"Yet Kosky knows to leave well alone in the superbly staged one-to-one of Octavian dealing with the Marschallin’s changed mood in the great final scene here: kneeling confidences, rejections, back to back – all charting the mood of great music theate. Samantha Hankey is as handsome and convincing an Octavian as any I’ve seen, providing what Kosky calls that Ovid-Metamorphoses frisson of sexy boy-girl."

David Nice, The Arts Desk, 22 March 2021

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"The opera’s themes of passing time and the transitory nature of love are beautifully caught in Marlis Petersen’s touching portrait of the gracefully ageing Marschallin — who confesses to getting up in the middle of the night to stop the clocks — and in Samantha Hankey’s tall, passionately sung Octavian, who arrives to present his silver rose in a Cinderella coach, a fairytale dream of the young Sophie von Faninal, floatily sung by the feisty Katharina Konradi."

Hugh Canning, The Times, 28 March 2021

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"Eine sehr heutige Marschallin, auch im achselzuckenden Verzicht auf den Lover: Samantha Hankey entwickelt als hyperlaszives, verkleidetes „Mariandl“ fast mehr Ausstrahlung als in der Rolle des herben Octavian. Die musterhaft kontrollierte, reiche Stimme hört man gern, das Spiel mit Nuancen wird ihr noch zuwachsen."

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"A very modern marshal, even with a shrug of renunciation of the lover: Samantha Hankey develops almost more charisma as a hyperlascive, disguised" Mariandl "than in the role of the bitter Octavian. One likes to hear the exemplary, controlled, rich voice, which is playing with nuances still overgrown."

Markus Thiel, Merkur, 22 March 2021

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"On salue plus encore l’entrée fracassante du timbre ample et envoûtant de Samantha Hankey, Octavian au sourire désarmant, au teint d’émail, puis Mariandel désopilante, à elle toute seule cet « arc en ciel de possibilités d’identités » tracé par une œuvre proche des Métamorphoses d’Ovide, en tout cas, décrit Kosky, « affranchie de tout judéo-christianisme »."

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"We salute even more the shattering entry of the ample and bewitching timbre of Samantha Hankey, Octavian with the disarming smile, the enamel complexion, then the hilarious Mariandel, all by herself this "rainbow of possibilities of identities" traced by a work close to Ovid's Metamorphoses, in any case, describes Kosky, “freed from all Judeo-Christianity”.

Jean-Luc Clairet, ResMusica, 25 March 2021

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"Deren Pferde lauschen dem seraphischen Höhengesang Sophies (Katharina Konradi) ebenso wie den fein lasierten, agilen Vokallinien des Octavian (Samantha Hankey)."

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"Their horses listen to the seraphic high-altitude song of Sophies (Katharina Konradi) as well as the finely glazed, agile vowel lines of Octavian (Samantha Hankey)."

Stephan Mösch, FAZ, 23 March 2021

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