stählernen Spitzentöne zur Verfügung standen.”
Turun Sanomat
Cynthia Makris is astonishing as Turandot
at the Savonlinna Opera Festival
In Turandot, some excellent singing is heard. Cynthia Makris in the title role is drop-dead good. Her voice, reaching the most demanding fortissimos, glimmers like precious metal, and although the volume sent shivers down the spine, her voice does not spread out but maintains its trim.
Also, it must be said that Makris is probably the best Turandot in her habitus, whereas in general these dramatic sopranos suit badly to goddess roles such as this.
The New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv
Verdian Fate
The protagonist, Cynthia Makris as Leonora, was excellent, noble and musical, projecting tender singing and exciting presence. The scene in which she accepts solitude in front of the cross was one of the highlights of the production.
In the famous last act Cynthia Makris shines and in the aria in which Leonora bids her life farewell she manages to create real poetic beauty and send shivers down our spine through her radiant singing.
Münchner Kurier
Strauss Elektra
Cynthia Makris bot als Elektra eine fulminante Leistung und gewann der rachsüchtigen Atridentochter immer wieder auch sanfte Zwischentöne ab, wie man sie derzeit wohl nur selten zu hören bekommen dürfte. Doch auch am nötigen Metall für die grossen Ausbrüche der Partie fehlt es ihrer Stimme nicht.
El Cronista, Buenos Aires
Magnifica puesta en escena de la opera “La ciudad muerta”
Cynthia Makris estuvo formidable. No pareció demasiado interesada en el atletismo vocal y se concentró, en cambio, en la integración dramática. Causó buena impresión como artista intensa, cantó con seguridad, ofreciendo una actuación de gran fuerza dramática.
Folha Online, Sao Paolo
Il trovatore
Makris was superb in the aria “Tacea la notte” reaching the exceptional in “D’amor sull’ali rosee.” Owner of an elegant stage presence and precise musical phrasing throughout her range, Makris conveyed without exaggerations the passion that characterizes all romantic heroines.
Deseret News
Madama Butterfly cast is outstanding
…soprano Cynthia Makris’ powerful performance in the title role, the young geisha Cio-Cio-San. She is absolutely ravishing as the young geisha who falls hopelessly in love with the dashing young Navy officer (Pinkerton). And it’s uncanny to see her transform from the shy, embarrassed young child-bride in Act I to the confident, proud woman in Act II, who never wavers in her faith and belief that Pinkerton will return to her. She brings nobility, refinement and integrity to her role.
Vocally, Makris is stunning. She handles her demanding role magnificently, giving a performance that is remarkable and memorable. One of her greatest moments in this production is her strikingly vivid interpretation of “Un bel di” in Act II, charging it with emotion and fervor.