‘Michèle Losier’

If Maurice Ravel is to be believed, we are indebted to the French composer Charles Gounod for ‘having rediscovered a harmonic sensuality lost since the time of the harpsichordists’. It fell to other composers, such as Massenet and Saint- Saëns to pursue Gounod’s legacy, each in his own way, in works that are at times languorous, at times marked by emotional intensity. Michèle Losier made a big impression at La Monnaie as Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), before making us laugh as Berlioz’s heroine Béatrice. In this recital, the Canadian mezzo-soprano reveals yet another facet of her art – a fragility and sensuality characteristic of Gounod and Saint-Saëns. She invites us, moreover, on a unique journey that takes in unjustly neglected pieces by Bizet and Franck. It was Franck who wondered, ‘Apart from having loved, what else is there on earth?’