Véronique Gens (soprano) & Sandrine Piau (soprano)
Rivales
Le Concert de La Loge/Julien Chauvin
rec. 2021, Abbaye de Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache, France
French texts with English translations enclosed
Booklet with notes in French, English, German
ALPHA 824 [63]
The concept of this album is to showcase arias that were the specialties of two particular sopranos whose careers spanned the periods before and after the French Revolution. In this case a Madame Saint-Huberty (1756-1812) and a Madame Dugazon (1755-1821). In the biographical notes that accompany the CD, the two sopranos don’t appear to have been rivals, as Dugazon was more of a soubrette soprano who starred at the Opéra-comique, whereas Saint-Huberty was a more dramatic-voiced singer who conquered the demanding stage of the Paris Opéra. The booklet makes clear that both sopranos were staunch royalists which hampered their careers in the French Republic, and in the case of Saint-Huberty, resulted in her being murdered in her London residence a part of a plot to recover the original copy of Louis XVI’s will, which the Saint-Hubertys happened to possess.
We fast forward to 2021, where these recording sessions bring together two sopranos who, rather than being rivals, are long-time friends and colleagues whose vocal resources blend together in a subtle, almost instrument-like fashion. Both Gens and Piau have been before the public for a period of 40 plus years, and they can be found featured together on several recordings with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants during the early 1990s. The passing years have hardly touched either of their voices. Sandrine Piau’s voice retains its delicate silvery soprano, although on this recording her lowest range is beginning to sound just a little frayed and lacking in projection. Véronique Gens’ originally lyric soprano voice has settled into that of a luminous soprano Falcon that is capable of displaying a multitude of nuanced expressions.
This recording features arias and duets from works that Dugazon/Saint-Huberty featured in during their time on stage. A few of the chosen pieces were roles that were first created by the two sopranos, and it is important to note that 7 of the works on this CD are receiving their first commercial recordings. This CD is a valuable addition on that score alone; how disappointing then that the album producer chose not include any background information about these obscure pieces or their equally obscure composers. This is a big black mark against this release and the both the producer and Alpha should have remedied this early in the production process.
The disc is a feast of interesting music for anyone who is interested in the French repertoire. The scene from Edelmann’s Arianne is a successful dramatic scena which Mme Gens throws herself into with gusto and the vocal chops to pull it off vividly. Both singers display some fairly impressive roulades in the gentle duet from J.C. Bach’s La Clemenza di Scipione. The aria from Gluck’s La Clemenza di Tito is beautifully sung by Mme Piau although I prefer the aria in its more poignant later incarnation as “O malheureuse Iphigénie” when Gluck utilized a chorus of priestesses from Taurus to echo and magnify the heroine’s magnificent lament.
The impossibly named Louis-Luc Loiseau de Persuis created a divine aria for the opera Fanny Morna. The aria proper is preceded by a lengthy section of mélodramme before Mme Piau is permitted to dive into her dramatically cohesive rendition of this must-hear music which is one of the chief highlights of the disc. The two sopranos combine their voices again in a duet from Cherubini’s first operatic success Démophon. Here what appears on paper to be a duet is actually an elegant aria of farewell in C minor for Gens with interjections from Piau. This track is another of the true highlights on this disc. Please may we have a complete recording of this opera as it is long overdue. Perhaps the Palazetto Bru Zane will take note and add it to their busy schedule. The disc concludes with an exciting duet from Dalayrac’s Camille ou le Souterrain in which both sopranos spur each other on in a passionate, agitated prayer for two voices. They are driven by the exciting direction of Julien Chauvin and the excellent period ensemble. His direction is crisp and pointed throughout although I was profoundly disappointed with his direction of the aria from Gluck’s Alceste. He takes the piece at much too jolly a pace, which deprives it of its stately grandeur and makes it more of a challenge for Mme Gens to sing.
Mike Parr
Contents
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817)
La Belle Arsène (1773)
Où suis-je? (premiere recording)
Jean-Frédéric Edelmann (1749-1794)
Ariane dans l'isle de Naxos (1782)
Mais Thésée est absent (premiere recording)
Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)
La Clemenza di Scipione (1778)
Me infelice che intendo?
Christophe Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
La Clemenza di Tito (1752)
Se mai senti spirarti sul volto
Alceste (1776)
Divinités du Styx
Louis-Luc Loiseau de Persuis (1769-1819)
Fanny Morna, ou l'Écossaise (1799)
Ô Divinité Tutélaire (premiere recording)
André-Ernest-Modeste Gretry (1741-1813)
L'Embarras des Richesses (1782)
Dès notre enfance unis tous deux (premiere recording)
Aucassin et Nicolette, ou Les mœurs du bon vieux (1779)
Cher objet de ma pensée (premiere recording)
Lugi Cherubini (1760-1842)
Démophon (1788)
Un Moment à l’autel (premiere recording)
Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786)
Renaud (1782)
Barbare amour, tyran des cœurs
Nicolas Dalayrac (1753-1809)
Camille, ou Le souterrain (1791)
Ciel protecteur des malheureux (premiere recording)
