A Palette of French Melodies

French Institute - 27/10/23

Caroline Beltra, coloratura soprano | Ailsa Aitkenhead, piano | Camille Curtis, flute

Edinburgh is a city with music coming out of its pores. So much so that it can be easy to miss some of the treats on offer in its less obvious corners. I am particularly glad that I caught this delightful chamber concert late last month – one of a series of regular cultural events at the Institut Français d’Ecosse, the official language centre for the French government in Scotland’s capital since 1946.

The young trio presented an entertaining (and sometimes adventurous) programme of primarily vocal works by works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin, Camille Saint-Saëns, Albert Roussel, Claude Debussy, Joseph Canteloube and Jacques Offenbach, with a little Robert Burns thrown in as an encore to add local colour and emphasise the modern day Auld Alliance.

Caroline Beltra, born in France, began studying voice at the Academy for Contemporary Music in London before moving to Edinburgh to further her studies. The choice of showcase songs here certainly emphasised her dedication to following in the footsteps of celebrated French coloratura sopranos such as Lily Pons, Mady Mesplé, and Mado Robin. She was ably accompanied by local piano accompanist, repetiteur and soloist Ailsa Aitkenhead, and polished flautist Camille Curtis, who has worked with cellist Steven Isserlis in Sherborne Abbey and the Queen’s College Choir Oxford this year. 

This was apparently Beltra’s first professional outing, and she showed herself ready to face the challenge of songs with an often-light texture, but all the runs, trills and leaps you could wish for in this kind of singing. The acoustic in the packed reception room was not always friendly to the delicate balance between voice, piano and flute, but the trio delivered an interesting set of cameos with enthusiasm and finesse.

The appropriate culmination was Olympia’s Aria from Les Contes d ’Hoffmann, Act I, scene 8, rounding off a concert which had opened with another operatic offering: the ‘Rossignols amoureux’ arietta from ‘Hippolyte et Aricie’, Rameau’s first opera. This was one of a number of reductions and adaptations. In chamber form the song is more usually performed with violin and cello alongside flute, and with the original harpsichord (it was written in 1733) rather than piano. 

In between we were treated to a variety of shimmering repertoire pieces, including Camille Saint-Saëns’ wistful ‘Le bonheur est chose légère’ and ‘L’attente’, two of Albert Roussel’s poetic settings, and three of the ‘Chants d’Auvergne’, by Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret. This is a collection of folk songs which can be arranged for soprano voice and orchestra or piano.

Caroline Beltra bravely tackled the fiendishly tricky ‘Les oiseaux dans la charmille’, also from Offenbach’s Hoffman, as her penultimate number, while the accompanists took solo opportunities well. Camille Curtis gave us ‘Syrinx’ for solo flute, written by Debussy in 1913, and Ailsa Aitkenhead provided confident and (where necessary) jaunty and good-humoured accompaniment throughout.  An absorbing hour or so of music making.