“But the pick of the bunch is Elizabeth Watts, who musters buckets of passion and thrilling coloratura as Xerxes’s anguished daughter Mandane.”

– Richard Morrison, The Times

“The showiest numbers are shared between the cruelly duped Arbaces… and our own rising star Elizabeth Watts as Mandane whose ear-popping pyrotechnics run the gamut of emotion as capricious as her personality.”

– Edward Seckerson, The Independent

“The RO has assembled a very decent cast, from which Elizabeth Watts’s dazzling Mandane — brilliant in her famous solos, Fly, soft ideas, fly and The soldier tir’d of war’s alarms — stands out. Hers is the most vividly drawn character, and she grasps her histrionic opportunities greedily, steaming with indignant rage.”

– Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times

“There is some terrific singing to be heard here, especially from Elizabeth Watts, rising intrepidly to the coloratura challenges of the role of Mandane”

– Barry Millington, The Evening Standard