“Margaine’s rich, dusky mezzo was touched with sensuous melancholy as Dulcinée lamented the fleeting nature of love. She brought enough flashing temperament to the character to give her dramatic dimension, along with a couple of nicely executed Spanish dance steps. A worthy addition to the Lyric roster.”
John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
“Before Dulcinée can step onto her balcony overlooking the courtyard, the chorus cries our “Alza!” and “Vivat Dulcinée!” as a prelude to the four suitors singing of their desire to see her. As if in response to these entreaties Dulcinée appears and takes up the cry “Alza!” in her opening aria, “Quand la femme a vingt ans” [“When a woman is twenty years of age”]. Ms. Margaine performs an elaborate melisma on this word before launching into her thoughts on a young woman’s emotional needs and risks. Margaine’s warm, flexible mezzo voice sings comfortably in Dulcinée’s range, her embellishments adding to the tantalizing appeal of the character …
Quichotte insists that his word is sacred, which Furlanetto emphasizes with a dramatic descending pitch on the vow that the will keep it [“je veux la tenir”]. Offstage Margaine repeats with an equally distinctive note of resignation Dulcinée’s original sentiment of the woman of twenty years.”
Salvatore Calomino – Opera Today
“The comely French mezzo Clémentine Margaine scored a notable Lyric debut as “La belle Dulcinée,” the object of Quichotte’s idealized affections. Margaine brought a pungent, fluid sound to her music, and deftly captured both the introspective melancholia of “Lorsque le temps d’amour a fui” as well as the down-and dirty flamenco frisson of “Ne pensons qu’au plaisir d’aimer.”
Mark Thomas Ketterson – Opera News