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ELYSE ANNE KAKACEK
PRESS
“The cast of young classically trained singers combined their acting chops with mostly powerful and fluid vocal acumen. I was especially impressed with Elyse Kakacek’s sparkling soprano voice.”
CHICAGOCRITIC.COM
Formless: The Biblical Songs of Antonin Dvořák
December 2020
"He and I both agreed that we needed to have that moment grow into something larger, so without a real plan in place, we sort of decided to schedule a recording session,” she said. “I had a friend who was starting a small label at the time who was really excited about the idea of this project, too, who was willing to record us for free, and we had the space in Fifth Ave Pres, the chapel, which has just beautiful acoustics.”
HOLLYWOOD SOAPBOX
Formless: The Biblical Songs of Antonin Dvořák
November 2020
"In 1894, composer Antonin Dvorak completed a song cycle in English that was translated from the 1579 Czech version of the Bible. Elyse Anne Kakacek uses Dvorak’s English text of the Bible translated from the Czech version in her album “Formless.” Rio Grande Guardian arts correspondent Mario Muñoz spoke to Kakacek about her album “Formless.” This podcast features the interview."
RIO GRANDE GUARDIAN
Formless: The Biblical Songs of Antonin Dvořák
November 2020
“Kakacek’s voice is rich, lush, and spellbinding as it traverses the Psalms, and the music allows her to open up her voice in a big way that’s dramatic and riveting while remaining personal...
“formless” invites the listener into a different type of intimate space, one where both Dvořák and Kakacek’s souls are bravely on display, making the recording a balm for our times.
Formless: The Biblical Songs of Antonin Dvořák
November 2020
"The young American soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek joins us to discuss her new album Formless: The Biblical Songs of Antonin Dvořák. Inspirational in both interpretation and content, Formless offers a peaceful meditation on spirituality – and a salve for the soul in troubled times such as these."
WGTE CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS
OPERAWIRE
DON GIOVANNI
Bronx Opera
January 2020
"As Zerlina, Elyse Ann Kakacek, deployed her sweet high soprano to great effect. This peasant bride was less wily than naïve."
PARTERRE
Don G Bronx
FEATURE: SINGER SPOTLIGHT
CS Music
October 2019
"I saw an opportunity to give voice to a living female composer, with feminine centric music and poetry, in this time when our culture is desperately craving healthy femininity. I saw an opportunity to use music to promote social change– which can be a rare thing in classical music."
Untethered: The Song Cycles of Valerie Saalbach
August 2019
“There is a crystalline clarity to Kakacek’s voice and the chemistry between Kakacek and pianist Christopher Fecteau could not be better.”
Untethered: The Song Cycles of Valerie Saalbach
August 2019
"Valerie Saalbach’s three wholly modern song cycles get a bravura treatment from American soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek... Kakacek is an extraordinarily powerful soprano, and the recording here puts her squarely in your living room as if she were there live."
THE REHEARSAL STUDIO
STAGE & CINEMA
princess maleine
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2019
"Elyse Kakacek’s sizable, unexpectedly deep and honey-colored soprano soars."
PARTERRE
MALEINE PRESS
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2019
"Princess Maleine, played by expertly by soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek, doesn’t waste away, pining in her stone prison, waiting for a knight in shining armor to save her... Soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek was captivating in the title role as she floated her voice into the heavens with a feathery tone. As Maleine longed to be reunited with Prince Hjalmar, her voice was injected with sweet pathos. When all turned tragic, you felt for Maleine because Kakacek drew you into the character’s joys and sorrows. Kakacek projected confidence in her instrument and a deep understanding of her character’s motivations.”
OPERAWIRE
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2019
“Ms. Kakacek has a lilting voice, ideal here."
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2019
“Lovely Princess Maleine of Harlingen, a role portrayed beautifully by the lovely soprano Elyse Kakacek, looked and sang exactly right.”
CONCERTONET
VOCE DI MECHE
DON GIOVANNI
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2018
"As the young bride Zerlina, Elyse Kakacek nearly ran away with the opera... Zerlina's Act I aria "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" is a tour de force, and her strong acting and vocals are one of the production's highlights."
STAGEBUDDY (NYC)
Zerlina Press
“The singers were superb… Soprano Elyse Kakacek, another Dell'Arte regular, stunned us by her unwavering presence in the role. Her bodily and facial gestures were completely consonant with what was happening onstage. She was an all-too-willing ‘victim’ for Don Giovanni's seduction. Her "Batti, batti" was beautifully sung, as was ‘Vedrai carino.’”
