Marie-Nicole Lemieux: Ne Me Refuse Pas – review

Lemieux/Orchestre National de France/Gabel (Naive)This is a bit of a puzzle. A recital of 19th-century French arias, it is something of a new departure for Canadian mezzo Marie-Nicole Lemieux, hitherto primarily associated with Italian baroque. The programme is formidably intelligent: well-known items are placed alongside some terrific music by composers we rarely hear (Halévy and Wormser, for instance), the aim being to remind us that the dividing line between success and oblivion can sometime...

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