“In the evening of March 8, Hui He, together with the Hanle String Quartet of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra and pianist Wang Lei, performed a unique interpretation of great opera arias. Hui He said: “These are some of the best-loved Italian and Chinese pieces, which I selected with great care and attention to bring out the special characteristics of my voice; they are also arias that are demanding in terms of vocal technique and artistic expression. The concert included nine opera arias from some of the most famous opera titles, such as Verdi’s Il Trovatore and I Vespri Siciliani, Turandot and Puccini’s La Bohème, arias of love and death. In this concert the arias were presented in a version for string quartet and piano with arrangements by composer and instrumentalist Luca Pozza, viola player of the VeronaLirica String quartet. The repertoire is heavy, requiring three types of voice – lirico, lirico-spinto and dramatic – and the different pieces presented engaged voice and technique, showing all the possibilities of Hui He’s voice.  In the first part of the concert, Hui He sang the aria ‘Donde lieta uscì’ from Act III of La Bohème. The first half of the aria was extremely moving for its intensity in saying goodbye, and Hui He sang with remarkable clarity of diction and nuanced phrasing. One might expect a powerful voice from her, but as in all her interpretations she shows that expression is more important than volume. In the rising intensity of the second part of the aria, in fact, what impresses Hui He is not the volume and tone but the gradual preparation and the way she culminates in the final explosion. In her interpretation of another Puccini’s aria, ‘Sola, perduta, abbandonata’ Hui He’s strength is fully revealed. Unlike “Donde lieta uscì”, this aria possesses a wide register of emotions and intensity; […] Hui He with her skills sings perfectly both of them. “Tacea la notte placida” from Il Trovatore shows in the first part the charm of a singer who makes clear phrasing and expression. In the second part Verdi wrote bars florid coloratura. It is not easy for a heavy lyric soprano to balance agility, passion and clarity in coloratura, Hui He did it brilliantly. In particular the combination of agility with words is absolutely natural and she never loses the dramatic sense of coloratura. “Mercè dilette amiche” from the Vespri Siciliani has a swaying, dancing rhythm, and Hui He renders this with great expressive and rhythmic balance, making it beautiful to listen to. The singer took out notes and colouraturas of their purely ornamental aspect, giving them a more expressive and deeper meaning. The aria from Catalani’s La Wally, “Ebben ne andrò lontana” has been sung with exceptional emotion by Hui He. This aria requires the singer to keep his voice soft and consistent in its full lyrical beauty – the phrases are very lyrical. Hui He not only achieves a very high level in doing so, but above all is able to sing this music with such high and deep intensity that the musical image of the character is truly portrayed with moving emotional power. Hui He went on to say that she will continue to study the art of singing by following the examples of Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballé, and that the fusion of technique with expressiveness may be the result of following the example of her predecessors.” Guangzhou Performance Review