"With her velvety and urgent soprano, Malin Byström was the star of Sunday evening as Minnie." La Fanciulla del West/ Wiener Staatsoper 2024
Stefan Ender/Der Standard - January 8 2024
"But the evening belonged to Malin Byström, a fine Salome here in 2018, and now probably unsurpassed in the role, vocally and histrionically. “A sixteen year old with the voice of Isolde,” was Strauss’s description of the requirements, and this was as thrilling an account of the role as the house has heard in a while, to judge by the sustained roar Byström received at her solo curtain call. Her acting was convincing too, not least in her petulant, increasingly insistent “Gib mir den Kopf des Jochanaan”. When rejoicing in kissing the prophet’s decapitated head, wondering insanely if she has thus tasted love, she sang magnificently." Salome/Royal Opera House 2022
Roy Westbrook/Bachtrack - September 11 2022
"Byström’s colossal performance as the insatiable anti-heroine was haunting, her rich warm soprano embracing her character but with a girlish litheness. Hers was the only singer with a costume, initially a white skirt and bodice, playfully knocking back Narraboth’s ardent suggestions and his warnings as she becomes infatuated with Jochanaan. The prophet’s rejection of Salome and, more violently, her mother led to Byström becoming the petulant princess, her elfin presence giving a false gloss to a truly chilling character. It is a huge role and Byström paced it perfectly in a breathtaking performance, drawing on every nuance and playing off her disjointed family to maximum destructive effect." Salome/Edinburgh Festival 2022
David Smythe/Bachtrack - August 15 2022
“Malin Byström was an absolute revelation, a velvety voiced Elisabeth de Valois” - Don Carlos/Wiener Staatsoper 2020
Chanda VanderHart/Bachtrack - October 5 2020
”Malin Byström returned to Stockholm as the Feldmarschallin, confirming her status as one of the greatest operatic singers today. Her natural elegance was perfectly suited to the confident aristocrat; the rich colour palette of her voice managed to convey all the different emotions and moods of the complex character.” Der Rosenkavalier/Royal Swedish Opera
Laura Servidei/Bachtrack - March 21 2019
“It Is unbelievable that the Swedish soprano Malin Byström was performing the role of the Countess for the very first time.
Not only she was perfect vocally and in style, but her incarnation of the widow was fresh, moving, and sophisticated. She has a dark sonorous voice with a velvety quality. Her German diction is perfect, and her interpretation of her final scene was brilliant. She can be heard perfectly over the orchestra when the sound is densest, but at the same time, she can color her voice to reflect her doubts or sweetness.” – Capriccio/Teatro Real Madrid 2019
Mauricio Villa/Operawire - June 19 2019
“…when it came to the big, dramatic phrases at the top end, she had all the ability you might wish for to soar above the orchestra, all with a tone as smooth and clean as the sheer white satin of her costume. The intelligibility of her German was exceptional – perhaps the clearest I've ever heard. Byström looked every inch the part of the teenage princess, pencil thin and fresh-faced. And her portrayal was chilling, perfectly timed in its progression from sulky but relatively harmless teenage rebel moving through to the steadily increasing danger of her obsession with Jochanaan and culminating in her glorying in the realisation of the sexual power she has over Herod. It was the cleanness of the voice and the perfect diction that made the steady repetition of 'Gib mir den Kopf des Jochanaan' into such a chilling refrain. Rarely can such beauty of voice have been combined with a snarl of such viciousness” - Salome/Covent Garden 2018
David Karlin/Bachtrack - January 9 2018