Phil Muse reviews Oksana Dyka, Constantine Orbelian, and Kaunas City Symphony’s In Questa Reggia recording in the June issue of the Atlanta Audio Club’s Classical Corner:
“Oksana Dyka is a phenomenal singer with a very mature soprano voice for one who still appears to be in her youth. … That mature voice throughout every part of her register serves her well in the program of Verdi and Puccini arias she presents on the present release by Delos Productions, based in Sonoma, California. Here, she presents vivid portraits of Puccini’s great heroines: Turandot, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Manon Lescaut, as well as Verdi’s heroines in Nabucco, La forza del destino, and Macbeth. … Dyka does a wonderful job managing the conflicting hopes and anxieties in the aria “Un bel di, vedremo”, concluding with the powerful release of pent-up emotion at the climax of the aria. The Verdi arias are equallly memorable… A special treat on this album are the lead soprano’s three arias from Verdi’s Macbeth, an opera that has been seldom-staged until recent times, largely because of the difficult of rendering the character of Shakespeare’s villainess Lady Macbeth with the human sympathy and the vocal presence that the role requires. Oksana Dyka provides both. Working in close partnership with Dyka to ensure the success of this album are Constantine Orbelia and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra of Lithuania, a conductor and orchestra I’ve often enjoyed hearing in their collaborations with singers.”
—Phil Muse, Atlanta Audio
