Véronique Gens

A native of Orléans, soprano Véronique Gens completed vocal studies at the Paris Conservatory, where she was awarded First Prize. She launched her career as an interpreter of Baroque music, collaborating in particular with William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, and Christophe Rousset. Gradually she expanded her repertoire to include numerous Mozart roles as well as such roles as Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Debussy’s Mélisande, Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff. Among the most significant engagements of recent years are her appearances as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) in Madrid, Glyndebourne, and Vienna, as Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) in Barcelona and Dresden, and as Cavalli’s La Calisto in Munich, Paris, and London. In 2009 Véronique Gens undertook her first Wagner role as Eva in Die Meistersinger at the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona; she has also become intensely involved of late with the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck, singing the heroine of Iphigénie en Aulide at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Iphigénie en Tauride at the Theater an der Wien, and Alceste in Aix-en-Provence. Gens enjoys an equally high profile as a concert and lieder singer and has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestre National de France, and the Orchestre de Paris; she has additionally been a guest artist at the Salzburg Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Wigmore Hall in London, and Lincoln Center in New York. Her more than 70 recordings have garnered numerous awards. Since 2006 she has been a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2011 she was accepted into the French Légion d’honneur.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 2 April 2001 in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, with the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico under the baton of Giovanni Antonini.

August 2011