„As Aci, soprano Kateryna Kasper brought a clear, resilient strength to a role that is often performed with simple innocence. She focused deeply on the character’s vulnerability, navigating Handel’s difficult high tessitura with great precision. In “Dell’aquila l’artigli,” her voice became a source of bright, radiant light, supported by a continuo combination of cello, harp, and organ that played a gentle, wave-like swing in triple meter. In “Qui l’augel da pianta in pianta,” Kasper’s singing took on a warm, golden quality while the violin and oboe imitated bird song, supported by rich harp textures. In those pastoral movements, her phrasing felt wonderfully expansive, capturing an image of flowering landscape before the inevitable intrusion of danger. 

Her rendering of the heart-rending death scene, “Verso già l’alma col sangue,” was the emotional axis of the night. Accompanied by a minimum, skeletal instrumental texture, Kasper’s sustained tones hung suspended over the Kammerorchester Basel’s muted strings, her voice taking on a physical trembling by the Da Capo repeat. Wandering on the stage, she transformed Aci’s physical dissolution into a supreme moment of tragic transcendence.“