About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

Classicist and iconoclast at once, the great French composer-critic Hector Berlioz was at peak form when composing his ravishing and haunting song cycle Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights). In these superb evocations of the Romantic imagination, a special talent from our own time, the American soprano Susan Graham, is completely at home. Her richly shaded voice searches out nuances in text and melody, shining with commitment and pleasure in each nocturnal vision. She brings the same luster to selections from Berlioz's operas Benvenuto Cellini, Les Troyens, and Béatrice et Bénédict, as well as his oratorio La Damnation de Faust. Her achievement is matched by the distinguished Berlioz conductor John Nelson. If Graham is not yet the sovereign interpreter of these classics -- champion predecessors include Régine Crespin and Rita Gorr -- she is far and away our present-day leader. Patrick Giles, Barnes & Noble

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