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| Véronique Gens - Visions |
I'm just going to quickly take a break from utter silence and recommend this new recital disc of French arias from the stellar soprano Véronique Gens. I'm really only familiar with her contributions to René Jacobs' revelatory Mozart projects, and am now realizing she's got quite the catalog of recorded material to her name, of which this new c.d. is a welcome addition. It's a collection of scenes from lesser-known operas in which women experience religious epiphanies, here treated by Gens with the appropriate severity, yet cushioned by her absolutely sumptuous phrasing and one-of-a-kind instrument. Here's a particularly ravishing excerpt from Massenet's La Vierge: