“…her genuinely involving interpretation founded on her flawless lyricism and keenly expressive dramatic intent: a pretty unbeatable combination.”
THE STAGE, GEORGE HALL
Jenůfa
Jenůfa
English National Opera, London
“Davis and Bullock are both outstanding here. Davis sings with an extraordinary radiance (hers really is a most beautiful voice) and vivid depth of feeling, so that Jenůfa’s rapture, anguish and eventual strength, moral as well as emotional, all really hit home. Her grief at the death of her baby has a desperate immediacy only achievable through superb artistry. As despair finally yields to love and hope in the closing scenes, the blaze in her tone is simply breathtaking.”
The Guardian, Tim Ashley
“She was ably partnered by Jennifer Davis, whose Jenůfa was one of the most touching and heartbreaking I’ve seen. Catapulted to fame as Elsa von Brabant in The Royal Opera’s 2018 staging of Lohengrin, which she returned to sing to huge acclaim in 2022, and then in Berlin, her appearance as Janáček’s tragic heroine was hugely anticipated – and she did not disappoint. Her silvery soprano has gained extra weight, allowing her to fill the Czech composer’s soaring vocal lines with glorious, rounded tone, allied to crystal clear diction. Her prayer to the Virgin Mary was beautifully etched, her despair on learning of her baby’s death almost too painful to watch. She brought an astonishing range of colours to the voice, each perfectly attuned to the gamut of emotions the character experiences, her gleaming, impassioned, thrillingly-voiced duet with Laca which closes the opera, setting the seal on a remarkable performance that will live long in the memory.”
MusicOhm, Keith McDonnell
“Where does one start with a set of principals that deliver performances of such a high calibre? […] Singing Jenůfa, Jennifer Davis’ bold distinct soprano filled the Coliseum in an utterly credible performance, but the technique was there to file the voice down in delicate pianissimo that was completely audible. Hers is a voice that glows just as much as her portrayal of the character; her Jenůfa is a beacon in a very murky moral ecosystem.”
Bachtrack, Dominic Lowe
“The singing, though, is not to be missed. Jennifer Davis, who made a splash jumping into Alden’s production of Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House back in 2018, has a voice with a perfectly calibrated balance of power and control. It allows her to soar over the luscious orchestration and also create moments of such potent privacy – her prayer for her baby when she discovers him missing – that you feel almost ashamed to be listening in. This richness and power makes her moral strength completely believable, especially at the end, when forgiving the unforgivable.”
Engelsberg Ideas, Benjamin Poore
“It was Jennifer Davis who owned the stage in the title role. Her voice is as powerful as her stage presence (her last operatic role was Elsa in Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper at the end of last year – her Elsa at Covent Garden in April 2022, there another David Alden production, was certainly memorable). Davis’ responses to Kostelnička Buryja, were frequently heart-melting, as was her prayer to the Virgin Mary.”
Opera Today, Colin Clarke
“The lyrical and mellifluous vocals of Jennifer Davis as Jenůfa contrasted brilliantly with the Kostelnička[…] For me, Jennifer Davis stole the show, with a bell-like tone that was truly beautiful and the interaction between the Kostelnička and Jenůfa was astonishingly moving.”
London-Unattached, Fiona Maclean
“Irish soprano Jennifer Davis as Jenůfa dominates from the start. She has a gorgeous, warm and generous voice, radiant with love for Steva, desperate with grief for the loss of her baby. She inhabits the character beautifully. […] Jenůfa and Laca, left alone, realise that they can be happy together. This scene is really convincing, due to the sensational singing and acting of both singers. Jenůfa’s love, forgiveness and ultimate redemption for Laca at the end, so often not believable, is utterly credible due to Davis’ vocal and dramatic brilliance. When the opera ends, the listener has been through an emotionally harrowing, intense journey. […] See this if you can. Jennifer Davis gives a world class performance.”
Plays to See, Josi Steinfeld
“This one does, led by the Jenůfa of Jennifer Davis, tirelessly sung and living the role at every moment. One’s heart goes out to her, as this Jenůfa so movingly retains her humanity whatever is thrown at her, including being ditched by one lover and having her face scarred by another.”
Financial Times, Richard Fairman
“Irish soprano Jennifer Davis has already made a strong impression as Elsa, Gretel and Fiordiligi at Covent Garden, and her Jenufa was even more remarkable, a full, lyric-spinto voice allied to intense identification with the young bereaved mother of Janáček’s opera.”
