Happy Birthday: Françoise Pollet

"Salut, splendeur du jour"
Sigurd (Reyer)

Françoise Pollet was born September 10, 1949 in the city of Boulogne-Billancourt (part of the Hauts-de-Seine district of suburban Paris), France. Her primary focus in music was the violin which she studied at the Conservatoire National de Region de Versailles. She decided to leave for Germany to train in vocal performance at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München where she studied with Ernst Haefliger, Erik Werba and Hermann Reutter. After graduating with honors, she won an international singing competition in Geneva, Switzerland. Immediately after she made her professional debut in 1983 at the opera in Lübeck as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier of Richard Strauss. It was not long after that the soprano's career was launched internationally singing the works of Berlioz, Verdi, Strauss and Messiaen. She has worked with some of the greatest conductors in the world including Pierre Boulez, Michel Plasson, Georges

"Pleurez, pleurez mes yeux"
Le Cid (Massenet)

Prêtre, Semyon Bychkov, Ricardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit and Carlo Maria Giulini. She sang in the most renowned opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Fenice in Venice, l'Opéra Bastille in Paris, as well as with every major orchestra in concert such as the London Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, L'Orchestre philharmonique d'Israël, New York Philharmonic and Royal Danish Orchestra. She participated in the premiere of Reigen by Philippe Boesmans at Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and created the title role of the last opera by Rolf Liebermann Freispruch für Medea. Her early years training as an instrumentalist aided her greatly in her career as a soloist in recital with such esteemed accompanists as Jean-Marc Luisada, Philippe Cassard, Dalton Baldwin, Roger Vignoles and Bruno Fontaine. Her extensive

"Sombre forêt"
Guillaume Tell (Rossini)

discography includes the Grammy Award-winning recording of Les Troyens and La Damnation de Faust of Berlioz, the Gloria and Stabat Mater of Poulenc, under the direction of Charles Dutoit (Decca); the Poemes pour Mi by Olivier Messiaen, the complete works of Webern, under the direction of Pierre Boulez (DG); the Guy Ropartz Symphony #3 and "La Marseillaise" on a disc titled Révolution Français, with Michel Plasson (EMI); Quand on n'a que l'amour which features music from Verdi to Brel under the direction of Yutaka Sado (Accord); Nuits d'été of Berlioz and Poème de l'amour of Chausson under Armin Jordan (WMD/FNAC); a disc of Duparc Mélodies with the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy with conductor Jérôme Kaltenbach (Accord); the Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss, the Sieben Frühe Lieder of Alban Berg and Wesendonck Lieder of Richard Wagner, under the direction Klaus Weise

"Mild und leise, wie er lächelt"
Tristan und Isolde (Wagner)

(Musicdisc); a recital of Airs Sacrés Français with Jacques Mercier (RCA); a recital of Brahms Lieder with Roger Vignoles on piano (Accord); Vissi d'arte, a program of Verdi and Puccini opera arias with Friedmann Layer (Cascavelle); a second recording of Nuits d'été paired with Herminie of Berlioz under conductor Stefan Sanderling (Arion); she teamed with Anne Sofie von Otter, John Aler and Thomas Allen to recored the complete Berlioz Mélodies with Cord Garben on piano (DG); Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher with Seiji Ozawa (DG); joined by soprano Natalie Dessay, the two recorded La Lyre et la Harpe and Le Déluge of Saint-Saëns with Jacques Mercier (RCA); a complete recording of Werner Egk's opera Peer Gynt with conductor Heinz Wallberg (Orfeo); Poulenc's La Voix Humaine with Jean-Claude Casadesus (Harmonia Mundi); the Requiem of Saint-Saëns with Jacque Mercier (Adda); a complete recording of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and a solo disc L'Opéra Français of grand arias with Cyril Diederich (Erato); as well as some avant

"Toi qui sus le néant"
Don Carlos (Verdi)

"Pace, pace mio Dio"
La Forza del Destino (Verdi)

-garde works on smaller international labels. In 1994, she was recognized as singer of year by Les Victoires de la Musique Classique. She has taught at the Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse in Lyon, France, since 2002. She gives numerous master classes at the Opéra-Studio de Strasbourg "Voice of the Young Rhine" at the Academy Maurice Ravel (St Jean de Luz), the Musikakademie of Amsterdam, the Franz-Liszt-Hochschule Weimar, at the Conservatoire National de Region de Montpellier and Centre Voice Rhône-Alpes. She is a Chevalier (knight) in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. [Source, Source]

"Mignon" (Wolf)

"Geistliches Wiegenlied" (Brahms)

"Quand on n'a que l'amour" (J. Brel)

"Summertime" Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)

"L'Invitation au Voyage" (Duparc)

"Chanson triste" (Duparc)

"Somewhere" Westside Story (Bernstein)

"Frühling" Vier Letzte Lieder (Strauss)

"La Cloche" (Saint-Saëns)

"Ave Maria" (Bach/Gounod)