“He is joined by the dramatic Canadian soprano Ambur Braid, whose qualities we have already praised, notably as the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau Ohne Schatten on this same stage (and also in Frankfurt as Salome and as Rachel in La Juive). She portrays a proud and noble Marie, fiery and passionate, living life on her own terms. Vocally, she is stunning, effortlessly hitting high notes with impressive ease, never shouting them despite the challenging intervals demanded by the score. Her voice is wide and powerful, and her portrayal is extraordinary.”
— Helene Adam, Cult.News, Wozzeck, Opéra de Lyon, October 2024
“Even more impressive is the Marie of the Canadian soprano Ambur Braid, with a vocal amplitude without limit, but without ever forcing the line, always attentive to the diction so essential for this repertoire, and a stage presence that commands respect.”
– Premiere Loge, Wozzeck, Opéra de Lyon, October 2024
“The soprano Ambur Braid, as Marie, faces obstacles with determination, a cold and suspicious stature towards her husband, whom she treats almost like a stranger, as well as the protective and loving mother of her child. Her voice, easy in the high notes but also in the lower tones, becomes more and more intense, even abandoning itself to heartbreaking cries that express his inconsolable despair.”
– Olyrix, Wozzeck, Opéra de Lyon, October 2024
“Ambur Braid takes on the role of Marie with a nonchalant naturalness and all the ambiguity that befits this woman: attached to Wozzeck, but succumbing easily to the drum major, she does not forget to be a mother. The voice is deep and fleshy, the high notes take off but the vocals remain well attached to its solid roots.”
– Opera Online, Wozzeck, Opéra de Lyon, October 2024
“Incandescence characterizes Ambur Braid’s Marie”
– Resmusica, Wozzeck, Opéra de Lyon, October 2024
“At his side, Ambur Braid gives Marie an impressive vocal presence, playing on the opposition between the extroverted side of the character and the introverted dimension of Wozzeck, playing with the difficulties of the score.”
– Forum Opera, Wozzeck, Opéra de Lyon, October 2024
“Ambur Baird’s Rachel, a powerful soprano with brilliant, well-projected high notes, has enormous panache. Like her recent interpretations of the Teinturière in Die Frau Ohne Schatten at the Opéra de Lyon and Salome at the Frankfurt Opera, she impresses from the moment she arrives on stage with her incandescent presence, and whatever her allure (wise girl or light girl), we sense the fire smoldering beneath the ice, the strength of character of the woman who reproaches Leopold for his betrayal yet is determined to save him by sacrificing herself. Cornélie Falcon created the role, and Ambur Braid has a brilliant, powerful dramatic soprano voice that dominates most ensembles.”
– Helene Adam for Cult.news, La Juive, Oper Frankfurt, June 2024
“Amber Braid’s effortless unfolding of her well-timbred voice makes every performance of Rachel an event.”
– Roberto Becker for Concerti.net, La Juive, Oper Frankfurt, June 2024
“Ambur Braid returns to Frankfurt for the title role and impresses with a luminous soprano that can rise to great dramatic heights and clear high notes that emphasize the purity of the character. She movingly portrays the suffering of the title character, showing herself to be uncompromising when she accuses her lover in front of everyone and later turns down her father’s offer to be rescued after his arrest. In Braid’s interpretation, her determined walk to her death gets under the skin, especially as she seeks a moment of closeness to her “real” father de Brogni.”
– Judith von Sternburg for Frankfurter Rundschau, La Juive, Oper Frankfurt, June 2024
“Powerful and soaring voice for Ambur Braid’s Senta, who has a lot of fun playing the capricious little girl.”
– Opera Teatro, The Flying Dutchman, Komische Oper Berlin, March 2024
“Her soprano becomes more dramatic, and the way she lets herself be carried away on the giant wave of Strauss’s music is risky, but authentic. From the first to the last scene…the evening is hers.”
– Frankfurter Rundschau, Barrie Kosky’s Salome at Oper Frankfurt, January 2024
“Ambur Braid has probably found the role of her life in Salome. She can colour her bright voice in an almost childishly naïve way; but she also has astonishing reserves of strength which allow her to literally flood the auditorium in sound, as in her final ecstatic monologue”
– Der Opernfreund, Barrie Kosky’s Salome at Oper Frankfurt, January 2024
“Ambur Braid tries to be a 16-year-old princess with the voice of Isolde, as Strauss desired. Her voice has an attractive Straussian timbre with warm high notes and radiant long notes. Her playing is marked by a certain joy at experimentation and a healthy curiosity towards portraying unconventional women”
– Leidmotief, Barrie Kosky’s Salome at Oper Frankfurt, January 2024
“Ambur Braid (La Femme de Barak) est idéale dans son personnage très humain, alliant justesse de la voix et présence charismatique.”
