Massenet: Les Amoureuses Sont Des Folles – Songs By Jules Ma

   in Opera Now (Oct, 2015)
A nice contrast is Sally Silver’s Les amoureuses sont des folles, a collection of Massenet songs. Her voice lives up to her name, with a quick tone and pleasing sheen. The songs are rather lovely too, with echoes of the composer’s operas – ‘Adieu’ reminiscent of Manon, ‘O ruisseau’ of Thais – and she is joined for duets and a trio. Richard Bonynge accompanies idiomatically. There’s something rather old fashioned about the enterprise, an air of drawing room, a soundtrack to Downton Abbey perhaps, not as fashionable as Dessay’s more intellectual approach to both programme and interpretation. Both will have their fans. …