DENiZ UZUN

HONEY & BLOOD
recital | inselsommer festival
"The career of the singer Deniz Uzun, who opened the evening, sounds almost like a fairy tale. The German-Turkish artist grew up in Mannheim, where she made street music with her brother and was active in the band Alyuvar. Her great voice and huge talent were discovered and encouraged. She studied in Mannheim and in Bloomington (USA). Today she sings at the Komische Oper Berlin, previously she was a member of the ensemble of the Zurich Opera. She now comes to the Parkinsel with Jon Wassermann, a former fellow student who is actually a specialist in baroque guitar. On the Island-summer he played an electrically amplified concert guitar. Percussion was provided by Cris Gavazzoni, who, like Uzun, has performed at the National Theater Mannheim, Onur Caliskan from Istanbul plays the clarinet. Folk songs from around the Bosporus, songs of Sephardic Jews, art songs and fishermen's songs - the musical spectrum was broad. Common to all was the sonorous and touching voice of the singer, who performed each song with great intensity. She also performed poems set to music by Nazim Hikmet, the legendary innovator of Turkish poetry who was persecuted and imprisoned in his homeland.“
die rheinpfalz

TANCREDI
isaura | festival de beaune
"In the role of Isaura, the young German-Turkish mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun shows multiple qualities, such as a full and colorful tone, a secure projection and a musical sensitivity of the highest quality."
olyrix
"The mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun sings the role of Isaura, Amenaide's friend, with a homogeneous voice, soft and resonant, powerful, and all the assurance necessary for someone singing the first words of the opera immediately after the first choral entrance. She masterfully asserts her personality from scene 4 (“Amenaide sventurata!”, illustrating in particular her ease in the low register) then in act II (her dialogue with Orbazzano, and her reproaches: “Trionfa, esulta, barbaro!”)"
forum opera



CARMEN
landestheater salzburg
Deniz Uzun provides enough reasons for this in the title role. The only guest singer of the evening has the sensuous glow needed for Carmen in her darkly hued, yet flexible mezzo voice, which not only conveys erotic appeal but also inner wounds. Acting wise she is the center of the production, leaving safe ground and using her voice flawlessly even in the - spatial - height. Even the tragic end of the character is embedded in the overall scenic concept.“
salzburger nachrichten
"A guest was engaged for the title role. Deniz Uzun, who will soon join the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin, not only has the necessary expressiveness for the sensational Carmen numbers. She brings in nuances, thereby minimizing everything clichéd about this character."
drehpunkt kultur
"Deniz Uzun in the title role is also really irresistible. In the beginning she appears as the unapproachable moon goddess in a white glitter dress and casually sings the "Habanera" in a silvery crescent moon expanded high above the ground."
dorfzeitung
EUGENE ONEGIN
olga | komische oper berlin
"Deniz Uzun offers a portrait of Olga that contrasts ideally with that of Tatiana: the young girl is both more mature, perhaps also more inconsistent, which is reflected admirably by the stage acting but also by the singer's singing, carried by a warm and velvety voice, with assured projection."
bachtrack



PARIS OPERA COMPETITION
semifinals
"Deniz Uzun who sang alongside Cecilia Bartoli in Zurichs’s production of Handel’s Semele under Christie and directed by Robert Carsen, puts the microphones to the test, without saturating the sound, and proving the quality of her voice and technique (and winning her ticket to Paris)."
olyrix
ELEKTRA
the third maid | salzburg festival
"There are around those four protagonists many supporting roles, servants, maids, who pass and who have one or two lines: all are in their place. In a festival like Salzburg there is no room for error in any choice of role. The maids of the first scene are really excellent, and we will mention the third maid of Deniz Uzun, with a beautiful projection, a large, meaty voice, that we had already noticed in Zurich where she sang Krista in The Makropoulos affair in fall 2019. We wrote about her: “(she) shows a freshness, a vocal and scenic presence, a very particular energy and intensity. One to be watched."
wanderer

"But it is above all the mezzo-sopranos who impress during this gala. Deniz Uzun has a warm timbre and full low register that shines beautifully in the rare Joan of Arc aria in Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans. She is also a remarkable and particularly well-singing Dorabella in the Cosi fan tutte duet."
toute la culture