Operalogue, Hugh Canning
Lohengrin
ELSA
Deutsche Oper, Berlin
“David Butt Philip (Lohengrin) and Jennifer Davis (Elsa) have sung their roles in this staging before, and both were in blistering form. […] Davis’ Elsa is familiar to London audiences, given that she sang the role when David Alden’s staging was new at Covent Garden in 2018, repeating her acclaimed interpretation once again in last year’s revival. Resplendent, ringing high notes allied to a rock solid technique, gave notice that this highly talented, silvery voiced soprano has quickly become one of the leading exponents of the role. In addition she cut a tragic, fragile figure on stage – one couldn’t help but be moved by her plight.”
musicohm.com, Keith McDonnell
FAUST
Marguerite
The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
“[…] Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, now in demand for Wagner’s more lyric roles since her stunning Elsa in the Royal Opera Lohengrin. She has both sides of the insanely demanding role of Marguerite in her armoury: the bright, rapturous virginal candour for the Garden Scene arias, quartet and duet, and the big organ stops pulled out from the hoary church confessional scene onwards. The prison finale not only looks perfect, seared on the mind, but reaches a rare zenith of operatic perfection as her trio tune peals out, each time intensified as it goes up a notch. Opera thrills don’t come much stronger than this.”
The Arts Desk, David Nice
“The excellent foil to his larger-than-life presence, and completing the excellent casting of the opera’s main trio, is the Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, in the role of Marguerite, the woman whose ruined life is the primary corollary damage to Faust’s wish fulfilment. Davis creates strong connections with those on stage and with the audience, whether quiet and sensitive, as in the church or her act-three aria, or when occasionally releasing her full Wagnerian capacity. The production’s most emotionally powerful moment features Davis holding her dying brother – played with great presence by the always dependable Gyula Nagy – as he refuses to forgive her for having a child out of wedlock.”
The Irish Times, Michael Dungan
“Davis really captured the innocence and sweetness of Marguerite, making her character utterly believable even during her madness.”
Bachtrack, Andrew Larkin
Armida
Title role
Wexford Festival Opera
“Davis masters every aspect: the lyric beauty of Armida’s Rusalka-esque first aria, the dramatic urgency of her fiction to the Crusaders, the sensuousness of the magic-kingdom love music and the sorrowful denouement. The Irish soprano’s trajectory in Wagner and Strauss roles worldwide could move from lyric to dramatic, given the strong backbone of her more urgent singing […] Dvořák’ and Jennifer Davis are the joint regents of Wexford this year.”
The Arts Desk, David Nice
“…a star turn by Jennifer Davis in a rare production of Dvorak’s Armida. The Wexford Armida has Irish soprano Jennifer Davis in the title role, in a commanding performance that’s vocally beautiful, finely nuanced, and breathtaking in its emotional reach. She is one of those singers who achieves an amazing presence without seeming to have any need to be assertive. […] In the end the evening’s abiding memory is of Davis’s great account of a very demanding role.”
The Irish Times, Michael Dervan
“The casting is close to ideal. Dressed on her initial appearance as a Brünnhilde-like warrior maiden, soprano Jennifer Davis keeps faith with the inordinately Wagnerian demands of the title role.”
The Stage, George Hall
“There were other more familiar operatic delights on show, such as fine singing. The Armida of Wexford debutant Jennifer Davis was much anticipated, ever since her success as Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin at Covent Garden. She did not disappoint, with lustrous tone powerfully projected, and notable stage presence weather disingenuously abasing herself before a crusader commander or derisively repulsing a rival sorcerer.”
Backtrack, Roy Westbrook
“The title role has a top-class cast with Jennifer Davis. With a big, dramatic soprano voice, she portrays the sorceress as a woman who knows exactly what she wants and is not intimidated by a male-dominated world. Her entrance aria melodically picks up on Rusalka’s song to the moon, but testifies to an enormous strength that shows that she can also get her own way over her father. Only her love for Rinald finally makes her weak. As long as he stands by her side, she fights like a lioness and can even put her admirer Ismen in his place. In the third act, she delivers a musically magnificent exchange of blows with him, in which she initially emerges as the winner. The way she freezes the Crusaders with a wave when they attack her lover Rinald is also beautifully realized by Davis. She is powerless only against Archangel Michael’s shield, because it loses her influence over Rinald. In a way, she appears defenseless in the last fight against her former lover and lets herself be mortally wounded. When she is baptized shortly before her death, she lies in his arms as a weak woman.”
Online Muzik Magazine, Thomas Molke (translated from German)
“The star of the evening, however, has to be soprano Jennifer Davis in the title role. Having already impressed London audiences as Elsa in a recent production of Wagner’s Lohengrin (a comparable role to Dvorak’s Armida) she sings the role beautifully, with superb tone, focus, and projection, bringing this Armida to life both musically and dramatically.”
