The role of Fides calls for a Brünnhilde range with an Amneris-type voice, requiring extraordinary vocal flexibility and dramatic punch -- Marilyn Horne has them...

The role of Fides calls for a Brünnhilde range with an Amneris-type voice, requiring extraordinary vocal flexibility and dramatic punch -- Marilyn Horne has them all, and she brings out the pathos of the part without sentimentalizing it.

...Whenever Marilyn Horne's Fides holds the stage, it matches the energy of the piece itself. The role calls for a Brünnhilde range with an Amneris-type voice: the vocal flexibility and dramatic punch needed are extraordinary. Miss Horne, as she has shown in her Decca discs of the character's most famous passages (SXL6149, 5/65 and SET309-10, 5/66), has them all, and she brings out the pathos of the part without sentimentalizing it. She opts for all the more difficult alternatives and executes them with a supreme confidence. In brief, I found hers a thrilling performance.

-- Gramophone [5/1977]

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...Of great voices the present recording can offer at least one. Marilyn Horne, even at this date (1976), was no longer singing with the firmness of earlier years, as is clear if this performance of "Ah, mon fils" and the Prison scene is compared with that included in her magnificent first LP recitals. Even so, much of the richness remains and the majestic virtuosity is unimpaired... The Royal Philharmonic under Henry Lewis play well, colourful orchestration being among the score's most attractive features...

-- Gramophone [10/1989]