"The night was Elza van den Heever’s, though. As the Empress, she turned in technically polished, empathetic and outlandishly beautiful singing from her first line to her last."

Elza van den Heever’s voice proved the sweetest of the dramatic sopranos, her high notes the purest in execution...

"The South African soprano is at her absolute best in Leonore’s big aria in Act 1, drawing on a range of sometimes dark-tinged vocal timbres to subtly and powerfully inhabit all the character’s contradictory emotions, generating an unusually long and well-deserved ovation."

Elza van den Heever was a radiant Elizabeth. The soprano’s voice was thrilling in “Dich, teure Halle,” as she sang of Elizabeth’s joy upon Tannhäuser’s return.