– BachTrack, Die Frau Ohne Statten, Opéra de Lyon, October 2023
“Ambur Braid est une magnifique teinturière, superbe actrice et voix surmontant le déferlement de décibels dans la fosse.”
– Concertclassic.com, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Opéra de Lyon, October 2023
“And Ambur Braid blows them all away as the highly emotional Chawa – her triumph is also the triumph of a femininity that emerges from the crude archaism of the play.”
– Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Ersten Menschen at Oper Frankfurt, July 2023
“The young dramatic soprano Ambur Braid makes a brilliant role debut, both singing and acting. With her cool and clear voice and her provocative ecstatic acting, she depicts the figure of Salome radically and uncompromisingly and with her portrayal goes to the limit of a self-destructive portrait. She easily changes registers, plays with her voice, and is brilliantly clear even in the dramatic climaxes.”
“Ambur Braid is a fascinating Salome with a big, colourful voice, which has a clear declamatory edge without losing warmth.”
“Salome is Ambur Braid and she completely immerses herself in the role. She has a radiant, youthful, lyrical soprano voice, which she uses very musically.”
“You completely believe in Ambur Braid’s Salome, you believe in her every note.”
– Natascha Pflaumbaum, hr2 kultur, Barrie Kosky’s new production of Salome at Oper Frankfurt, March 2020
“Ambur Braid as Salome, a vocal and dramatic force.”
– Renate Feyerbacher, Feuilleton Frankfurt, Barrie Kosky’s new production of Salome at Oper Frankfurt, March 2020
“The Compelling Soprano, Ambur Braid.”
“In fact, the opera could almost be called Sabina, since Braid is given the most exciting music and has the biggest character arc in the show. (There are shades of Verdi’s Amneris to her.) Braid vaults through the score like an Olympian, her high notes accurate and thrilling, her emotion palpable. (She also looks fabulous in Gillian Gallow’s sumptuous costumes.)”
– Glenn Sumi, Now Toronto, Sabina Augusta in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian at The Canadian Opera Company
“Melancholic lyricism is all Sabina’s: Ambur Braid as Hadrian’s unloved wife gets to deliver “Will you have Egypt with me” as a show-stopper Puccini aria. She was also spot on in her appearance disguised as the Sibyl, launching some stratospheric spikes that she made sound logical and right, as well as later, in a Straussian trio with Hadrian and Antinous. I don’t think she’s ever sounded better—purer and more effortless of tone, more generous in colour and warmth.”
– Lydia Perovic, Opera Canada, Sabina Augusta in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian at The Canadian Opera Company
“I was intrigued that Ambur Braid effortlessly stole the show, in a character who is far more sympathetic than one might expect. The jealous wife of a gay man, she has the two most dynamic moments musically, a pair of arias that, for whatever reason, are the moments of greatest inspiration & commitment from Rufus Wainwright.”
– Leslie Barcza, Barczablog, Sabina Augusta in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian at The Canadian Opera Company
“Ambur Braid, an alumna of the COC Ensemble and COC favourite, was divine in the role of Hadrian’s neglected wife, Sabina. Regal bearing is second nature for Braid given that she is well known for playing the Queen of the Night. But Braid brought a much softer quality to this role. Her performance of an aria that I will call “Where is your Heart?” was spectacular and heart-wrenching.”
“Canadian Ambur Braid’s powerful coloratura soprano and sensitive acting as Sabina make her a strong presence throughout the evening.”
– Christopher Hoile, Opera News, Sabina Augusta in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian at The Canadian Opera Company
“Making her debut with Calgary Opera, Braid has clearly moved from a promising singer to one who is now equal to major roles with professional companies….Lighter in timbre than other Toscas, Braid was still the dominant vocal presence in this production, her singing the most nuanced and, ultimately, the most beautiful. Youthful in general demeanour, she realistically represented the character of a Tosca who captivated the hearts of both her tenor lover and Scarpia, the villainous chief of police. Moving easily on stage and without stiffness, she projected an unusually sympathetic Tosca, more capricious than maddeningly willful, as is sometimes the case with this role.”
