Amoureuses

MusicWeb - Recording of the Year 2008

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2009: Opera Award Winner

"French coloratura soprano Patricia Petibon has made her reputation through outstanding performances of French baroque music. In this her debut release for Deutsche Grammophon, Petibon shows her undoubted prowess in the Classical repertoire. All sixteen opera arias feature various women characters who are in love. The varying moods of these arias certainly allow Petibon to display her considerable talents, particularly her artistry, dramatic facility and versatility. The DG engineers can be proud of the excellent sonics from the Paterskirche at Kempen."
(Recording of the Month MusicWeb Nov 2008)

"The French soprano's DG debut is a considerable and attractive success. There are excerpts from Gluck's Armide, too, including a heartfelt air from Act 3. In the last scene, Petibon is mesmerising in the recitative - excellent support here, and indeed throughout, from Daniel Harding - before, again, bursting out in fury." Gramophone Magazine, December 2008

"Patricia Petibon's choice of arias by the three greatest of late 18th-century opera composers is tailor-made to display her range, in terms of both drama and sheer vocal compass. …her debut disc for DG is pure pleasure, and Daniel Harding and Concerto Köln provide first-rate support." BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 *****

Petibon has established herself as one of the most interesting and versatile sopranos of our day and has been widely acclaimed for her outstanding acting abilities that make her merge completely with whatever role she sings and represents on stage

With Amoureuses Petibon circles around the ever-important topic of love and desire - in a series of character-portraits she explores how the very different female characters in the operas of Mozart, Haydn, and Gluck respond to the challenges of love

Ranging from the dramatic fury in Haydn's Odio, furor, dispetto and Mozart's Der Hölle Rache . . . to the sweetness in his Deh vieni, and from the desperate sadness of his L'ho perduta . . . me meschina! to the grandeur of Gluck's Ah! Si la liberté, the album is the perfect showcase for Petibon's exceptional skills of expression and characterization

For Amoureuses Petibon teamed up with the acclaimed period-instrument band Concerto Köln and conductor Daniel Harding, a collaboration that guarantees an effervescent, entrancing approach to the music of the Viennese masters - a captivating debut to watch for!