Veronique Gens

[Mandryka]

She has a sort of natural grace, a lovely way of phrasing songs.

She doesn't load the music with affectations. She seems to give each word the right colour, to surround each word with just the right amount of space, and the pure  melodic line that she creates is beautiful.

I wonder how you find her. I haven't explored her opera recordings at all yet. But I have these two CDs, which are giving me a lot of pleasure:

[bhodges]

I like her, too! Although the only recording I have is the first of her Canteloube Chants d'Auvergne (there are three, I think), which is lovely - the first singer I've heard since Netania Davrath (on Vanguard) that I've really liked in these.

[asin]B00068VQAY[/asin]

--Bruce

[zamyrabyrd]

Natural grace, yes, that surely describes her wafting above the orchestra in Villanelle from Nuits d'été.  It's very difficult to make changes from one verse to another, let along pronounce the words in a higher key than is usually sung by mezzo sopranos but her phrasing is very elegant, especially the way she tapers off the end of words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CafWNeb6yZk&feature=related

Indeed, Netania Davrath in the Canteloube Songs is a hard act to follow...

ZB

[Père Malfait]

For admirers of Mme Gens' art, these two releases are (imho, of course) must-haves:

[zamyrabyrd]

Not to hijack Veronique's thread with Davrath but since her name was mentioned already and there are comparatively few recordings of hers to warrant a thread of her own, her version of Rachmaninoff's Harvest of Sorrow is very moving and worth listening to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBRrF31JV8s

I can usually listen to Spring Waters several times over if done well, but the above unfortunately has the expected culmination, the high note, truncated way too soon.

ZB

[Harry Powell]

I'm not suggesting she's not a correct singer, but you'd be shocked to listen to her minute tone in a theatre. A friend of mine refers to her as having "50 grammes of voice".

[val]

The best of Veronique Gens that I remember: his version with Sandrine Piau and the direction of Christophe Rousset of François Couperin's Leçons des Tenebres. A moment of magic beauty.