“If I have my voice, no one can do anything against me”

Did you hatch this album for a long time?

In my heart, yes. I have always wanted to record Mozart. He’s the composer I’ve sung the most on stage. It suits my voice. This record was born from a personal desire and I told myself that I was going to do what I wanted. There is the idea of ​​emancipation here. I decided on all the tunes with the help of a musical collaborator who made me discover two previously unreleased tunes, a huge godsend for Mozart!

Was he the Gainsbourg of his time?

Somehow. Because what is fundamental in his act of creation is that he wrote for female singers taking into account their technical abilities, but also what they inspired in him. We understand all the tenderness he has for Nancy Storace and all the nobility and the more distanced side for Caterina Cavalieri. What touches us so much is that we feel an act of love in Mozart’s writing. This composer really feeds my joy. It’s intangible, but everything in life is mystical. Music, and classical music in particular, belongs to the realm of the beyond, beyond “good culture”, of what one finds attractive as a movement of a symphony or not.

I often say that people are wrong when they talk about us: opera singers are wild women. To sing, you have to look into your guts, it’s not an elegant gesture. Music is vibration, therefore energy.

In the classical, in Mozart in particular, there is a musical harmony which, I believe, is very good for the soul.

What is the topic discussed today?

Every time I recorded a disc, in spite of myself, there was always an echo with my own existence. Here, it is the theme of separation, farewell and intimacy. This opus tells something a little more serious, which people don’t necessarily imagine about me, but that doesn’t mean it’s sad. For me, Mozart is both deep and joyful! The breakup has been my problem since I became a mother because my delivery was a terrible separation experience. My son is 4 years old and I’m barely recovering. I had loved my pregnancy, this moment of absolute connection, beyond words, the look. Even when I was pregnant, I told her about the operas I played and I continue, of course. It’s sometimes complicated, because go and explain Pelléas et Mélisande to a 4-year-old child! He knows the Marriage of Figaro by heart since he was 2 and a half years old, but he also adores Michael Jackson. It’s my little Dario!

You seem like a cure for gloom, right?

I am rather positive, joyful by essence, which does not prevent me from going through complicated periods, from being aware of what is wrong around us, but I am fundamentally optimistic. It’s not naivety, it’s in me and it’s a job to nurture that part, to let it exist against all odds. To do this, we find our tricks: I wear sequins all year round, on my clothes, my make-up, my nail polish… Life has to shine! Of course, I also undertook a real therapeutic and physical work with yoga, meditation. I try to surround myself with good people, those who are in a momentum of life, turned towards the other.

Has becoming a singer changed your life?

Totally. I would have become a different person without this job. It is a profession of travels, discoveries, encounters, self-analysis. When one is an artist, one doubts and this is accompanied by self-questioning. There is so much to manage. This profession helped me to be strong, or maybe to discover this strength in me. Without that, I would have remained a nice young girl who listens well to her dad and her mom, and not a wild woman. It’s a huge chance. Singing opera is an endless and bottomless well. The same goes for the repertoire, which is constantly evolving. “Opera is open”, I repeat all the time that opera is a genre open to anyone who wants to go there. I’m not from this world, it’s a total coincidence. My parents had the good idea to enroll us in the Conservatory. They had three children and did not buy, but rented instruments. I saw my first opera with my CP class, I liked it. As a teenager, I was in Avignon, so I went to all the rehearsals for free. Then, in Paris, I was queuing at the last minute, at Garnier or at Bastille, to buy my tickets at 20 €.

What relationship do you have with your vocal cords?

If I have my voice, nobody can do anything against me. It’s terrible, because I can’t rely solely on her anyway, poor thing! But if I can sing, nothing can happen to me, I feel powerful, independent. At the same time, I think I’m one of the artists who won’t have a problem stopping. If I have to stop in ten years, I would be very happy to launch my jewelry line, to create a foundation to help young people discover opera.

Do you still live in Provence?

We came back to Paris and I’m sad. I still have my home there, I go there whenever I can, it’s my life, my heartbeat. But it was easier for everyone to settle in Paris. My schedule is very busy, even if I redirect things more and more. Life is too beautiful to be lived on planes. When one is in his right place, in his joy, things revolve around the right way. I feel at this moment in my life: it rings true, I have infinite gratitude.

What projects do you have?

Among other things, I will be singing Cleopatra for the first time, in Amsterdam in January, and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, in Zurich in April. I know my schedule for the next four years and wish it wasn’t quite full to have more quality family time and travel for me. I want to go to India, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, to dance the tango… I love it so much.

This profession helped me to be strong, or maybe to discover this strength in me

When you were a child, what were your Christmas traditions?

At home, we didn’t celebrate Christmas, but I was in need of neither gifts nor love! My parents had simply agreed that the annual present session was on their wedding anniversary.

Today, it gives me the freedom to organize the Christmas I want and give it the meaning I want. It’s not sad, it’s wonderful to decide. As I have no tradition, then anything is possible. But I really like decorating the tree and there, you shouldn’t bother me when I get started. The other night, my son was in his bath and put some foam on his chin and said to me, “Look mom, I’m Santa Claus! »

What present would you like?

Nothing that takes up space! It tires me… I would rather be offered massages, workshops or pottery lessons… A gift that would really make me happy would be someone offering me to tidy up my closet in Provence. The one in Paris is exemplary, but the one in my house in the South contains all of my son’s belongings since he was born. I still can’t sort them out or part with them!

Album amateurClassic Sony.