Phryné (2022)/ Saint-Saëns, Camille

Hervé Niquet conducts with considerable elegance and panache. There’s plenty of clear yet sensuous detail in the Rouen orchestra’s playing, and the choral singing, from Niquet’s own Concert Spirituel choir, is first rate. The title-role is tricky. Saint-Saëns intended it for Emma Calvé, a noted Carmen, though the Opéra-Comique management insisted on Sibyl Sanderson, later the creator of Thaïs, for whom Saint-Saëns added some vertiginous coloratura, which was her speciality. Florie Valiquette’s voice is sweet rather than overtly sensual but she has a nice line in discreet innuendo, and that coloratura is effortless, seductive and exactingly precise. Cyrille Dubois, in another high-lying role, is her stylish Nicias, silky toned and – rightly – a bit vapid (...)|