This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Français (French)
-
Leaf Music3
Bergeron, Godin — Nuits blanches
Olivier Bergeron, baritone; Olivier Godin, piano
Leaf Music, 2025
Olivier Bergeron was recently heard at the Festival d’opéra de Québec in a production of Carmen, where he played a supporting role, Moralès. The young baritone is now back in the spotlight with his first album, Nuits blanches, released by Leaf Music. And what better way to make your recording debut than with French mélodies. This repertoire is clearly well-suited to his voice and highlights his greatest qualities as a performer.
Accompanied by the distinguished pianist Olivier Godin, a connoisseur of French music, Bergeron immediately demonstrates the beautiful quality of his diction, clearly placing himself within the long and rich tradition of French expression. Maurice Ravel’s first song cycle, Épigrammes de Clément Marot, highlights Bergeron’s fine middle register and a natural, well-calibrated vibrato. The head voice passages are also well executed and demonstrate his particularly careful approach to singing.
However, it is clear that Bergeron’s voice has not yet reached full maturity. The low register lacks timbre, while the high notes at full voice seem compressed, causing the vocal colour to fade. The disparity between his middle and other registers is especially apparent in songs containing wide intervals, such as Gabriel Fauré’s À Clymène and C’est l’extase. The singer shows good potential, but his voice has yet to truly define itself as a baritone. At this stage, we cannot rule out the possibility that he may one day become a tenor. He could be the next Pelléas, for example. Debussy’s last cycle, which gives the album its name, gives us a glimpse of what may come.
Translation: Lilian I. Liganor
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Français (French)
