SashaCooke

Press

• Tristan und Isolde (Brangäne)

  Opéra de Rouen

  Jun 2024

  • Sasha Cooke confirme qu’elle est une des plus grandes Brangäne actuelles : il suffit d’entendre la messa di voce qu’elle dépose dès le « einsam » de ses appels au deuxième acte – appels qu’elle élonge jusqu’au dernier souffle d’air que lui permet son excellente technique – pour s’en convaincre." [Translated] "Sasha Cooke confirms that she is one of today's greatest Brangäne: you only have to hear the messa di voce she delivers from the "einsam" of her calls in Act II - calls that she stretches out to the last breath of air that her excellent technique allows her - to be convinced.

    • Forum Opera
    • 20 June 2024

  • Se situant à ce même niveau d’excellence, l’américaine Sasha Cooke installe également toute sa maîtrise en Brangäne. Cette voix de mezzo-soprano aux accents mordorés, assez claire de timbre cependant, se déploie en équivalence de celle d’Isolde au 1er acte avant de livrer ensuite des appels idéalement soutenus et troublants d’expressivité. Elle retrouvera d'ailleurs le rôle cet été pour le 2ème Acte de cet opéra, au Festival de Baden-Baden auprès de Camilla Nylund et Jonas Kaufmann." [Translated] "Situated at this same level of excellence, the American Sasha Cooke also demonstrates her mastery in Brangäne. This mezzo-soprano voice with golden accents, quite clear in timbre however, unfolds in equivalence to that of Isolde in the first act before then delivering calls that are ideally sustained and disturbingly expressive. She will also return to the role this summer for the 2nd Act of this opera, at the Baden-Baden Festival with Camilla Nylund and Jonas Kaufmann .

    • Olyrix
    • 17 June 2024

  • On applaudit le mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke aux commandes d’une Brangäne suave." "We applaud the mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke at the helm of a suave Brangäne

    • Anaclase
    • 18 June 2024

  • La mezzo étasunienne Sascha Cooke est une superlative Brangäne, avec ce qu’il faut de velours dans le timbre et de souffle, pour rendre pleinement justice à son personnage." "The American mezzo Sasha Cooke is a superlative Brangäne, with just the right amount of velvet tone and breath to do full justice to her character

    • Classique News
    • 21 June 2024

• Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira)

  Houston Grand Opera

  Apr 2024 - May 2024

  • Sasha Cooke mastered this role, whether singing the fiery passagework of Donna Elvira's outrage or the poignant lyricism of her lover's yearning. There was, moreover, a dark-chocolatey resonance to her mezzo-soprano that was attractive all on its own.

    • Houston Chronicle
    • 21 April 2024

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Sylvie)

  Dallas Opera

  Nov 2023 - Nov 2023

  • Another Grammy winner and cast member from the 2015 Everest production was Cooke, who sang Sylvie with a refined mezzo-soprano. Enhancing the opera’s realistic approach, her acting was subdued, her fears and confusion free of melodrama.

    • Stuart Cheney, Texas Classical Review
    • 04 November 2023

• The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Laurene)

  San Francisco Opera

  Sep 2023 - Oct 2023

  • Mezzo-Sopran Sasha Cooke als Laurene hat die Rolle auch bei der Uraufführung in Santa Fe vertreten. Sie ist die Frau im Leben von Jobs, die durch ihre Wärme, Empathie und Zuneigung als einzige mit ganzem Herzen zu ihm durchdringt. Sie allein vermag ihn zumindest zeitweise zu erden und ihm ein Bewusstsein seiner schweren Krankheit und seines frühen, bevorstehenden Todes zu vermitteln. Der warme Mezzo von Sasha Cooke ergreift die Zuhörer. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Laurene also performed the role at the premiere in Santa Fe. She is the woman in Jobs' life who is the only one who gets through to him wholeheartedly through her warmth, empathy and affection. She alone is able to ground him, at least temporarily, and make him aware of his serious illness and his early, impending death. Sasha Cooke's warm mezzo grips the listener.

    • Achim Dombrowski, Opera Online
    • 30 October 2023

  • The outstanding vocal performance was by Sasha Cooke singing Laurene, the wife of Jobs, and who appeared in an early scene to hear the younger Jobs lecture. Cooke sang with body and conviction. She was easy to believe. Her voice convinced with its lustrous sound, its rich and ardent low registers as well as its highs. She was a solid and warm counterpoint to the ever-moving, ever-stimulated Jobs. Her performance resonated with what remained of humanity in the midst of the frenzy of electronic life.

    • Lois Silverstein, Opera Wire
    • 30 September 2023

  • Laurene, whom mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke brought to life with stirring emotional warmth as well as grit, is swathed in radiant harmonies and soaring, neo-Romantic lyricism.

    • Thomas May, Classical Voice America
    • 04 October 2023

  • Baritone John Moore and mezzo soprano Sasha Cooke made a dramatic, convincing couple as Steve and Laurene Powell Jobs. They led the vibrant cast through four decades of scenes set in Silicon Valley, Yosemite Valley, Oregon, and the Santa Cruz mountains, and the performance was followed by an 80s after-party in the lower-level restaurant of the SF Opera House.