Golden Plec, Michael Lee
“The two leading roles require singers with stamina and heft, alongside flexibility and the ability to sing a fine line. Both Jennifer Davis and Gerard Schneider had this in spades, added to which both looked physically convincing in their roles. Jennifer Davis made a superb warrior maid with a fearless, gleaming voice. Yet her opening aria was beautifully shaped and her scenes with Schneider’s Rinald at the end of Act Two and in Act Three had a luxurious, seductive quality. There was never any sense of having to control or rein in the voice, all seemed ease.”
Planet Hugill, Robert Hugill
“Jennifer Davis deploys a full, homogeneous voice, with a beautiful anchoring in the low register, to incarnate Armide. She backs up these vocal qualities with a real temperament that allows her to move from authority to sensitivity with agility.”
Avant scène opera, Jules Cavalié (Translated from the French)
“As Armida, the soprano Jennifer Davis clearly dominates the cast with her seductive timbre and homogeneous quality and volume throughout the range. Her musicality is flawless, as is her great theatrical commitment.”
Anaclase (Translated from the French)
Lohengrin
Elsa
Royal Opera House
“Back in 2018, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis was the cover for the scheduled Elsa, who found herself going on for the first night. She was received in triumph then and is so once again – her genuinely involving interpretation founded on her flawless lyricism and keenly expressive dramatic intent: a pretty unbeatable combination.”
The STAGE, GEORGE HALL (2022)
“JENNIFER DAVIS SHINES IN NIGHT OF HEAVYWEIGHT WAGNER – Jennifer Davis was the great casting gamble of the production’s first showing. Returning to the role of Elsa, she is the star asset, singing with a spine-tingling combination of power and purity, as well as unfailing musicality.”
The TIMES, NEIL FISHER (2022)
“Jennifer Davis makes a triumphant return as Elsa, following her debut in the role in 2018. Since then her voice has grown in stature and intensity, and displayed a perfectly calibrated balance of lyric control, richness, and power in this latest performance. Wagner’s long lines – which need the care of Bellini or Donizetti – were spun out effortlessly, not least in the draining exchanges with Lohengrin in Act three. Her entrance in Act one, beginning with a cry of plaintive pity, showcased remarkable radiance, with growing ardor, as she called out for her savior.“
OPERAWIRE, BENJAMIN POORE (2022)
“The vast majority of the cast was new – the only returnee Irish soprano Jennifer Davis as an uncommonly touching Elsa. Jumping in at relatively short notice when the production was new four years ago, she won all hearts then, but in the intervening years her voice has blossomed, and she’s grown in confidence, resulting in as gloriously sung account of the role as you’re likely to hear today. Strong and determined in her confrontation with Ortrud, yet able to float a string of pianissimos when needed, she reminded us of Anne Evans in this role – high praise indeed.”
MUSICOMH, KEITH MCDONNELL (2022)
“Few things in theatre are more exciting than watching a star being born, and the big-bang roar that greeted Jennifer Davis’s curtain call after her debut as Lohengrin’s beloved Elsa was one such magic moment. …from her first aria – a test of control over pitch and tone – she was rock-steady and generous of phrase. Elsa is a taxing role, but she paced herself consummately, never overegging the climaxes and always keeping the line fluent. Add to this a lovely stage presence and acting of ingenuous immediacy, and you have what could blossom into a world-class career. Well done Covent Garden for taking an inspired risk. What made Davis’s achievement even more impressive is that she shone in distinguished company.”
The Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen (2018)
“There can have been few more pressured operatic debuts than Jennifer Davis’s as Elsa. A late replacement, the young Irish soprano had never sung Wagner before, and the Royal Opera’s website was full of affronted vitriol from people unwilling to give her a chance. Their loss. She sang gloriously, floating exquisite pianissimos, yet cutting through Wagner’s tubbiest orchestral textures. And she looked and acted the part: a dreamy ingenue fatally obsessed with a romanticised legend — which, with inspired irony, Alden unfurls as a tapestry above her wedding bed.”
The Times, Richard Morrison (2018)
“With a lyric voice verging on the heroic, strong and even throughout the range, and utterly plausible acting at every point, she made a fine impression. She has…a secure and brilliant upper register…”
The Arts Desk, David Nice (2018)
“…a new Wagner star was born…The discovery of a new Wagnerian star – the Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, a late and bold replacement as Elsa von Brabant – made any qualms about the Royal Opera’s new staging of Wagner’s Lohengrin shrink into insignificance.”
The Observer, Fiona Maddocks (2018)
BRAHMS EIN DEUTSCHES REQUIEM
SOPRANO SOLOIST
RTÉ NSO
“The two soloists bring together an impressive range of styles between them.[…] soprano Jennifer Davis – just back from singing Wagner at London’s Royal Opera – produces a full tone that is powerful and exciting, as if casting a spell on us all.”
GOLDEN PLEC, MICHAEL LEE
THE VALKYRIE
HELMWIGE
ENO
“…joined an excellent team of Valkyries — among whom she [Claire Barnett-Jones], Nadine Benjamin (Gerhilde) and Jennifer Davis (Helmwige) were the vocal standouts.”
