Patricia Petibon - Airs Baroques Français (2001)

Like olives, artichokes, and more essentially and problematically, anchovies, Patricia Petibon's voice is an acquired taste. She is a high coloratura (up to E-flat), her technique is formidable, capable of great floridity and very fine breath control, she sings mostly without vibrato, and the tone can be so diamond-brilliant that it can grate, although for darker dramatic moments she can moderate the shine. She becomes completely involved in what she's singing and so is very moving--the sadness and desperation of Jonathan in Charpentier's David et Jonathas is stunning, as is Armide's lunatic rage from Lully's opera (what she does with the word "hate" is worthy of Callas as Medea and is just as voice-wrecking). All of the Rameau excerpts are deftly handled, from sylvan to warlike and back.

She also gets away with the frivolity and virtuosity of the almost entirely unknown 15-minute work by Grandval (1676-1753), in which the singer attempts to please his/her audience by calling upon all the various styles and themes of music of his time: a plaint by Orpheus, hymns to Bacchus, cute love songs, vengeance arias, evocations to Hell, a plea to Neptune, a battle cry, and so forth, all done with on-the-sleeve passion. The piece is a tour-de-force of changing mood--almost psychosis, in fact--and Petibon strikes me as the only singer I ever want to hear sing it. She can be amazingly seductive, flipping into high notes or cooing like a dove. She must be dynamite on stage.

Most of the music on this CD is rare and that's almost enough reason to want it, particularly if the French Baroque is your cup of tea. It is wonderfully played by a group called Les Folies Francoises led by Patrick Cohen-Akenine, with the all-important winds present and gorgeously played (the woody oboes in the first number from Platee, the bassoon in an aria from Les fetes d'Hymen), the harpsichord audible and commenting on the voice at all times, the strings attacked with verve, the trumpets and drums bringing us to our feet. Try it, you may like it. In fact, you may love it. -- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com