“Ailyn Pérez has a strongly vibrant lyric voice which at times seemed to suggest spinto hints. Her coloratura, in the waltz song and elsewhere, had a strong, rather spunky quality to it which gave Juliette a robustness to her character. Perez’ voice is rather different to the lighter voiced French-style coloratura sopranos who always used to sing this role, and the result was to bring out Juliette’s personality, she was anything but shy and retiring, and clearly a bit wayward. This Juliette was a close relation to Maria in Westside Story … Gounod’s Juliette is not just about display, he gives the character quite a few quieter, introspective moments and here Pérez was profoundly touching, capturing the character’s uncertainty and spinning a profoundly beautiful quiet line.”

Planet Hugill