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Award winning French soprano to perform in capital

By IANS,

New Delhi: French opera singer Marion Baglon, who has been praised for her impressive debut in Paris, is in India to present the Lyric Open Opera concert at the Alliance Francaise in the capital.

The concert is a collection of “extracts from classical European operas” that allows Baglon to express human emotions such as “anger, joy, love and sadness” through small musical pieces.

“It is a unique opera technique that stresses vocal points and lyrics rather than the act,” Baglon told IANS. The soprano, who is among the few French musicians to have a “colorature” voice – which scales the highest pitch – will perform at the Alliance Francaise Wednesday evening.

Baglon was recently awarded the Simone and Cinno del Duca Foundation prize for her successful debut in the French capital. “I was the chorus of the Opera de Tours in 1998,” she said. Later, she performed at the Petit Trianon, Palace of Versailles and in Pakistan.

“I have selected extracts from Mozart’s ‘Queen of the Night: The Magic Flute’ and ‘Osman’s Tale’ by Jacques Offenbach, along several French and English opera scores for the Indian audience,” Baglon said.

The soprano said she had the “rare honour to sing the “Queen of the Olympia” theme at the Olympia in Paris with the Cologne Orchestra directed by Laurent Petitgirard.

Baglon, who comes from a non-musical family, took up opera seriously at university.

“It was while studying music that I opted for opera as a vocation 10 years ago.”

The soprano feels that “opera still has not been able to reach out to the younger audience in Europe and elsewhere across the globe”.

“It is not very well-known for two reasons – one because there is hardly any formal education available for this genre of music and the whole set-up is expensive. It is difficult to draw musicians to this genre because of the costs,” she said.