VOCE DI MECHE
L'EURIDICE
The Cantanti Project
February 2018
As Dafne, the bearer of those sad tidings, soprano Elyse Kakacek excelled. Her vocalism combined clarity of tone with depth of feeling, and her facial expressions told of the grief her message cost her. An intrinsic sense of hesitancy in her presentation made clear her reluctance to tell the tale of Euridice's fate. Later, though, as his friends urged Orfeo to seek his beloved in Hades, Ms. Kakacek circled the space in authentic dance moves, exhorting everyone to optimism and the hope of a happy resolution. “
OBERON'S GROVE
L'Euridice Press
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2017
“In a scene which anticipates Wagner's Götterdämmerung Norns (even down to having a contralto sing first), Ms. Gish's La Natura is joined by Elyse Kakacek as L'Eternità and Jungje Xu as Il Destino. Ms. Kakacek looked striking as she sang from the mezzanine; the voice is full and wide-ranging, pinging out into the theater space. When these three singers blended voices, the effect was superb.
dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
August 2017
“Mezzo-soprano Allison Gish portrayed La Natura in the Prologue, with soprano Elyse Kakacek taking the role of L'Eternita and mezzo-soprano Jingye Xu appearing as Il Destino who convinces the other two that Calisto deserves her place in the heavens. The women also appeared as The Furies.”
VOCE DI MECHE
OBERON'S GROVE
La Calisto Press
flash operas
Experiments in Opera
May 2017
“A truly excellent cast of four singers was employed… The music combined pop elements with contemporary classical techniques. The standout performer among the quartet was soprano Elyse Kakacek as Patty Mars, the writer/entrepeneur… The story, about a tollbooth worker (Maroney) who encounters a desperate, penniliess driver who is a battered woman (Kakacek), seemed compelling. I give both women high ratings for their lyrical singing.”
OPERA NEWS
Flash operas press
Experiments in Opera
May 2017
“The Flash Operas, all 10–15 minutes in duration, were made by Cady, Siegel, Welch, Cristina Lord, Nicole Murphy, and Miguel Frasconi. Fitting their diminutive stature, all the librettos were derived from short stories. And true to the compact, DIY nature of EIO, they shared the same handful of props and a talented and enthusiastic rotating cast of four singers... Lord’s music was lively and showed a special ability to convey sarcasm in the wordless vocal lines of Marx (soprano Elyse Kakacek)… Siegel’s The Wallet left the deepest effect of the evening in terms of expression and craft... From a story by Andrew McCuaig, the wallet in question belonged to one of two toll booth workers (McKeever and Maroney). The man has a crush on the woman, who keeps her distance. He’s also grateful she returned his lost wallet to him. He leaves it behind again, wherein she takes the cash from it and gives it to a battered woman (Kakacek) who has pulled up, fleeing her partner, asking for help… The basic humanity of everyone came through, and the singers were at their most natural and expansive states. A complete, compact drama, well-told.”
NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
Experiments in Opera
May 2017
“Combining six chamber operas, four stellar singers, five instrumentalists, one intrepid conductor, and a stellar artistic team, the self-proclaimed “fun and fearless” opera collective, Experiments in Opera had all of the ingredients to create a richly fulfilling evening of Flash Operas... The variety and quality of compositions and the talent of the performers is welcome evidence of the richness and vitality of the New York music scene… Self-absorbed and ditsy, Patty is portrayed with aplomb by Elyse Kakacek, who nailed the opera’s opening bel canto-style cadenza with good intonation and comedic sincerity… Just as she airs her sadness, a woman (soprano, Elyse Kakacek) who has obviously been battered and beaten appears. The woman sings a lament recalling broken glass, screaming, and a heartbreaking past. The women do not discuss the abuse in detail, but instead join together in a moving duet singing, “We had to leave and we did...that’s our world passing by.””
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN
Experiments in Opera
May 2017
“The constant for the evening was excellent direction, costume design, solid lighting, and strong orchestration, as well as four skilled singers who covered all the works for the roughly 90-minute program with delicacy, power, and aplomb… Elyse Kakacek, Kate Maroney, Timothy Stoddard, and Eric McKeever proved themselves not only competent but occasionally transcendent. In The Wallet, Elyse’s aria as a battered woman was haunting and heartbreaking, and at the end of the piece, both Kate and Elyse’s characters were caught, singing at the same time, but isolated in uncertainty as their branching future as individuals was intensified by their momentary meeting and connection at the tollbooth.”
THE THEATRE TIMES
DON PASQUALE
Windy City Opera
2016
“Their current production of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" (Windy City Opera) boasts one of Chicago's most reliable, talented, and hard-working singers - soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek, who can seemingly trill on any note in her scale and hold it out for an entire page of the score."
VOCAL ARTS CHICAGO
Norina Press
Chicago Summer Opera
Summer 2016
“Chicago Summer Opera kicks off its fourth season with Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring. Previous productions by this young artist program have introduced audiences to exceptional rising talent such as soprano Elyse Kakacek, baritone Samuel Thompson, and countertenor Patrick Terry.”
St. Thomas the Apostle Church
2015
“A Mozart aria sung by soprano Elyse Kakacek had languid beauty.”
HYDE PARK HERALD
VOCAL ARTS CHICAGO
The Cobalt Opera
August 2014
“Soprano Elyse Anne Kakacek gave Nedda a pretty voice and a pleasing ability to navigate the stage. She was particularly fine in the story-within-a-story displaying marionette-like movement emphasizing how she was stuck in her role in life. She’s a young singer with vocal heft”
American Chamber Opera
2013
“The cast of young classically trained singers combined their acting chops with mostly powerful and fluid vocal acumen. I was especially impressed with Elyse Kakacek’s sparkling soprano voice.”
CHICAGOCRITIC.COM
HYDE PARK HERALD
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