Sandrine Piau (born 5 June 1965) is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Debussy, and Poulenc. In addition to an active career in concerts and operas, she is prolific in studio recordings, primarily with Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, and Alpha since 2018.
Biography
Born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, she initially studied harp and turned to singing at the Conservatoire de Paris. After meeting William Christie, she commenced her exposure to Baroque music and their collaboration notably at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. She proceeded further vocal studies with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs.
She collaborated with many of the leading European conductors of the Baroque revival, including Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, Paul McCreesh, Alan Curtis, Christophe Rousset, René Jacobs, and Fabio Biondi.
Piau also excels in operatic roles in other eras. She has sung Mozart roles such as Pamina in The Magic Flute, Servilla in La clemenza di Tito, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She has taken up French roles such as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, Sister Constance in Dialogues des Carmelites, and made forays into romantic roles including Ännchen in Weber's Der Freischütz, Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff, Wanda in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, and Sophie in Massenet's Werther.
She participated in an opening concert of the Elbphilharmonie on 12 January 2017, where she sang Berg's Seven Early Songs.
She was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2006 by the French government. She won the "Singer of the year" (Artiste lyrique de l'année) in the Victoires de la musique classique in 2009.
Recordings
Most recordings can be found on the discography section of official website.
Early recordings
Her early recordings under Harmonia Mundi include collaborations with William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants. They recorded Purcell's The Fairy-Queen, Luigi Rossi's Orfeo, Campra's Idoménée, Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and his madrigals, various operas by Rameau (Les Indes galantes, Pygmalion/Nélée et Myrthis, Castor et Pollux), in addition to sacred works including Michel Richard Delalande's Te Deum, his petits motets, and Handel's Messiah. She appeared in other recordings, which include André Caplet: Conte fantastique, Septuor prières (1992), Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1994) conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, and Frank Martin's Le Vin herbé (2007) conducted by Daniel Reuss. Some recordings with Christie were released on other labels: Purcell's King Arthur (1995, Erato Records) and Handel's Serse (2004, Virgin Classics).
Piau has also collaborated frequently with Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyrique. Their first recordings were Henry Du Mont: Motets en dialogue, published by Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and reissued by Virgin Classics, and Pascal Collasse's Cantiques spirituels de Racine under Erato/Radio France. They recorded Handel's Riccardo Primo (1996), Mondonville's Les fêtes de Paphos (1997) on L'Oiseau-Lyre. On Decca Records, they made recordings of Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto (1999), Couperin: Leçons de ténèbres, Motets, Magnificat (2000), and sacred works by Leonardo Leo (2002).
Her earliest recording on Virgin Classics was Rameau's Pygmalion (1993) with Hervé Niquet and his ensemble Le Concert Spirituel. She collaborated with Gérard Lesne and his ensemble Il Seminario Musicale in sacred music, including Charpentier: Leçons de ténèbres, motets by Alessandro Stradella, Alessandro Scarlatti's cantatas, and his other works such as Stabat Mater. She also worked with various conductors, including Christophe Coin (Rameau: Cantates profanes, pièces en concert), Alan Curtis (Rodrigo), Christophe Rousset (Couperin: Motets), William Christie, Emmanuelle Haïm (Aci, Galatea e Polifemo), Marc Minkowski (Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, released on both CD and DVD).
Naïve Records
Piau has made discography on Naïve Records the most, in genres across operas, sacred works, and art songs. Earlier, she had recorded on independent labels now owned by Naïve.
Handel: Arie e duetti d'amore with Gloria Banditelli (1996). Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi (Opus 111) Opera Arias by Mozart (2002). Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz (Astrée)