SALOME
page | dallas symphony orchestra
"Deniz Uzun’s mezzo soprano was a welcome bit of brazen warmth as Queen Herodias’s page.“
texas classical review
"Mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun gave us a spitfire but androgynous portrayal of the page, a pants role that is perhaps left open to be any youngster.“
north texas performing arts news


HANS GABOR BELDEVERE COMPETiTiON
winner | jurmala, latvia
"There were five others who won special jury prizes which translate into valuable engagements to opera houses around Europe, Russia and South Africa. The German mezzo-soprano Deniz Uzun was the most engaging of them and should, I felt, have captured one of the top prizes. Energetic and coquettish, she flirted her way through Rossini’s “Cruda sorte” from L’italiana in Algeri. And while the tessitura of the part of Isabella is much more suited to a contralto, Uzun proved herself splendidly agile as she dexterously sung the low F as well as the F two octaves higher.“
bachtrack
DiE SACHE MAKROPULOS
krista | opernhaus zürich
„As Krista, Deniz Uzun brought a sappy, orange-toned mezzo and coped admirably with the high-lying tessitura.“
operatraveller
"The young soprano Krista (in the Zurich version she can hold a candle to her idol Emilia with an impressively clearness and power in her voice: Deniz Uzun)"
tagblatt

"Deniz Uzun could prove again that she is a big win for the ensemble."
das opernmagazin
"Deniz Uzun: stunningly rebellious."
klasika plus


MANON
rosette | opernhaus zürich
"Deniz Uzun with her rich, dark mezzo-soprano and timbre which built a perfect base for the funny trio.“
international theatre reviews
SEMELE
ino | opernhaus zürich
"Ino was Deniz Uzun. I was impressed by the true alto quality of her voice, its depth and smoothness, and her great projection.“
bachtrack
"Deniz Uzun was dolled up for her role as Semele’s sister, Ino, and is a Zurich regular. She has a delightful voice and acts convincingly.“
seen and heard international


LA VERiTÁ iN CiMENTO
zelim | opernhaus zürich
"The young mezzo Deniz Uzun (in a pants role as Zelim) had an astonishing warmth and poise to her sound, making me eager to follow her budding career.“
seen and heard international
"The singers all excellent, and Deniz received the biggest applause, it was more the award of Prima inter pares, even if well deserved."
litteratur
"...and the lonely left Zelim (wonderful and ravishing and pitiful at the same time: Deniz Uzun the whole evening in a black anarchy-streetwear by Karin Jod) lets his depression out while singing the added aria from the Vivaldi opera "L´incronazione di Dario" full of sadness, though beautiful and excitingly melancholic."
arcimboldisworld


RONJA RÄUBERTOCHER
ronja | opernhaus zürich
"Positively everyone sings without exception understandably every word. The cast is filled with clear and expressive opera voices... In the center certainly Ronja and Birk, though the relative strenght of the voices is set by the voicetypes; Mezzosoprano for the girl and soprano for the boy. With Deniz Uzun and Florie Valiquette this works perfectly. Ronja has the overwhelming strength for her protest and primal scream in the spring forest, but also the golden sound of empathy."
der landbote
L'ENFANT ET LES SORTiLÈGES
l'enfant | opernhaus zürich
"The cast has known and unknown faces, who brought light to the evening and there was no role that had no musical and scenical presence... Deniz Uzun, born in Mannheim, already known from her performance as Ronja the Robber's Daughter, plays extremely believable the reblious child, with an expressive Mezzo Soprano she portrays touchingly the child's restrained emotions of the needs of the adolescence."
roccosound



LUCiA Di LAMMERMOOR
alisa | opernfestspiele münchen
"Also minor roles should not be ignored. The turkish Mezzosoprano Deniz Uzun is a big surprise of the evening. Her voice is huge and adheres in the ear. From her one would like to hear more in the future!"
klassik begeistert
LADY MACBETH OF MTENSK
sonyetka | opernhaus zürich
Of the minor roles, several stood out..particularly young alto newcomer Deniz Uzun, displaying a warm chest voice"
seen and heard international
"Listen up to Deniz Uzun with an erotic colored, dark Mezzosoprano in the role of Sonyetka."
oper aktuell


