Last Friday’s lunchtime concert in the RBA was given by the France-Canada Academy of Vocal Arts at the University of Toronto.  That mouthful is the moniker of a collaboration between the Faculty of Music and the Académie Francis Poulenc.  So this last week members of the AFP had been in Toronto working with students and faculty here on French chansons and canadian art song.  Fridays concert showcased six singer/pianist teams singing French song rep from both sides of the Canadian Channel.

It was varied and enjoyable and, at times, very accomplished indeed.  Soprano Joanna Goddard is definitely a rising star at UoT and her light, bright soprano sounded really nice in some songs by the Viardots and Yiannis Foulidis.  Joel Goodfellow also impressed at the keyboard.

One of the visitors; bass-baritone Pierre-Yves Cras impressed with Duparc’s “La vague et la cloche” and Mathieu’s “Il pleure dans mon coeur”.  He’s an excellent interpreter of text with loads of power that he can use to dramatic effect where needed.  Excellent work from Etienne Caron at the piano.

Next up was contralto Nicole Percifield.  I’ve loved her voice for what seems like ages and she just gets better.  She gave a very expressive account of the late John Beckwith’s “J’ai perdu mon amant” and a rather sexy rendering of Bizet’s “Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe”.  Accompaniment was by Dakota Scott-Digout who also seems to have been around for ever!

Baritone Félix Merle sang the first of two settings of Nelligan’s “Claire de lune intellectuel”, this one by Louis Dominique Roy.  It was quite dramatic and contrasted nicely with Gounod’s elegiac “Départ”.  Both songs were sung with impeccable diction and fine accompaniment from Flore-Elise Capelier.

Next up was another setting of “Clair de lune intellectuel”; this time by UoT grad student Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins.  This combined lyricism and a fair bit of drama and was nicely sung by soprano Hanne Morit Mordal Iversen with Dakota accompanying again.  It was followed by a sensitive and quite gentle version of Dutilleux’ symbolist “Barque d’or”.

And finally, a tenor; and a very good one.  He showed proper tenoring in Poulenc’s “La grâce exilée” and then real fireworks for both singer and pianist (Minira Najafzade) in the same composer’s crazy “Aussi bien les cigales”.  A pair of songs by Pierre Mercure were equally well done.

Definitely one of the most interesting song recitals I’ve been to recently.

Photos capped from this Youtube video of the whole concert.