By Michael Church [The Independent, 2 April 2010]

It takes a bold woman to step into Cecilia Bartoli’s slippers as the sexually voracious heroine in a production of Il Turco in Italia created expressly for her, but Aleksandra Kurzak is unfazed. “I don’t think about comparisons at all,” says the feisty Polish singer. “And in any case, she is a mezzo and I am a soprano, so it will be completely different.” Ever since Placido Domingo singled her out in his Operalia festival 10 years ago, she’s been topping the bill wherever she goes, but the secret of her confidence goes much further back.