REVIEWS

“The beautiful soprano voice of Rachel Nicholls resounded around the auditorium.”
Schumann: Mass in C Minor / Scottish Chamber Orchestra / EdinburghGuide.com

“…a glorious soprano solo…”
Schumann: Mass in C Minor / Scottish Chamber Orchestra / The Herald

“Soprano Rachel Nicholls sounded bright and rather ethereal in her moments…”
Schumann: Mass in C Minor / Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Seen and Heard

“The exciting new find on Bach Collegium’s latest recording is the voice of second soprano Rachel Nicholls...on this evidence is destined to be a big star. Her voice is tight and spring with a rare silvery sheen; she sings bang in tune and ornaments in intricate knots.”
B Minor Mass / BIS CD / Classic fM Magazine

“The soloists themselves are a fabulous team, all singing from the same hymn sheet – sounding very natural, with minimal projection, sensitive application of vibrato, and singing from within the ensemble as part of the polyphonic texture, rather than stick out on top showing off.”
B Minor Mass / BIS CD / International Record Review

“Carolyn Sampson and Rachel Nicholls duet sweetly...”
B Minor Mass / BIS CD / The Times

"Then, a soprano aria, with oboe dancing hand-in-hand with the bewitching soprano of Rachel Nicholls, including a totally unexpected afterthought introduced in the final three bars."
J. S. Bach: Cantata 42 / BIS CD / BBC Music Magazine

“…the affecting discipleship of ‘Mein Jesus will es tun’, a kind of genre piece which ideally suits Rachel Nicholls’s pure-toned and sympathetic singing.”
J. S. Bach: Cantata 42 / BIS CD / Gramophone

“Gloom was banished by triumphant trumpet runs and leaps from the astonishing virtuoso Jean-François Madeuf, tossed back at him by the equally virtuoso vocal trumpet of soprano Rachel Nicholls.”
Jauchzet Gott / Edinburgh International Festival / The Daily Telegraph

“Nicholls teamed up with trumpeter Jean-François Marbeuf for the virtuosic Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen...Perfection.”
Jauchzet Gott / Edinburgh International Festival / The Guardian

“Nicholls’s rich soprano rang out, eloquently matched by Jean-François Madeuf, hand on hip, on a temperamental baroque trumpet. This was Bach’s most unusually scored cantata of the three, and a wonder at that, its final Hallelujah, trumpet again resplendent, fiendish, with Nicholls’s voice folding round the ensemble in voluptuous embrace.”
Ja uchzet Gott / Edinburgh International Festival / The Times

“The young English soprano Rachel Nicholls sang irresistibly in two solo cantatas, including Bach's jubilant Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen" (Praise God in All Lands).”
Jauchzet Gott / OAE / Star Tribune, Minnesota

“…a graceful performance of great fluidity and sweetness.”
Jauchzet Gott / OAE / Pioneer Press

“Rachel Nicholls sang Marzelline with a wonderfully rich lyric soprano voice that filled the hall with sound with apparent ease.”
Marzelline: Fidelio / London Lyric Opera / Seen and Heard

“…the robust, light-filled soprano of Rachel Nicholls excelled as Marzelline.”
Marzelline: Fidelio / London Lyric Opera / The Times

"...Rachel Nicholls filled out the character pf Erismena with her purposeful singing and presence."
Erismena: Erismena / English Touring Opera / Opera

“…Rachel Nicholls was a feisty Ginevra, the desirable daughter about whom the entire plot turns. Her soprano sound is warm without being plumy, her sense of attack was good (particularly in her big Act One solo) and she had the stamina required for the part – particularly in the last act, when the director made her act out her grief lying on the stage floor or on her back.”
Ginevra: Ariodante / English Touring Opera / Musical Criticism

"...the remarkable Rachel Nicholls, who gave us the most beautiful moments and the only convincing dramatic characterisation of the evening.
Dorinda: Orlando / Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing / Opéra Forum

“...powerful production, legato and the best sense of ornamentation in the cast...”
Dorinda: Orlando / Atelier Lyrique, Tourcoing / ResMusica

"Rachel Nicholls' unwavering line and the beauty and clarity of her tone echoed Theohano's steadfastness in the face of many vicissitudes, and her soprano soared gloriously to the upper reaches of the Britten Theatre."
Theophano: Ottone / London Handel Festival / Opera

“…Rachel Nicholls was electrifying as the sorceress Armida.”
Armida: Rinaldo / Edinburgh International Festival / The Guardian

“Rachel Nicholls excelled in the feisty role of devious enchantress Armida, Queen of Damascus…”
Armida: Rinaldo / Edinburgh International Festival / The Scotsman

“Rachel Nicholls made a vampishly predatory Armida, sparring nicely with Roderick Williams’s imposing Argante.”
Armida: Rinaldo / Edinburgh International Festival / The Times

“Rachel Nicholls (Elisa) was superb in characterisation and vocal virtuosity…”
Elisa: Tolomeo / English Touring Opera / Musical Criticism

“Rachel Nicholls is in fabulous voice as a self-obsessed rival.”
Elisa: Tolomeo / English Touring Opera / The Times

"Rachel Nicholls sings Metella's music in a pleasant, natural and very even voice, strong and resolute in the big aria that ends Act 2."
Metella: Silla / SOMM CD / Gramophone

"Rachel Nicholls as Silla's wronged but loyal wife Metella makes skilful work of her character's wide range of moods..."
Metella: Silla / SOMM CD / International Record Review

