Press Archive
2015-11-03, The New York Times, by Anthony Tommasini
Handel doesn’t give us some Christian dogmatist, but rather a liberal-minded Roman officer who advocates tolerance, plaintively sung by Mr. Jaroussky. There may be countertenors with brighter, bigger voices, but few with such melting sound and elegance.
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2015-11-01 Opera Now Magazine
Preview:
November issue out now!
3 November 2015
With a voice described as “youthful, luminous and direct”, French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky talks to Opera Now about the secrets of his growing success; we meet the British companies leading the way in staging new work for young performers; and conductor René Jacobs discusses his fresh approach to recording Mozart’s operas.
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2015-10-21, Opera Today, by Frank Cadenhead
The Roman officer who tries to save Theodora, Didymus, was sung by the celebrated counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky. While the voice seemed to have a bit less impact that in the past in this same theater, it retains the superb grace and beauty which took him to the top. This and his instinctive theatrical sense make him appealing as the Roman officer who questions the authoritarian state.
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2015-04-16, Opera Today, by Rebecca S. Lentjes
With such breadth in theme and mood, the recording is clearly a labor of love, and Jaroussky and Ducros bring sensitivity to each track. Just as each of the composers crafted their own shade of Green, so the countertenor here has created an entirely new take on the poetry of Verlaine, and one that leaves a distinct impression upon each listening. […]
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2015-02-27, Warner, Le Figaro
Translated from the original French. Interview by Thierry Clermont in Le Figaro, 19 February, 2015.
So you’ve had this project Green in mind for a long time?
PJ: It’s been in the works for about eight years. I love Verlaine’s poetry and his universe, made up of languor and melancholy as well as lightness and humour. I find myself there. Just think of the themes and the characters of his second collection of poems, Fêtes galantes, with its baroque side and its pastoral atmosphere. Most of his poems are short, arrhythmic – even dissonant . As he says in his Art poétique he prefers the odd lines out. It’s very human poetry, sensual but with childlike simplicity.
Source: Warner
2015-02-11, Warner
“‘Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches,
Et puis voici mon cœur qui ne bat que pour vous’
‘Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches,
And here is my heart, which beats only for you.’
Philippe Jaroussky sings these intimate lines three times on his forthcoming double album of Verlaine poetry in mélodies and chansons from Fauré to Ferré. Debussy, Fauré and André Caplet all set the poem Green, which gives the album its enigmantic title.
Source/Read more: Warner Classics
2014-06-12, Opera Today, by Claire Seymour
Jaroussky sings with wonderful precision and control; his beautiful, clean sound strokes the long, phrases into being, with just a dash of flexibility to bring a modern touch to the classical melodies. […]
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2014-05, Opera News, by Sylvia L’Écuyer
ON: Do you initiate these projects, such as the Handel operas, or are they proposed to you?
PJ: Both. I have reached a point where I can initiate an opera project in order to sing a particular role. However, I have to accept that I will likely never perform the role of my dreams, Handel’s Ariodante. Singing “Dopo notte” after “Scherza infida” is more than I can manage onstage. I did include these in a Farinelli recital program in February for a U.S. tour, but Ariodante will remain a major disappointment in my life.
I have also just realized that I like to work with the same people over and over again, and I believe I have reached a certain balance in my artistic life because of this. It is always reassuring to know the person you are working with.
2014-03-02, Deceptive Cadence, by NPR Staff
MUSIC MAKERS
Philippe Jaroussky And The Impossibly High Male Voice
March 2, 20144:00 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
NPR STAFF
Philippe Jaroussky’s new album is Farinelli: Porpora Arias.
Marc Ribes /Erato/Warner Classics
Transcript
Philippe Jaroussky cuts a masculine figure on the cover of his new album, Farinelli: Porpora Arias, but you might do a double take upon hearing the music. The arias the French opera singer performs on this release were written in the 18th century for a castrato — a boy singer castrated to retain his high singing voice through adulthood.
Jaroussky is still intact, as they say. He’s a countertenor who achieves that high pitch through vocal technique — singing in a ‘head voice,’ the way the way a female soprano would, rather than in his speaking register. It’s the reason, he says, that he’ll never sound exactly like a real castrato.
“They were sounding more brilliant than us because they are bigger. They have enormous chests, with very small vocal cords,” Jaroussky explains in an interview with NPR’s Arun Rath. “That was probably pretty impressive to hear. And we know that they could keep a sound for one, two minutes, without breathing at all. You can imagine, the impact on the audience was probably amazing.”
Jaroussky took a particular interest the music Neapolitan composer Nicola Porpora wrote for the castrato Farinelli, perhaps Porpora’s most famous pupil. Audible in the work, Jaroussky says, is a mutual understanding between teacher and student that singing is about more than just biology.
“It wasn’t enough to make the operation on a child. They were training, practicing, for many, many years. They were practicing for eight hours, 10 hours a day,” he says. “What I liked with this Porpora music, particularly, is it wasn’t based about virtuosity. I think he’s respecting Farinelli more like a musician, and not only a vocal monster.”
Jaroussky says the point of taking on this repetoire was never to emulate Farinelli — though at least one critic has needled him for not sounding enough like the master.
“I don’t want to say that I’m singing like Farinelli. That would be very pretentious,” Jaroussky says. “But I think the people, they need to hear this music! When I was a student I practiced a lot, all these technical points. But now, what matters for me is really to sing for the audience in front of me. And the audience in front of me is a modern one.”
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2014-02-26, The New York Times, by James R. Oestreich
There are countertenors, and then there is Mr. Jaroussky.
[…] with Mr. Jaroussky, there is scarcely a sense of anything artificial in the vocal production. He sings with an ease and fluidity that you would think could come only from a natural voice. And that is before you lay on his keen intelligence and his tremendous artistry. […] But there was no fault to find with the performances. In the repeats of da capo arias, Mr. Jaroussky ornaments his lines lavishly yet so smoothly and naturally that if you hadn’t just heard him sing the opening relatively straight, you wouldn’t believe he was making this up.Read more: [x]