    • Laura Stanfield Prichard, Classical Scene
    • 23 September 2023

  • Cooke delivered Laurene’s summation of Steve’s many contradictions, his cruelty and genius, with gorgeous inflections to her distinctively pure sound.

    • Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International
    • 24 September 2023

  • As his wife Laurene, Cooke demonstrated tenderness and expressiveness in the role, her beautiful voice soared over those “oceanic harmonies” particularly in her almost-Wagnerian soliloquy in Scene 16, where Laurene confronts Jobs and persuaded him to accept his illness and mortality. She was equally mesmerizing in the quiet final “Memorial Service” scene, where she reminded the audience to “look up and look around.”

    • Michael Anthonio, Parterre Box
    • 28 September 2023

  • Another Grammy winner and cast member from the 2015 Everest production was Cooke, who sang Sylvie with a refined mezzo-soprano. Enhancing the opera’s realistic approach, her acting was subdued, her fears and confusion free of melodrama.

    • Stuart Cheney, Texas Classical Review
    • 04 November 2023

  • Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke is one of two artists (along with Wei Wu) that created their present roles at the opera’s 2017 world premiere. Since then, the opera has been revised, with most of revisions relating to its presentation of Steve Jobs’ wife, Laurene, as an equal partner in her marriage to Steve. Cooke had drawn praise for her original Santa Fe performances. As Steve’s equal partner in marriage, she was even more impactful in the current production, both vocally and dramatically.

    • William Burnett, Opera War Horses
    • 29 September 2023

• Mendelssohn Elijah

  Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival with Alan Gilbert

  Jul 2023

  • Die drei anderen Solo-Partien waren ebenbürtig fein gecastet worden: Christina Landshamers strahlender, lyrischer Sopran mischte sich bestens mit dem runden, schlanken Mezzo von Sasha Cooke. The three other solo roles were equally finely cast: Christina Landshamer's radiant, lyrical soprano blended perfectly with Sasha Cooke's round, slender mezzo.

    • Joachim Mischke, Hamburger Abendblatt
    • 02 July 2023

• Elgar Dream of Gerontius

  Wiener Konzerthaus

  Mar 2023

  • In den anderen Rollen die amerikanische Mezzosopranistin Sasha Cooke als gar nicht weltfremder, sondern fast menschlicher Engel und der profunde britische Bariton Roderick Williams in der Doppelrolle als Priester und Todesengel. In the other roles, the American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as an almost human angel and the profound British baritone Roderick Williams in the double role of priest and angel of death.

    • Moritz Roniger, Wiener Zeitung
    • 03 March 2023

• Alma Mahler Songs

  Royal Festival Hall

  Oct 2024

  • US singer Sasha Cooke is a real mezzo, dark of voice, superbly lyrical, full-voiced, delivering the perfect amount of vibrato. The fourth of the five songs was heard next, the deliciously free and light ‘Bei dir ist es traut’ (‘With you I am at ease’).

    • Seen and Heard
    • 26 October 2024

  • Cooke sang with exquisite poise and lyrical refinement: this really is a most beautiful voice.

    • The Guardian
    • 25 October 2024

  • Cooke is adept at “acting through song”, to borrow an expression often used in musical theatre, and her vocal sound is richly arresting. The gentle ending and control in Die stille Stadt was striking as were her legato notes in Bei dir ist es traut. And I enjoyed the story telling in In meines Vaters Garten which came complete with yawns, stretches and finger wagging.

    • Susan Elkin Reviews
    • 25 October 2024

  • The mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke cast the quartet of songs in a dewy glow, even if it was streaked with Wagnerian dissonance. The finest was Bei dir ist es traut, a rapt but unshowy setting of Rilke.

    • The Times
    • 25 October 2024

• Fanny and Alexander

  La Monnaie

  Dec 2024

  • Emilie Ekdahl, mother of Fanny and Alexander, is played with great sensitivity by Sasha Cooke . Embodying a mother torn between the mourning of her husband and her quest for happiness, she gradually slides with fear towards a tragic register, sublimated by a voice marked by nobility. Her tight vibrato and her warm range give off an expressive richness, tinged with a golden nuance.

    • Olyrix
    • 02 December 2024

  • Sasha Cooke 's Emilie was also magnificent, with a very attractive, fleshy timbre and a precise ability to delineate the pain, remorse and, in the end, the determination of the character.

    • Opera Actual
    • 03 December 2024

  • Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke , with her supple and ductile voice, but also powerful and full-bodied, imposes herself as the moving and broken Émilie.

    • Resmusica
    • 03 December 2024

  • Another strong and perfectly played role is Emilie Ekdahl, the children's mother, sung by Sasha Cooke who subtly conveys the character's heartbreak and contradictions

    • Leidmotif
    • 07 December 2024