"Rachel Nicholls brings out the emotional power of 'Io non ti chiedo più', in which Silla's long suffering wife ask, in hesitant phrases, for a tender farewell from her husband."
Metella: Silla / SOMM CD / Opera

"Rachel Nicholls was glorious as Susanna, looking like Britney and sounding like Joan Sutherland."
Susanna: Susanna / Early Opera Company / ConcertoNet

“…sung with due radiance by Lucy Crowe. Rachel Nicholls was scarcely less effective as the Angel of Healing – lots of rapier coloratura…”
Il ritorno di Tobia / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Financial Times

“…it felt like a high-class singing contest as Ann Hallenberg (Anna), Lucy Crowe (Sarah), Rachel Nicholls (Raphael) and Andrew Kennedy (Tobias) vied with one another in dexterity.”
Il ritorno di Tobia / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / The Guardian

“It was helped on this occasion by a lustrous line-up of soloists, led by the suavely lyric tenor of Andrew Kennedy as Tobias, with the young soprano Lucy Crowe silvery-toned as his hard-won wife Sara, and the powerful Christopher Maltman as his father – plus the marvellously stylish Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg as Tobit's doubting wife Anna, and the radiant Rachel Nicholls as 'Azaria' aka the Archangel Rafael, who motivates the whole thing.”
Il ritorno di Tobia / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / The Independent

“Rachel Nicholls as Raffaelle really was an angelic presence, her wonderfully projected singing soaring firmly, filling the auditorium with light. It was all the more impressive since she'd stepped in at short notice; she's a singer to watch.”
Il ritorno di Tobia / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Music OMH

“(Lucy Crowe) rose to the challenge of music that exploited every range of her soprano, as did Rachel Nicholls as an effulgent and truly angelic Raffaelle.”
Il ritorno di Tobia / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / The Times

“Soprano Rachel Nicholls, who gave the cycle its premiere with pianist Paul Plummer at the 2005 Presteigne Festival, is in gorgeous voice, and she enjoys customarily alert support from Vass and his useful band."
McDowall: Radnor Songs / Ditton CD / The Gramophone

"...Rachel Nicholls gave an impressive account of 'Mi tradi', the voice free and flowing in the recitative, the notes of the aria fairly and squarely centred."
Donna Elvira: Don Giovanni / London Royal Schools' Opera / Opera

“With a richness and power that made one believe she could also succeed in Verdi and Puccini, the Fiordiligi of Rachel Nicholls knows how to articulate a Mozartian phrase with a blazing honesty of expression as the drama ignites.”
Fiordiligi: Così fan tutte / Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing / Classique News

“Of the principals, Neil Jenkins in the title role and Rachel Nicholls as Elettra were immense...she grew in authority, bringing light and shade to a part that can often be one-dimensional.”
Elettra: Idomeneo / New Sussex Opera / Sussex Express

"...Rachel Nicholls was an attractive Lauretta."
Lauretta: Gianni Schicchi / Central Festival Opera / Opera

"...a wonderful, dreamy voice, whose haunting sound resonates in the memory."
Echo: Ariadne auf Naxos / Royal Opera / Opernwelt

“...she had her delicate moments, as in Rachmaninov's Daisies and Tchaikovsky's The Bride's Lament, out of which she made a small personal tragedy, as well as some grand ones, such as Strauss's Zueignung.”
Strauss Song Series / Wigmore Hall / The Guardian

”...sumptuous in "Ich liebe dich"...”
Strauss Song Series / Wigmore Hall / Independent on Sunday

"Rachel Nicholls, his Maria, sang with a sweet, innocent tone, beautifully simple in the haunting, closing lullaby."
Maria: Mazeppa / University College Opera / Opera

"Rachel Nicholls is a wonderful Tatyana. Her solo as she writes the offending love letter is sensual, evocative and downright sexy"
Tatyana: Eugene Onegin / Scottish Opera Go Round / The Evening News (Scotland)

"...Hers is a focussed, creamy lyric sound, sensitive rather than volatile, a very useful instrument."
Tatyana: Eugene Onegin / Scottish Opera Go Round / Opera

"Rachel Nicholls is a deliciously romantic Tatyana. Her strong clear voice ripples with sensuality while her acing clearly shows an innocent who would love to lose that status to the sophisticated Onegin."
Tatyana: Eugene Onegin / Scottish Opera Go Round / The Stage

"...Rachel Nicholls, a crystalline Prilepa..."
Prilepa: The Queen of Spades / Royal Opera / Opera

"Strong, too, are (i.a.) the glorious blossoming of Rachel Nicholls as the ripe-for-plucking Flora..."
Flora: The Knot Garden / Scottish Opera / The Scotsman

"And Rachel Nicholls as Jenny excelled in swapping quickly between great sensitivity and calculating sensuality."
Jenny: Mahagonny Songspiel / Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte, Montepulciano / Opera

"Rachel Nicholls, one of the most exciting and versatile voices on the current scene, gave intelligent, persuasive performances of the songs ... this remarkable young lady ... sang with the power and projection I have always admired on the several occasions I have been lucky enough to hear her."
Recital / Presteigne Festival / The Birmingham Post

"...the soprano Rachel Nicholls. She was suffering from a virus, she told us; though nothing prevented her trumpet voice from scaling heights no sane invalid should attempt - and emerging unscathed."
Recital / Presteigne Festival / The Times