Après un rêve
This recording from French mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes and Ensemble Contraste explores familiar tunes of French Romanticism. Featuring works from Berlioz, Fauré, Gounod, Massenet and more, this delicious programme paints a picture of music and life in the Parisian salons.

From romance to melody composers of the century took their inspiration from the best writers of their time. Victor Hugo (Berlioz), Leconte de Lisle (Massenet), Lamartine (Gounod and Godard), Anna de Noailles (Saint-Saëns)… 'La Captive', for instance, is a poem from Victor Hugo that comes from Les Orientales. In April 1847, upon announcing the arrival of the composer, a Russian newspaper stated: "Berlioz is within our walls, he truly is the Victor Hugo of French music".

Rossini
Karine Deshayes is one of the greatest Rossini singers on the international opera stage. In this first solo album, featuring excerpts from some of his most beautiful works, she traces the different stages in Rossini's life.

She is accompanied by Raphaël Merlin (cellist of the Ébène Quartet) at the head of Les Forces Majeures, a collective bringing together musicians from prestigious chamber ensembles and top-flight orchestras.