Die Walküre, Lucerne Festival, 2024
“As Brünnhilde, soprano Åsa Jäger made a strong impression with her hojotohos sailing out over the orchestra as she entered the stage. Her voice sounded relaxed and secure. Her intonation and articulation were crystal clear. She is a soprano with a well-supported, resonant voice, able to sustain notes over a long period, which expand effortlessly to fill the hall. In dramatically exciting scenes, her voice can explode with emotional force, yet she is equally capable of crafting soft, delicate lines. In other words, she is a singer with a voice suited to the role”. – Operawire – August 2024
Die Walküre, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, 2024
“Finest of all was the Brünnhilde of Åsa Jäger, a realisation of the utmost power and subtlety, reaching its climax in the ‘Todesverkündigung’ (‘Siegmund, sieh auf mich …’), the combination of Nagano’s tautness and Jäger’s rapt delivery stunning”. – The Gramophone – May 2024
”The Swedish singer Åsa Jäger, still unknown in Dresden, gave a compassionate, courageous and independent Wotan’s daughter Brünnhilde a defining structure with her dramatic soprano and top notes. At the beginning still carefree, almost childlike and youthful, she matured with her facial expressions, gestures and grandiose singing into an assertive broker of her interests and a humanly dominant character. With her authoritative demeanour, she brought Wotan to the brink of moral defeat and brought the concert to an overwhelming conclusion”. – Der Opernfreund – May 2024
“And then there is Åsa Jäger, probably the youngest Brünnhilde in the world at the moment. (…). The volume and warm timbre of her soprano alone, as well as the ease with which this young soprano mastered the most dramatic parts with confidence , triggered enthusiasm” – Oper! Magazin – May 2024
“Brünnhilde, for her part, was exemplary, with a voice that is fruity, fine and yet as powerful as the character requires: the Swedish Åsa Jäger showed qualities of purity of tone and controlled drama, far from the usual fury, that thrilled the audience”. – Concertclassic.com – May 2024
Die Walküre, Elbphilharmonie, 2024
“Jäger’s sharp fifth is thunderous and truly thrilling in the cry of “Hojotoho,” launched like a silver arrow into the hall, and also in scintillating phrases at the end. But her performance is much more than that; it represents the ability to bring out the youthfulness of this virgin who is not only warlike, but also loving and deferential, even thoughtful towards her father.
Jäger is superb in the dramatic soprano middle register throughout the gentle processional crescendo of the Valkyrie’s solemn appearance to “those who are about to die” and then at the moment of Brünnhilde’s change of heart in the face of Siegmund’s fierce determination to rebel against Wotan’s proclamations.
In the final act Åsa Jäger reaches her peak. The length of the vocal line, crowned with crystalline treble, the well-timed bass, the art of deploying infinite softness on the word and the weight of its meaning. This is how Brünnhilde confronts Wotan, with his dilemmas, and provokes the ultimate reversal. As his favorite daughter, she knows how to make herself pleading before this inflexible father, adding the right dose of heroism to convince him of her status as a brave warrior, worthy of the “God of battles”. – Mundo Clasico – May 2024
“Soprano Åsa Jäger is the heart and soul of the performance in the great Hall”
“The central event of the evening takes place in this second act. Brünnhilde makes her entrance. The Swede Åsa Jäger comes, sings and wins all along the line. Her luminous soprano has no trouble asserting herself against the orchestra. Jäger can allow herself to add nuance at any time and understands the emotional experiences of Wotan’s favourite child”. – Hamburger Abendblatt – May 2024
“Åsa Jäger was simply stunning as Brünnhilde. She gave her role debut in 2022. The voice is very strong, projected with ease, firm across registers, with a more than solid basis that allows her to soar and float in the top notes. The timbre is warm overall, which allows her to open out to more metallic sounds at the top of the voice without ever sounding shrill or narrow”. – Seen and Heard International – May 2024
Der fliegende Holländer, Göteborgsoperan, 2024
“Her big voice is equalised overall and the attacks on the high notes travels through the orchestra like a welding flame. (…) Åsa Jäger is a dramatic Wagnerian soprano of the highest calibre, and an Isolde should be in the near future”. – Tidskriften Opera – March 2024
Siegfried, Landestheater Coburg, 2023
”Here again, Åsa Jäger sang a robust, radiant Brünnhilde, whose seemingly inexhaustible vocal capacities were once again breathtaking”. – Bachtrack – March 2023
”Åsa Jäger’s Brünnhilde legitimises all possible scenic nonchalance. In “Die Walküre” she overwhelmed the audience by her pure vocal presence in the dramatic as well as in the heartfelt phrases, in “Siegfried” she repeats exactly this in “her” scene”. – Der Opernfreund – March 2023
Die Walküre, Landestheater Coburg, 2022
Alex Ross lists Notable performances and recordings of 2022:
”I spent much of May in Germany, exploring the country’s incomparable network of opera houses. The lesson is much the same as in the American orchestral field: bigger and richer is not necessarily better. In Coburg, a city of forty-one thousand, the young Swedish soprano Åsa Jäger took possession of the mighty role of Brünnhilde, her voice aglow with the confidence of arrival”. – The New Yorker – December 2022
“The vocal discovery of the night was the young Swedish soprano Åsa Jäger, who sang Brünnhilde with clarion tone, crisp diction, and infectious zest. This run of performances marks not only Jäger’s German début but also her début in any Wagner role. I suspect that later in her career she will look back fondly on Coburg, where her ascent began. The ultimate appeal of operagoing in Germany is to see a venerable art form experiencing continuous rebirth”. – The New Yorker – June 2022
“First and foremost, we should mention the young Swedish soprano Åsa Jäger, who lets her luminous voice resound powerfully and expansively as the wild Valkyrie, only to let soft, lyrical tones be heard in the final touching dialogue with the father”. – Neue Presse – April 2022