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Wagner Can Hardly Be Better Than This
This deceived, humiliated woman is sung by Dara Hobbs, an American singer who lives in Germany, who portrays this oppressed victim of schemes and intrigues with breathtaking abandonment and believability. Her soprano voice outshines everything, saturated with colors and precisely controlled; it is a true vocal marvel and reveals her as one of the most impressive Brünnhildes of today.

Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Josef Oehrlein, 18.09.2018. © All rights reserved. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurt.

Wagner Fans, This Way, Please!
A fantastic Brünnhilde! With a big sound, every word clear, constantly luminous, Dara Hobbs is an ideal cast member, also because she does not appear on stage in a statuesque manner, but rather as a boisterous young thing. One hears no breaks when she leads the father of the gods into the recitative of the Wotan narrative. Wonderful, in fact, logically binding [the two], the woodwinds speak, also the horns, they give the clever Erda-child the right words; they are just as psychologically prescient as they are later mournful in hindsight…the Walküre wears neither armor nor helmet, but rather free-flying blond curls, bow and arrow: a quicksilver hybrid of Tinkerbell and Cupid…

However, for the longest time this Minden Walküre-version is not melodramatic, but rather an intense, intimate theater piece. Gods, heroes, humans? Whatever. It is about a defective small family…what is more tragic, what is more comic, than a father, who manipulates everyone, but in vain; a mother, who does everything by the rules; children, who rebel during the hopeless hunt for love? At the end, a small, fine magical fire brings the theater piece to a satisfying end. One marvels and rubs one’s eyes.

Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Eleonore Büning, 12.09.2016. © All rights reserved. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurt.

Wagner With Real Feelings
Apart from that, there are strong women to admire…above all stands the Brünnhilde of Dara Hobbs. She, too, plays her role with the highest authenticity and is effortlessly capable of the vocal difficulties of her role. She is the highlight of this performance. Hopefully she will also perform the roles of Brünnhilde in " Siegfried" and in "Götterdämmerung."

Mindener Tageblatt, Christian Helming, 12.09.2016.

Die Walküre: Big Emotions on a Small Stage
Following her Isolde of several years ago, Dara Hobbs was again an ideal cast member in the title role of Brünnhilde. Octave jumps and the following trills of her "hojotoho" sound youthful. At the same time she played the boisterous, cheerful – as she calls herself – combat girl in a convincingly agile manner. Following the legato-arcs of the death proclamation (Todesverkündigung) she also becomes a vocally compassionate woman as a result of Siegmund's unconditional love for Sieglinde. Equally convincingly she shapes the desperation of the low, unaccompanied soft sections which are sometimes difficult for Wagner singers, such as "War es so schmählich", and then comes the perfectly played relief that she will have her desired husband.

Opernfreund, Sigi Brockmann, 11.09.2016

Second Premiere: Die Walküre
A Brünnhilde out of a storybook is Dara Hobbs: not just that she sparklingly infuses the character through her acting, she also possesses a metallically luminous voice, which at the same time is also well grounded in the low voice.

Opernfreund, Rudolf Hermes, 21.09.2016

Delusion with Method
Dara Hobbs is a captivating Brünnhilde with effortless, luminous high notes and a rich, domed sound in the middle voice.

Opernwelt, 11.2016, Regine Müller

Liebestod as Love-Dream
Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" at Theater Regensburg is an impressive experience in every aspect
For everything that has to do with beauty, there is on this evening Dara Hobbs. Vocally, she is a marvellously youthful Isolde. Seldom does one experience such a well-suited dramatic soprano voice. The high register is fully there, without being shrill, and above all she has lyrical tones that are simply enchanting… Hobbs’ youthfulness, her eternal freshness and her marvelously controlled, tender tones lend the character a theater-veracity that explains every love; no love potion is needed.

Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl, 09.29.2014

Bayreuth’s Flag Waves Upon the Roof
Isolde lies in one of the boats, sleeping. She is very tall, very blond, very lovely. Lovelier still is the shock, when she stands up and sings. The voice of the American soprano Dara Hobbs has an enormous range, and it is certainly somewhat too powerful for this small house, but it is exactly the voice of Isolde for which we have long waited: with an low register like an organ, a rich middle range and an effortless cutting power in the top register, like an angel’s trumpet, that reminds one of Birgit Nilsson.

Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Eleonore Büning, 11.09.2012
© All rights reserved. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurt.
Allowed for use by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Archive.

Tristan and Isolde – Very Affecting!
A really sensational discovery is the Isolde of Dara Hobbs…a wonderfully‐trained, clear, large voice, simultaneously soft, warm, full and with metallic ring in the upper register, where needed, it is however only the secure basis for a highly emotional development of the role that constantly causes one to hold one's breath. At the beginning, with downright witchlike expressions and gestures, when she quotes "der Mutter Künste" then, when her real feelings well up, with a warmth (for example, when she shows how she healed Tristan) and a growing measure of fully womanly gracefulness and gentleness. Exciting moments, when she tries to repress her feelings after "Herr Tristan trete nah!" or before his appearance in Act 2. It comes to outbreaks of tears, again and again she must control her inordinate emotional state and in doing so, a thousand conflicting feelings show themselves on her face. And how one believes in her the strength to work herself up into a transfiguration that allows this love to become an unconquerable reality. Every word, every phrase (also without the slightest accent) comes with a suggestive power that simply vanquishes, until at last she sees her dead Tristan "gently and softly smiling", so intensively that we do, too! God knows, this woman knows, what she sings! And she does so with a passion that exactly corresponds to that which Wagner composed and wrote…a revelation…Happy Wagner!

Neue Merker, Sieglinde Pfabigan,16.9.2012

Tristan and Isolde
The consistently marvelous singers were led by Dara Hobbs as Isolde. She possesses an ideal vocal nature for this climactic role: an effortlessly attractive presence paired with a luminous upper register and authoritative vocal attacks. A voluminous, round soprano voice that at the same time possesses the needed metallic quality: one hopes to hear more from the American in this high‐dramatic Fach.

Opernwelt, November 2012