Category Archives: REVIEWS

Sweeney Todd – Bergen

“Tenor Samuel Boden sang as sweetly as the birds admired by his romantic interest Johanna”
Opera Now, January 2020

“As an opera critic with a certain orientation towards pre-modern times, I was excited to hear the young British tenor Samuel Boden in the role of the young and charming sailor Anthony Hope. Boden is one of today’s finest exponents of the wonderfully peculiar voice type, haute contre , a very bright tenor voice found mostly within French 18th-century opera. It was fun then to hear Boden sing in a 1979 musical with the greatest of course.”
NRK, 7 November 2019 

Handel: Saul – Beaune 

Samuel Boden offers us a Jonathan, generous, loving. … The voice is agile, flexible and gives its full measure in the recitatives as in the following arias, “Sin not, O King” with the two bassoons, in particular.”
ForumOpera,  6 July 2019

Samuel Boden gives Jonathan, the unhappy hero caught between his duty and his feelings, the appropriate disturbed delicacy, supported by his elegiac tenor voice.”
ConcertClassic.Com, 6 July 2019

Larcher: The Hunting Gun – Aldeburgh Festival 2019

“As the Poet, Samuel Boden channels the quartet’s agonies while standing apart from the action, and his tenor is heard at its most eloquent.” 
ClassicalSource.com, 7th June 2019

Samuel Boden gave a solid interpretation of the Poet.”
Financial Times, 11 June 2019

“The opera was extremely well cast and acted in a slow and minimalist sort of way. Samuel Boden (Poet) looked the part from head to toe not only by his style and dress but also by his actions.” 
Planet Hugill, 13th June 2019

Samuel Boden …[was] in all respects first class …”
The Observer, 15 June 2019

Benjamin: Lessons in love and Violence – Opéra de Lyon

“Peter Hoare imposes a Mortimer of biting lines and vindictive force, which contrasts with the ethereal timbre of Samuel Boden, the heir.”
Toute la Culture, 3 June 2019

“The impotence of the king’s son is aptly diffused through the clear timbre of Samuel Boden.
Resmusica, 30 May 2019

“the Young Boy, then the young King, are superbly incarnated by the tenor Samuel Boden, whose voice, always at ease in the crystalline high notes and excellently projected, is an object of permanent delight.”
Classique News, 25 May 2019

Samuel Boden plays the Boy and Young King with a clear and bright timbre gaining confidence in parallel with his character, at first naive and innocent, then putting aside his doubts once the crown is on his head to avenge his father.”
Opera Online, 20 May 2019

“The tenor Samuel Boden embodies with accuracy and talent, the flexibility and vivacity of his acting, with clear top notes and excellent projection, the character of the Boy, then the Young King”
Forum Opéra, 20 May 2019

“A beautiful lyric tenor, Samuel Boden, was heard in the role of the young king.”
Online Merker, 18 May 2019

Samuel Boden excels as a Young King in a clear and well-timed voice and translates his passage from innocent childhood to the conscious adult of his power.”
ODB-Opéra, 18 May 2019

“And Samuel Boden seems to be watching his development from the crown prince to the hard-hitting king with almost childlike innocence from afar. Vocally as enthralling as the whole ensemble.”
O-Ton, 16 May 2019

“The tenor Samuel Boden is the young boy, with a soft and clear voice, deliberately innocent and naive, nevertheless sufficiently projected, then gaining confidence in the final scene, where he became a Young King avenging his father and making up for his mistakes by banishing music, while keeping his youthful freshness.”
Olyrix, 15 May 2019

Samuel Boden remain[s] outstanding”
Classica, May 2019