Press
The alto-tenor duets are magnificent. Not to mention the fine performance of the young countertenor William Shelton in the "Suscepit Israel". By its applause, the audience shows its total satisfaction.
RESMUSICA Jean-Noël Démard 20/11/2017 (full article in french)
His warm, velvety timbre keeps an equal beauty from the lowest (the first notes of Bruhns' De profundis) to the highest (Buxtehude's Klag-Lied). He also gives this grieving and painful page all the gravity it requires, with a sober interpretation, full of restrained emotion, based on a perfectly declaimed text.
OLYRIX Stéphane Lelièvre 7/02/2018 (full article in french)
The concert opens with De Profundis set to music for the alto voice by Nikolaus Bruhns, a student of Buxtehude. William Shelton, with his confident and well-sounding voice, is the ideal introduction to the subject.
RESMUSICA Stéphane Reecht 9/02/2018 (full article in french)
[...] the excellent countertenor William Shelton, who plays the role of the Messenger, announces Eurydice's death from the end of the nave, and this spatialization brings a new expressiveness to the dramaturgy.
RESMUSICA Cécile Glaenzer 25/10/2018 (full article in french)
The urgency, the dramatism of the recitatives and tunes entrusted to the countertenor, William Shelton, are served by his long breath and agility. The tone is clear, incisive, with strong low notes.
FORUMOPERA Yvan Beuvard 30/08/2018 (full article in french)
He possesses a wonderfully expressive voice and was attentive to the words, and displayed an ability to form beautiful long lines, which he adorned with subtle embellishments.
OPERAWIRE Alan Nielson 29/08/2018 (full article)
[...] we are won over. Indeed, the O Jesu (Schütz) sung by counter-tenor William Shelton seduces us. His crystalline and graceful voice accompanied by two lutes and a harp transports us.
CLASSIQUEMAISPASHASBEEN Nathalie Niervèze 12/03/2020 (full article in french)
[…] an extraordinary solo in the Agnus Dei (from memory) by William Shelton
CLASSIQUEMAISPASHASBEEN Séverine Garnier 30/07/2021 (full article in french)
[...] deep, focused performance of countertenor William Shelton, in the Agnus Dei, with an austere accompaniment by Hengelbrock supported by the continuo led by organist Michael Behringer. An interpretation that the public thanked at the end with a tremendous ovation for the singer.
EL PAIS & COLUMNA DIGITAL Pablo L. Rodríguez 01/02/2022 (full article in spanish)
And [...] this excellent evening has soloists in its ranks. Just one example: the sincerity, intimacy and prayerfulness of countertenor William Shelton in his aria in G minor from the "Agnus Dei" - these minutes alone were worth the trip.
BADISCHE ZEITUNG Johannes Adam 03/02/2022 (full article in german)
Shelton sings with a warmth, clarity and calm that goes straight to the heart. The young french/british singer is the star among the Balthasar Neumann's soloists. Hengelbrock makes the soloists, singers and musicians stand up one by one. Some of them are cheered, counter-tenor Shelton in the lead.
HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT Verena Fischer-Zernin 06/02/2022 (full article in german)
The female voices were particularly noteworthy, especially countertenor William Shelton, who gave a magnificent Agnus Dei: sober and restrained, but with all the emotion implicit in the supplication.
SCHERZO Javier Sarría Pueyo 31/01/2022 (full article in spanish)
But if there is one name that won over the audience, it was that of countertenor William Shelton, who in the last part delivered an 'Agnus Dei' that will be impossible to forget. After his intervention, the ensemble built up an emotional crescendo until the final chord, followed by an impressive silence in the hall.
ABC Ángel Antonio Herrera 31/01/2022 (full article in spanish)
But the highlight of the evening came just before Jesus' death, in the work's saddest and most moving aria: Es ist vollbracht! ("It is finished!") which was opened by the almost contemplative tone of Etienne Mangot's viola da gamba and sung as a soloist by countertenor William Shelton. Precisely at the end of January, his Agnus Dei was also the highlight of the Mass in B minor by Thomas Hengelbrock and the Balthasar-Neumann Chor & Ensemble at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid. On this occasion, we once again appreciated his concentrated and intimate singing in B minor, but also his ability to intone the imposing and victorious fanfares of the central section in D major.
EL PAIS Pablo L. Rodríguez 09/04/2022 (full article in spanish)
The church of Saint-Vit serves as a showcase for Shelton's style: the serenity of a warmly velvety timbre, the exemplarity of the diction, and above all the equality of registers [...].
RESMUSICA Jean-Luc Clairet 29/04/2022 (full article in french)