After an album of French songs (Néère, Alpha215) 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 (which also coproduced the present recording), 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).

• Bizet: Prière, ô doux souffle de l’ange (from Clovis et Clotilde)
• Bruneau: Seigneur ! Est-ce bien moi que vous avez choisie? (from Geneviève)
• David, Félicien: Sous le feuillage sombre (from Lalla-Roukh)
• Février, H: Dit-elle vrai? (from Gismonda)
• Franck, C: Le flot se lève (from Rédemption)
• Godard, B: Là-bas, vers le palais (from Les Guelfes)
• Halévy: Ce sentier nous conduit vers le couvent voisin (from La Magicienne)
• Massenet: La Vierge
• Massenet: La Vierge: L’extase de la Vierge
• Massenet: La Vierge: Le Dernier Sommeil de la vierge (Légende sacrée)
• Niedermeyer: Ah! Quel songe affreux! (from Stradella)
• Saint-Saëns: Ah! Laissez-moi, ma mère! (from Étienne Marcel)