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DIAPASON / 5 DIAPASONS (FR) | 04/05/2026 – ADRIEN CAUCHIE
One absolutely must listen to the splendid “Lo dunque senz’armi” taken from Steffani’sOrlando generoso. The countertenor’s phrasing, combined with the delicacy of the accompaniment, keeps these magnificent pages balanced on a knife’s edge […].
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DE VOLKSKRANT (NL) | 10/04/2026 – Jenny Camilleri
Countertenor Xavier Sabata, trained as an actor, weaves together a repertoire of well-known and lesser-known works about the historical figure Orlando to create a striking portrait of a tormented hero. With impeccable technique and a keen psychological insight, he uses variations in vocal timbre to convey the fragility of Orlando’s mind. Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu does not merely accompany him; it fully shares his delirium.
MERKER, DIE INTERNATIONALE KULTURPLATTFORM (DE) | 25/04/2026 – Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger
With his naturally soft-toned countertenor voice, Xavier Sabata is able to probe the darkest abysses of the soul, revealing sharp-edged inner demons and overwhelming, storm-like emotional surges. He is accompanied by the brilliant French orchestra Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, whose sound is richly layered and whose virtuosity is remarkable, marked by impeccable stylistic precision, and conducted with passion by its long-standing artistic director, Franck-Emmanuel Comte.
OPUS / OPUS D’OR (FR) | 24/04/2026 – JEAN-JACQUES MILLO
[…] Xavier Sabata, whose dark and supple voice excels in expressing extreme emotions, embodies an Orlando who is alternately noble, hallucinatory, imploring, or vengeful. Around him, Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu unfolds a nervous continuo, finely chiselled instrumental colours, and a dramatic energy that propels each scene like a fragment of miniature opera. […]
REVISTA MUSICAL CATALANA – RMC (ES) | 12/05/2026 – XAVIER PUJOL
« […] His entire concert [at the Palau de la Música] was magnificent, but it was not in the agitated and furious passages of the arias that Xavier Sabata shone the most, but rather in the soliloquies, the melancholy, and the moments of inner pain offered to him by the scores. Who knows—perhaps he too has inhaled a divine fragrance coming from the Moon? »
CLASSICA NUVOL, EL DIGITAL DE CULTURA (ES) | 13/05/2026 – ELSA ALVAREZ FORGES
“Xavier Sabata, unquestionably one of the greatest countertenors of our time, offered us on May 11 at the Palau de la Música a sumptuous and flamboyant theatrical banquet centered on Orlando, a myth and character that has inspired many Baroque operas. But Sabata was not alone. At his side, the magnificent ensemble Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, directed from the harpsichord by Franck-Emmanuel Comte, formed the other half of a concert imbued with raw emotion. […]”
TOTAL BAROQUE (FR) | 13/05/2026
“[…] The strength of Furioso lies precisely in the way it tightens the vast material of Ariosto around a character in crisis. The recording highlights the virtuosity of Baroque singing without separating it from what drives it: the instability of a hero driven out of himself by love. A condensed, theatrical and deeply inhabited journey through one of the great myths of amorous madness.”