« Vourc’h was wonderful as Mélisande. Physically, her willowy frame and fairy-tale hair lend her an ethereal quality that is perfectly suited to the role, and she performed with an endearing vulnerability. She has a stunning voice, and one of the most memorable moments of the whole evening occurred when she took to the empty choir stalls (representing her tower) and sang unaccompanied. The Royal Albert Hall was flooded with her beautiful, pure, elegant sound and I found myself wondering how she has not attracted the attention of British opera fans before. This Proms performance will surely result in a rise in her popularity. «

Laura Kate Wilson - Bachtrack

 « Karen Vourc’h was an enchanting Mélisande, delicate but ample-voiced, whose song at the start of Act 3, delivered from the behind the orchestra, was mesmerising «

Hugo Shirley - Daily Telegraph

" the engaging physicality and sensuousness of Karen Vourc’h’s Mélisande. Her brief syllables of song as she combed her hair at the window in Act 3 throbbed with impulsive energy and joy. She also revealed here her reserves of vocal strength, which for much of the evening she kept under wrap, preferring to employ a more muted but excited breathless tone to convey Mélisande’s inscrutable vulnerability. "

Claire Seymour - Opera Today 

« As Gardiner conducts the interlude that leads into this scene, the orchestra creates Mélisande in sound - high, bright textures, limpid sonorities that suggest water, depth and danger. From this halo, Karen Vourc’h's voice emerged, exotic and elusive. « 

Classical iconoclast.com

 « Phillip Addis and Karen Vourc’h were two youthful and attractive leads «

 Simon Tomas - What on stage

 « what a difference it makes to have a native speaker in this role. Karen Vourc'h shares that provenance, and it shows in her idiomatic phrasing and feeling for the line of Debussy's music; her 'aria' at the beginning of Act III, 'Mes longs cheveux' rang out with bell-like clarity, no easy feat in this hall «