- EDITOR’S CHOICE
- The soprano exudes liquidity and light in everything she sings.
Sandrine Piau
Biography
Although coloratura soprano Sandrine Piau has sung and recorded other types of music, she is best known for her Baroque opera roles. She is an international star with a large catalog of solo recordings. Piau initially established her reputation in Baroque repertory, most notably in the operas of Handel (Tamerlano, Xerxes, and others), but she quickly branched out into the Mozart operas. Among Piau's more successful early efforts was a pair of William Christie-led performances: Handel's Messiah (1994) and Purcell's King Arthur (1995). Piau has remained an adventurous figure who recorded Schumann's Dichterliebe song cycle in 2019 and the album Handel: Enchantresses, featuring the Baroque orchestra Les Paladins, in 2022. In 2024, she was heard on Adèle Hugo: Mélodies sur des poèmes de Victor Hugo.