Lully Armide Enfin il est en ma puissance Ouverture Venez, venez, Haine implacable Passacaille
Campra Le Carnaval de Venise Mes yeux, fermez-vous à jamais
Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie Prélude de l’Acte III Cruelle mère des amours Chaconne Castor et Pollux Tristes apprêts Chaconne Les Fêtes de Polymnie Que ses regrets m’ont attendrie
Mondonville Isbé Désirs toujours détruits
Leclair Scylla et Glaucus Ouverture Et toi, dont les embrasements... Noires divinités Premier Air des démons Brillante fille de Latone Deuxième Air des démons
Royer Le Pouvoir de l’Amour L’objet qui règne dans mon âme Zaïde, reine de Grenade Dieu des amants fidèles
Gluck Iphigénie en Aulide Dieux puissants que j’atteste... Jupiter, lance la foudre ! Armide Enfin, il est en ma puissance
Dark divinities of the eternal shore Come out and reveal yourselves to us
(from Leclair’s Scylla and Glaucus)
In 1986 Veronique Gens made her debut with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Under Christie’s direction she has sung in a large number of baroque opera recordings, of works by Lully, Rameau and Charpentier. Gens has subsequently worked with many other key baroque specialist conductors, in both operatic and sacred repertoire. By the mid nineteen-nineties her list of recordings had become very comprehensive indeed, and included such unusual works as Marin Marais’ Alcyone, and motets by Galuppi and Boismortier.
In the late nineteen-nineties Gens recorded a number of recital CDs of nineteenth and twentieth century repertoire. These include a wonderful recording of the Berlioz Les nuits d’ete, a recital disc of French song by Faure, Poulenc, and Debussy, and also a recording of Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne (Gens was born in the Auvergne region herself).
Her new recital disc is a collection of rare tragic arias by seven composers, covering a century of lush and dramatic French baroque repertoire. The recording has given Gens the opportunity to revisit the composers to whom she has been dedicated for the first twenty years of her career, and to engage with them anew, in a number of seldom heard and virtuosic arias and scenes
Gens is accompanied by the excellent French ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, led by Christoph Rousset. She has worked with Rousset several times before, recording works by Jomelli, Mondonville and Couperin, and the partnership is very energetic. Gens’ considerable experience in the repertoire is evident in her choice of unusual arias, and her combination of high emotion and wonderful poise.
This is a ravishing recital by one of today’s most accomplished French baroque sopranos.
The biographical information used here was drawn from virginclassics.com
Other operatic and recital recordings by Veronique Gens include:
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Gramophone Magazine’s 2004 Record of the year) Mozart: Cosi fan tutte Nuits d’etoiles (French songs) Rameau: Dardanus Handel: Arcadian duets Lully: Armide Monteverdi: Orfeo (with Natalie Dessay) Songs of the Auvergne