“Gaetano Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux’s audacious coloratura arias in the opera genre represent something of a pinnacle for the interpreter. From dizzying heights in multiple-octave leaps to deep down in the limits of the mezzo-soprano register – there is an enormous vocal range required. Not many singers are able to perform this role with such sovereignty as Ambur Braid did on her role debut in the Frankfurt Opera. Her arias were accompanied on this evening by frenetic applause and cheers. As fast as Braid speeds up and down the scale, the feelings of the protagonists also change. During the two-hour performance, the audience embarks on an emotional roller coaster ride. Even if the stage performance, costumes and orchestra pit are omitted in the concert performance, the Canadian soprano, as Queen of England, shows theatrical talent.”
“The Canadian soprano Ambur Braid, who had taken over the main part a few days before the two performances and will be a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble next season, accredited the extremes of the role impressively – not only with their trumpeting tones, but also with a dramatically strengthened vocal range. Love, hate, and jealousy: Braid gave a lot of emotional expression with pleasure…”
“The passionately charged scenes focused on the emotional core offered the singer ensemble magnificent opportunities for development: The Canadian coloratura soprano Ambur Braid savored in the extremely risky part of Elisabetta with her extreme vocal range and abrupt changes in position as fearless as it was vocally powerful. Elizabeth I lavishes sounds like flashing lightning. This feminine-infuriated queen appeared fire-threatening, flinging sounds in her breakneck arias like blazing flashes.”
“As Elisabetta I, she is a force, primarily vocal, but also theatrical. From heartfelt moments to wild fury, the coloratura soprano shows all the feelings of a jealousy-filled ruler with stunning high notes and pianissimo (depicting a very young Elizabeth I).”
“Because the Canadian soprano Ambur Braid did not have to be made up as the old Elizabeth I, her sparkling stage presence could be admired quite undistracted. Braid designed a character without scepter and diamonds and actually far too young the moody queen, who is not in control. Just the corners of her mouth make you forget the absence of a set design: flattering corners of the mouth; mocking, arrogant and triumphant ones. At the end, the ringing, wrinkling corners of the mouth. The same could be said of her eyes. And the vocal mastery! All the nuances are there, from the gentle temptations to the chilling curses of an insulted diva.”
“A powerful Soprano.. Ms. Braid, when in despair, allowed her gleaming sound to turn acidic and steely. In this staging, a climactic aria for Aci becomes a veritable mad scene, which Ms. Braid delivered with unhinged intensity.”
“The soprano Ambur Braid, as Aci, sang with both force and florid charm”
“Ambur Braid as a champagne-colored coloratura in pleated blouse is a class in herself when she sings the queen, a mixture of Zerbinetta, Kundry and Lady Macbeth.”
– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dienstag, As Die Königin in Das Geheime Königreich at Opera Frankfurt
“Ambur Braid provided tons of useful background info in her funny introduction to how each of the wives hooked up with Henry (“I nerd out… Bear with me”), but mood changed from comedic to dramatic when she started singing. She voiced each queen with unreserved commitment and compassion—it was probably the emotional peak of the evening. Powerful! Larsen’s excellent cycle found an excellent ambassador.”
“We all knew that Ambur Braid had splendid highs, but what perhaps we don’t get to hear as often is how attractive and meaty her lower register is. The songs showed what a fabulous chiaroscuro voice she is. Somebody cast her in some Verdi, stat.”
– Definitelytheopera.com
“Is there a smarter singer in this city? Yes we’ve noticed how attractive she is, how effortless her high coloratura, but let me repeat, I think she’s very intelligent. For a few minutes she stood before us riffing on the wives of Henry the VIIIth almost like a stand-up comic, giving us the background while enacting a kind of distancing Brecht would have loved. I couldn’t help thinking –as I watched five distinct impersonations, one per song—that at least one motivating reason was that Braid was seeking a bit of distance for fear of becoming too emotional. Even as it was, I was in tears in several places, overwhelmed by the intensity of these songs and her portrayals. I wonder if Larsen has ever heard them done this way, so flamboyantly, yet so distinctly? I would think she’d be blown away, as were we come to think of it. Almost incidentally, there was a high C-sharp, among singing and characterization in a different style for each wife.”
– Barczablog.com
“Anne Truelove, the only “positive” character of The Rake’s Progress, a woman with true love (even in name) was treated with special care in this production. Helped by the good performance of Canadian Ambur Braid, who managed at the same time to give body and voice to the only truly operatic character from beginning to end, but with a greater complexity than usual and using a more dramatic soprano at times.”
