En sourdine

Description

We know the flamboyant baritone Laurent Naouri, a striking embodiment of the four evil roles in The Tales of Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera in New York or the unforgettable Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande... But here we meet an intimate Naouri, a lover of the melodies of Fauré, Debussy, and Poulenc: "Here is a repertoire I have been familiar with for over thirty years, not without a certain frustration at times: how can one achieve the intimacy that a poem like Le Jet d’eau by Baudelaire suggests – almost a whisper on the pillow – while being constrained by musical writing to 'project' the voice? For while classical singing allows for nuances of piano or pianissimo, it is nonetheless inconceivable to whisper in the ear of the listener. To whisper, one needs a microphone, and we leave the realm of 'melody' to enter the world of 'song,' in the sense understood at the beginning of the radio era. I had been circling around these concerns for a few years already when I met the jazz guitarist Frédéric Loiseau. We took our first steps together on Les Berceaux, a melody that Yves Montand had already drawn towards song. Encouraged by the result, we sought other titles that we felt could benefit from this alcove treatment."