Meyerbeer, Giacomo - Meyerbeer in France - Thébault, Hjördis
Hjördis Thébault, soprano
Pierre-Yves Pruvot, baritone
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra / Didier Talpain
This new recording contains a generous selection of arias and duets from operas by Meyerbeer. He enjoyed a hugely successful career as an opera composer. He perfected the genre Grand Opera, which deeply influenced composers like Verdi, Wagner, Gounod and Massenet. It is high time that the neglect which befell him after his death is compensated, and fortunately several of his operas are taken back on the repertoire of opera houses.
This recording offers arias and duets from Robert le Diable, L’Africaine, Le Prophète, Les Huguenots, L’Étoile du Nord and Dinorah, music of great melodic invention, drama and burning passion.
Excellent performances by French baritone Pierre-Yves Pruvot, prize-winner at the Den Bosch and Brussels vocal competitions, and Hjördis Thébault, French-born soprano who sang with William Christie, John Elliott Gardiner, Marc Minkowski and Kent Nagano. The Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Meyerbeer champion Didier Talpain.