“…the evening’s singing laurels went to Ying Fang as Ilia and Elza van den Heever as Elettra… In a much broader role, van den Heever commanded the stage in her three highly contrasting arias. Hers is a huge voice, but she brought delicacy and warmth to her seductive Act 2 “Idol mio” (My dearest). Then she showed off her Straussian power by exploding from silence into her rafter-shaking final aria, rushing out to stunned applause from the audience.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“Elettra, who always knows that her love for Idamante is hopeless, was sung by Elza van den Heever, certainly still basking in her recent triumph as Salome at the Met. She raged in her first act aria, purred in the second act as she is sent off into exile with Idamante,. But she lost all control in the third act when, in the opera’s final moments, she understands at last that she simply cannot have Idamante. It was a truly magnificent rage before she stormed off to kill herself.”
Opera Today
“Images of splashing storm waves tinted red reflect her fury in the dramatic Act III aria ‘D’Oreste, d’Ajace ho in seno i tormenti’ (‘I feel Orestes’s and Ajax’s torments in my heart’), which van den Heever delivered with savory explosiveness.”
Seen and Heard International
“Elza van den Heever… is Elettra, and she tears through the role with the power of a lioness with strong and accurate vocalizations. Near the climax, she finds her aspirations crumbling, and her mad scene is an emotive tour-de-force of sound and sight.”
Berkshire Fine Arts
“As Elettra, the Greek princess who loves Idamante, soprano Elza van den Heever provided a dramatically focused, thrilling intensity to the character’s unhinged music.”
Bay City News Service
“After gloriously portraying Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met just last month (a performance so magnificent that I caught both the broadcast and the encore at the movie theater), I was very curious how Elza van den Heever would approach Elettra here… van der Heever approached the role with restraint and elegance, fully embodying the character as a member of the royalty without turning it into a caricature.
In her hands, the three arias turned into a demonstration of three different states of Elettra’s unstable, manipulative, yet somewhat hopeful mind, from jealousy to (temporary) bliss to finally rage and desperation of losing it all. van den Heever used her large and commanding instrument intelligently, full of nuances and gorgeous phrases. It wasn’t till “D’Oreste, d’Ajace” that the audience began to see splashes of Strauss (her self-professed favorite), and even then, she didn’t completely lose it and performed the rage aria with complete control.”
Parterre