“Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a bullet train of an opera … and there’s an injection of innocence and clarity from Gabriele (the sharp and sparkling Sylvia O’Brien, in devastatingly accurate-sounding vocal form”
Michael Dervan The Irish Times, 30 May 2005
All the other pieces on the programme received excellent performances, but the highlight of the concert was Saariaho’s Changing Light for voice and solo flute. Soprano Sylvia O’Brien and flautist Gilles Breda’s outstanding performance of this piece benefitted greatly from the resonant acoustic of the National Gallery’s Shaw Room.
Adrian Smith, Journal of Music, National Gallery, 7 March 2019
"Soprano Sylvia O’Brien delivered Shostakovich’s bleak lyricism with a searing intensity that pinned listeners to their seats" Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, Westport Chamber Festival, 2015
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“Sylvia O’Brien’s effective stage presence and subtle acting out of each aria, made this an engaging experience” Martin Adams, The Irish Times, Seven Deadly Sins Tour, 2009.
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"Surely the most wide-ranging, was by the collective Evlana on Saturday. It opened with a fantastic rendition of George Crumb’s brilliant Apparition (1979). Sylvia O’Brien (soprano) and Isabelle O’Connell (piano) played this work with a great, delicate sense of drama and space."
James Camien McGuiggan, Journal of Music, New Music Dublin, NCH, 26 April 2023
"​Carducci Quartet and Sylvia O'Brien...
a meditation for soprano and cello as we heard it here, though puzzlingly advertised as the world premiere commissioned by DICMF of a work for voice, flute and clarinet – and The Dole of the King’s Daughter for soprano, string quartet and (minimal) electronics, setting an early poem by Oscar Wilde and intended as the opening song of an opera about a female serial killer.The main interest here was in the singular production of high notes by an amplified Sylvia O’Brien."
David Nice, Dublin International Chamber Music Festival, The Arts Desk, 16 June 2022
"the strenth of her (Ms O’Brien) range at both ends and her habitual knack for softening the edges and leaps of this style, gave Heaney’s poems and Bodley’s settings a credible and persuasive debut." Michael Dungan, The Irish Times, The Hiding Places of Love, 2012
Veronica Dunner EU Singing Competition, NCH, Dublin
"There were equally assured performances from Dublin soprano Sylvia O’Brien, who would surely have taken a close second prize if there were one on offer.
‘In lyric arias from Louise and I Puritani, she allied a confident stage presence with a firm legato line and a musical sense of phrasing to convey the different heroines’diverse moods of joy, melancholy and mania. Above the stave, her tone gleamed."
John Allen, The Irish Times, 2004.
"But best of all was the beautifully shaped and timed singing of soprano Sylvia O'Brien." Martin Adams, The Irish Times, Bodley Horizons Concert, 2009.
“Sylvia O'Brien (the Governess) and Hal Cazalet (Quint) are two superb young performers”
The Turn of the Screw, Buxton Opera House,
Robert Beale,The Manester Evening News, 16 July 2004
