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Anastasiya Taratorkina was an excellent Alphise with her youthful, bright soprano voice.

Particularly impressive were the skilfully incorporated coloraturas, which she incorporated into the repetitions of the passages of her arias and thus shone both technically and musically.

With her soubrette-light soprano, she plays the lively playmaker.

which gave the roll an ethereal quality. She was easy to understand and her soprano shone with a velvety colour that gave the audience a real treat. Her crystal-clear voice and precise articulation lent the Waldvogel an enchanting lightness and grace. Especially in the scenes in which she shows Siegfried the way, she created a fairy-tale atmosphere that offered a fascinating contrast to the dark and dramatic moments of the opera.

The young soprano Anastasiya Taratorkina is an event as Gilda. Her voice shines and radiates, never sounding shrill even in the highest trebles. And in the quieter episodes, every phrase, every note is touching.

as the precocious MARZELLINE, who, not yet outgrown her schoolgirl uniform, dreams of love and marriage.

“She has such unstressed and beautiful tones in the piano, very soft!” The chairwoman of the ARD Music Competition jury, Felicity Lott, is delighted with the soprano from Dresden.

Here we may have heard a successor to the great Antonina Neschdanova, whose recordings are often cited as a reference for the bel canto of the second half of the 19th century. Ms Taratorkina owes her knowledge of bel canto technique and style to her studies with Hendrikje Wangemann at the Dresden University of Music. The sun rose radiantly during her Norina aria from Don Pasquale by Donizetti. Perfect diction, softly intoned top notes at every dynamic level, humour and an economical approach to the exact point of the role made her interpretation an experience. Here, too, there was a spontaneous switch to a suicidal Pamina, who succeeded so intimately, colourfully and in perfect German that after the last notes there was dead silence before the bursting applause. “No word from Tom” from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress revealed further interesting vocal colours and an astonishingly sonorous depth. Anastasiya Taratorkina is a virtuosa and a name to remember, because she will soon be conquering the big houses as Gilda, Norina and hopefully Zerbinetta too.