I love Patricia Petibon`s soprano voice, but it must be said that she sometimes take rather eccentric liberties – though I can't bring myself to judge her harshly – it's really quite fun.
An all French selection of arias, some a good deal more familiar than others; it's actually a very pleasurable album – Petibon is joined on two tracks by mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes – The Flower Duet from Lakmé and the Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann. The main bone of contention is probably her handling of "Les oiseaux dans la charmille" - again from Hoffmann; it's certainly creative if not quite what one may be used to – the Chabrier, Hahn and closing track - "Je t'aime” by Isabelle Aboulker are amusing - it's a po-faced puritan indeed who would condemn her for indulging a little in their light-hearted intent!
An entertaining album – if one knows what to expect; texts and translations are included in the booklet.
Amazon have now stopped providing sound samples – a stupid and extremely inconvenient move for all prospective purchasers – check out YouTube or the like for tracks; the CD has a playing time of 62.48 minutes.