Performer: Véronique Gens
Orchestra: Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Conductor: Hervé Niquet
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Release: 2017
Size: 935 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Alfred Bruneau: Geneviève
01. Introduction, récitatif et air de Geneviève “Seigneur ! Est-ce bien moi que vous avez choisie ?”
César Franck: Les béatitudes, M. 53
02. Mater dolorosa “Moi, du sauveur, je suis la mère”
Louis Niedermeyer: Stradella
03. Récit et air de Léonor “Ah !… Quel songe affreux !”
Benjamin Godard: Les Guelfes, Op. 70
04. Prélude et air de Jeanne “Là-bas, vers le palais”
Félicien David: Lalla Roukh
05. Air de Lalla-Roukh “Sous le feuillage sombre”
Henry Février: Gismonda
06. Air de Gismonda “Dit-elle vrai ?”
Camille Saint-Saëns: Étienne Marcel
07. Récit et air de Béatrix “Ah ! Laissez-moi, ma mère !”
Jules Massenet: La vierge
08. Le dernier sommeil de la Vierge
09. Extase de la Vierge “Rêve infini, divine extase”
Fromental Halévy: La magicienne
10. Récit et air de Blanche “Ce sentier nous conduit vers le couvent voisin”
Georges Bizet: Clovis et Clothilde, WD 121
11. Prière de Clotilde “Prière, ô doux souffle de l’ange !”
César Franck: Redemption, Op. 22, M. 52
12. Air de l’Archange “Le flot se lève”
After an album of French songs (Néère) that earned her a “Gramophone Award” in 2016, Véronique Gens presents her new recital, this time with orchestra, which gives her an opportunity to display the maturity of her ‘Falcon’ soprano, the central tessitura typical of French Romantic opera, which takes its name from Cornélie Falcon, who created the works of Meyerbeer and Halévy staged in the 1830s. She pays tribute here to a number of composers whose unknown operas she was the first to reveal in projects mounted by the Palazzetto Bru Zane, including David, Godard, Saint-Saëns and Halévy. The programme selects arias from all the genres in vogue in the Romantic era: opera (Saint-Saëns, Halévy, Godard, Février), opéra-comique (David), oratorio (Franck, Massenet) and the cantata for the Prix de Rome (Bizet, Bruneau). A nod to Wagner and his Tannhäuser – in its French translation of the 1860s – completes this programme conducted by a longstanding colleague of the soprano, one of the leading specialists in French music, Hervé Niquet.