THE TIMES, HUGH CANNING
“A starry lineup of Valkyries – Jennifer Davis, Nadine Benjamin, Fleur Barron, Katie Stevenson, to name just a few – managed to ride Brabbins’ orchestral wave in Act three, quaking with fear at Wotan’s wrathful return, and singing with thrilling ferocity in the ensembles sequences”
OPERAWIRE, BENJAMIN POORE
“Visually, the most arresting sequence is the Ride of the Valkyries, whose eight-strong female team is outstanding…”
THE STAGE, GEORGE HALL
Fidelio Urfassung
LEONORE
Wiener Staatsoper
“Irish soprano Jennifer Davis portrayed the role of Leonore and was up to the task in every way, both vocally and dramatically.[…]
Davis vocally engaged for the first time during the Quartett “Mir ist so wunderbar,” offering the first insight into her bright, shining soprano in “Wie groß ist die Gefahr, wie schwach der Hoffnung Schein.”
She continued with the same vocal dedication during the beautiful trio “Gut, Söhnchen, gut, hab immer Mut, dann wird dir’s auch gelingen,” again towering over the orchestra with the beautifully phrased “Ich habe Mut, mit kaltem Blut will ich hinab mich wagen […] Ending the aria, Davis presented her gleaming top range in the final “Der Treuen Gattenliebe.” Her sound then easily traveled over the orchestration, showcasing her true vocal powers.
[…] Davis showcased more of that impassioned energy in the Third Act [and] showed tremendously fluid legato line without overly darkening her voice.”
OPERAWIRE, Dejan Vukosavljevic
“With a fleshy and firm voice, Jennifer Davis sailed with skill through the most flowery parts of Leonore’s role, displaying scrupulous musicality”
Ópera Actual – Xavier Cester (Translation from Spanish)
“ In this version, Leonore (Jennifer Davis) lacks fury and outbursts of anger. Instead of “Horrible, where are you hurrying to” she sings “Oh, don’t break, you dull heart”, with Davis effortlessly tackling the unfamiliar coloratura passages.”
br-klassik.de – Bernhard Doppler (Translation from German)
Hänsel und Gretel
Gretel
Royal Opera House
“Hanna Hipp’s Hänsel and Jennifer Davis’ Gretel are bright-voiced, eager, and play the sibling relationship to perfection…”
Bachtrack, David Karlin
“Ms Davis is a lyric soprano with some real strength behind her, as well as a very expressive acting ability, she shines here…”
The London Magazine, Stuart Martin
“Hanna Hipp is a big-voiced, energised and convincing Hansel, Jennifer Davis slips easily into Brünnhilde-sized power as Gretel, the sibling rivalry and affection are sharply observed, and they are very untwee in the dance scene.”
Classical Source, Peter Reed
Don Giovanni
Donna Anna
Opera North
“Soprano Jennifer Davis’ Donna Anna was hair-raising, but in the best possible way. Her gorgeously pure voice and acting ability gave her character a particularly strong significance.”
Bachtrack, Richard Wilcocks
L’elisir d’amore
Adina
Royal Opera House
“…we had the Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, a Jette Parker Young Artist, stepping forward at the last minute to replace the expert Adina of Alexandra Kurzak and offering a vocally impeccable performance which showed star potential in the rapid passagework of the second act.”
Opera Magazine, Stephen Hastings
Oreste
Ifigenia
Royal Opera House and Wilton’s Music Hall
“Simkin and Davis, meanwhile, sing Handel with wonderful finesse. Davis’ voice gleams at the top and her coloratura is exacting in its precision.”
The Guardian, Tim Ashley
“The women are ahead of the game here, with Vlada Borovko, Jennifer Davis and Angela Simkin all providing attractive and accomplished virtuosic singing.”
The Telegraph, Rupert Christiansen
“Jennifer Davis makes a touching Ifigenia, psychologically damaged but vocally so clean an antidote to the filth surrounding her.”
Broadway World, Alexandra Coughlan
Les Enfants Terribles
Elisabeth
Royal Ballet
“…while Jennifer Davis gave a towering sense of the histrionic, self-aware and invincible Lise. Her final heart-rending aria before shooting herself to beat her fatally-poisoned brother to death — and this win “The Game” — brought shivers down my spine.”
Bachtrack, Graham Watts
“The highest level of artistry is evident throughout the production. The singers are also fine actors […] but it’s Jennifer Davis as Lise who takes the evening’s laurels, for maintaining such a sweet sound right through to the frantic dénouement.”
The Arts Desk, Emmy Gilbert
“Jennifer Davis was a powerful Elisabeth, feisty and compelling…”
The Times, Debra Craine