– Público
“We finally meet the show’s leading lady and Ambur Braid is everything you want a Konstanze to be and more. She has beauty and stature and poise, but the best part is that she (and Pynkoski) are constantly willing to mock these traits, having her don spectacles or fall onto the floor in unattractive positions.
She also is the possessor of a sly wit that this master manipulator of a woman needs and an evil twinkle in her eye that tells you, in the great Häagen-Dazs sex shoppe of life, vanilla will never be her favourite flavour.
Oh yes, her voice is also something to write home to mother about, if you wanted mother to know you were seeing a girl so deliciously urbane. As she demonstrated in last season’s The Magic Flute, she can deliver the trifecta of crystalline high notes, blissfully graceful vocal cadenzas and deep emotional intensity that Mozart liked all his leading sopranos to possess.”
– The Toronto Star
“Ambur Braid, a strong-willed Konstanze, sang this famous aria with firm technique and edgy tone. By wearing and removing eyeglasses she added an amusing touch of complexity to her character.”
– The National Post
“Ambur Braid’s Konstanze met the challenges of her role in an unexpected way. There’s the big aria “Martern aller Arten” for example, where one sometimes sees a singer gamely struggle. Not only did Braid make it look easy (although we should also credit conductor David Fallis in the pit for supporting his singers so perfectly that they’re easy to hear), but of course Pynkoski & Zingg make this hysterically funny. I won’t say how. Sometimes we’re watching overdone romance, a young woman in tears for her missing BF, sometimes we’re watching her defy her scary captors. It’s wonderfully funny, owing much to Braid’s comic gift, which we saw amply displayed last year in Die Fledermaus. Yes Braid can sing, but she’s very smart and never dull.”
– Barczablog.com
“There was, however, a wonderful wake-up call given the production by Ambur Braid as the Queen of the Night. She eschewed the diva-esque posturing that many women adopt for the role and gave us instead a ravishing creature of glacially cold evil, which made the sharply carved icicle notes she dispensed during her signature Act II aria seem all the more appropriate.”
– The Toronto Star
“Ambur Braid was our Vitellia, communicating malice with intense acting and a steely, tight vibrato. She cross-pollinated coloratura with verismo in Act 1; Non più di fiori, in Act 2, was nothing less than a mad scene. I must say this raven-haired Canadian does wicked rather well.”
– The National Post
“The stand out has to be Ambur Braid’s Vitellia. She was so inside the character it was scary. She sang an extraordinary cadenza in her big first act aria and right at the end she produced a veiled tone that was weird, disturbing and exactly right. She is so “in the moment.”
– Operaramblings.com
“The Vitellia is Ambur Braid – an extraordinarily versatile singer who seems able to turn her voice to anything. Well who knows? But the Vitellia displayed vocal beauty and technical assurance in abundance, as well as another fiery theatrical presence.”
– Brian Dickie
Top Ten Theatre Artists of 2012
“Anyone who thinks opera singers are all voice and no drama hasn’t seen Braid’s work with the Canadian Opera Company. A member of the COC’s Ensemble Studio, she sang in The Tales Of Hoffmann and wowed viewers in the Ensemble’s performance of Handel’s Semele, giving a tragic turn to the title character; she depicted Semele’s progressive madness in a coloratura aria usually sung for its sweetness. In the fall she won hearts onstage and in the audience as the pert maid, Adele, in Die Fledermaus.”
– NOW Magazine
“Ambur Braid drops her maid’s gear to emerge in finery as the best Adele ever: sexy, sparky, sensational.”
– Toronto Star
“..(the) maid Adele as portrayed by Ambur Braid. I’d been expecting to enjoy this portrayal, but was not prepared for how fully she inhabited the maid- who- becomes –Olga. While I’d seen the photos in the publicity, I was unprepared for the power (and comedy) of her transformation from the ugly duckling of Act I into the seductive Olga in Act II. Her rendition of the laughing song had a delightfully angry edge to it.”
– Barczablog
“She plays Amore, goddess/god of love (she switches genders midway through the show). She is tall, thin, with Audrey Hepburn eyes, long auburn hair, and perfect teeth.”
– The Walrus Magazine
“The performances are superb. Braid’s Amore is characterful and spontaneous in voice and presence.”
– NOW Magazine