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The French soprano, Véronique Gens, was awarded First Prize of the Conservatoire de Paris and made her debut in 1986 with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. Very soon, she established a highly distinguished reputation in baroque music, regularly performing with William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs and Christophe Rousset.
Jean-Claude Malgoire offered Véronique Gens her first W.A. Mozart roles: Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito - these diametrically opposite roles are testament to this artist's extraordinary vocal range. In 1994 she played the Countess in Opéra de Lyon's production of Le Nozze di Figaro with tremendous success, becoming overnight one of the top singers in the new generation. That same season, she sang W.A. Mozart's Requiem and J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232) with René Jacobs, and George Frideric Handel's Acis and Galatea with William Christie. She also gave recitals at La Scala in Milan, the Auditorium of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
Performances in the 1996-1997 season included Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ with La Chapelle Royale and Philippe Herreweghe which toured Brussels, London, Amsterdam, Montreux and Paris (later recorded for Harmonia Mundi), and she again played the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro in Lyon. This summer, she took up the role of Donna Elvira in the new Peter Brook production of W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni conducted by Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding which opened the Aix-en-Provence Festival. She will be touring France, Belgium, Italy and Japan with this production into 1999. Regularly invited to appear on French television, Véronique Gens was awarded the French Critics Prize 'Musical Revelation of the Year' in 1995.
Recordings include several discs for Virgin Classics (with Gérard Lesne), Harmonia Mundi, Erato, L'Oiseau-lyre and Archiv. Véronique Gens is now signed exclusively to Virgin Classics for solo recitals. |
