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The Swiss mezzo-soprano, Brigitte Ravenel, studied at the Conservatoire de Lausanne, in the class of Philippe Huttenlocher. She studied singing with several private teachers, including F. Cavalli in Milan and Maarten Koningsberger in Amsterdam. Her meetings with Christa Ludwig and Armin Jordan were decisive in the orientation of her repertoire.
Brigitte Ravenel leads an independent career and performs throughout Europe, as a soloist or with the Coro della Radio Svizzera, accompanied by the orchestra I Barocchisti, under the direction of Diego Fasolis. The precision of her intonation and her vocal power allow her varied repertoire: works of early music by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Francesco Cavalli, Antonio Vivaldi, Giacomo Carissimi, Henry Purcell, to which are added the masterpieces of J.S. Bach, as well as his many cantatas. She sings, among others, the Lieder of Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler and Wolf, as well as the melodies of Debussy, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, De Falla, Kurt Weill, Frank Martin and many contemporary Swiss composers, like J.P. Lavanchy, J.F. Bovard, M. Hostetteler and Thüring Bräm, as well as Betty Roe and Sofia Gubaidulina.
Brigitte Ravenel is present in many national and international festivals, including the International Festival of Sacred Music in Friborg (Switzerland), La Bâtie-Festival of Geneva (Switzerland), La Folia - Festival of Early Music in Rougemont (Switzerland), Festival de Musique de La Chaise-Dieu (France), Bach en Drôme des Collines / Festival de Saint Donat (France), MITO SettembreMusica in Torino (Italy), La Sagra Malatestiana in Rimini (Italy), Early Music Festival in Bruges (Belgium), and Early Music Festival in Utrecht (the Netherlands).
Brigitte Ravenel concentrates on a special repertoire, for example singing and reciting (2008) in R.M. Rilke's Le chant d’Amour et de Mort du Cornette… set to music by Frank Martin in a version staged by Gilles Lambert. Brigitte Ravenel is also the initiator of musical creations and cultural events. She is the founder and organizer of the two annual events "Pleine Lune en Duo" and "Les Intimes" within the July/August concert series "concerts inédits" at the Château de Nyon, where different styles and musical universes meet and where interpretation and musical improvisation are mixed, readings of texts and video projections.
Her recordings combine the songs of Arthur Honegger and Kurt Weill. |
