This album's title,
Amoureuses, refers to operatic characters who are motivated by some aspect of love, from its purest romantic form to its more warped distortion. The characters come from works by three of the greatest composers of the Classical era,
Mozart,
Haydn, and Gluck. French soprano
Patricia Petibon has a voice of piercing purity, sparkling silvery lightness, and dazzling agility. Her range is unusually wide, so that she can easily handle roles for both high coloratura and lyric soprano, serenely floating or darting madly about high above the staff or plunging with full strength to the depths of the soprano register. The range of arias shows not only her musical scope, including both the warmly lyric and the most outrageously demanding coloratura, but a thoughtfulness and emotional honesty that demonstrate real dramatic breadth, to the extent that she's willing to sound less than absolutely lovely when the drama demands it. The arias range from Susanna's Deh vieni, non tardar and Barbarina's L'ho perduta to the Queen of the Night's Der Hölle Rache, but the bulk of the album is made up of repertoire that's far more obscure, and it's in some of these less familiar arias that
Petibon makes the strongest impression.
Mozart is represented by his insertion aria, Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!, and arias from Lucio Silla and Zaide, Gluck by arias from two operas, and
Haydn by arias from five. Salamelica, Semprugna cara, from
Haydn's Lo Speziale is a marvel of comic eccentricity, and Eurydice's death scene from his L'anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice showcases the singer's gift for lyrically sustaining long lines. The passion that erupts in the aria from Zaide, and in the Gluck scene from Armide that ends the album, is nothing short of astonishing.
Daniel Harding leads
Concerto Köln in a refined and spirited accompaniment that is keenly geared to matching
Petibon's interpretations. Deutsche Grammophon's sound is clear and clean, with good balance.