Aude Extrémo
Shirley Thomson
Zoe Band
“Extrémo confirms her place as the most exhilarating French mezzo of her generation.”
Emmanuel Andrieu , Opera-online
Distinguished Mezzo-soprano Aude Extrémo has been strongly associated with the French repertoire since her early career but has in recent seasons made impressive debuts within the dramatic fach including as Fricka (Die Walküre) at Opéra de Bordeaux, Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) at Opéra national de Lorraine, Amneris (Aïda) at Opéra de Massy for which Opera Magazine hailed her “the revelation of the evening” and Erda (Das Rheingold) at Theater Dortmund.
One of today’s foremost exponents of Bizet’s Carmen, Extrémo was hailed as “the Carmen of her generation” after performances at Opéra national de Bordeaux under conductor Marc Minkowski, a collaboration with whom has also brought debuts as Offenbach’s La Périchole at the Salzburg Festival, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, and at Opéra national de Bordeaux, the latter recorded and broadcast by Palazzetto Bru Zane, as well as Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) in Bordeaux, Bremen and at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.
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A laureate of the Atelier Lyrique at Opéra de Paris, Extrémo has returned as a guest under Music Director Philippe Jordan both as Ursule in Béatrice et Bénédict and as Anna in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production of Les Troyens. Other performance highlights include Dalila (Samson et Dalila) for Opéra national de Bordeaux, Jocasta (Oedipus Rex) at Salzburger Felsenreitschule, Fricka at Opéra de Marseille, Concepcion (L’heure Espagnole) at Opéra de Tours, Charlotte (Werther) with l’Orchestre Symphonique d’Aquitaine, Marguerite (La damnation de Faust) under Kazuki Yamada for Opéra de Monte Carlo and Catherine in Roméo Castellucci’s staging of Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher at La Monnaie conducted by Kazushi Ono. A regular collaboration with Palazzetto Bru Zane has produced performances as Metella (La Vie Parisienne) at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra de Rouen, Bizet’s Djamileh at Opéra de Tours and Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing as well as a recording of Spontini’s La vestale under Christophe Rousset.
The 2023/24 season includes a first Erda in concert performances of Wagner’s Siegfried with Guanghzhou Symphony Orchestra, Yamina in a production of Augusta Holmès’ rarity La Montagne Noire at Theater Dortmund and L’Opinion Publique in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg under Marc Minkowski. In concert there are appearances at Festival de Musiques Interdites in Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk Poetry with Orchestre Philharmonique du Marseille under Lawrence Foster.
Active on the concert platform, recent appearances include Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with Orchestre de Paris under Jaap van Zweden and with Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the latter broadcast on Mezzo; Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen at Festival de Musiques Interdites, Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer at Opéra de Lyon conducted by Daniele Rustioni and, at Festival d’Aix en Provence, both Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death under Marko Letonja and Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk Poetry under François-Xavier Roth. Performances elsewhere include Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Nathalie Stutzmann, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder at Opéra de Tours with Emmanuel Joel and Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with l’Orchestre National Avignon-Provence.
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“In front of him, the mezzo Aude Extrémo — who exploded in this same city six years ago in the role of Venus (Tannhauser) — offers a Marguerite of one of the darkest and most opulent French voices of the moment (alongside Clémentine Margaine). The impact and vocal seduction are undeniable”
“Aude Extrémo offers a sensitive Marguerite with voice full of colours and harmonics (without giving the impression of an overflow of vibrato).”
“Aude Extrémo has no difficulty filling every corner of the room with the immensity of her legato. As much with her presence as by her tone, her two arias, and in particular “Divinités du Styx”, leave the listener amazed by the breadth of her timbre, the fabric of its treble, and the mastery of its phrasing (enough to make you want to hear her as Strauss’ Die Amme or Wagner’s Erda).”
… “starting with Aude Extrémo, who undoubtedly deserves her surname… her voice evolves from low to high with the same breadth and generosity. It is surprisingly in a monumental “Divinity of the Styx” that she triumphs. Sensitive souls abstain, the gods of the Underworld have undoubtedly taken fright in front of such immensity and enthusiasm (Maestro even loses his baton), and the text is launched with lightning precision. Her voice is that of Rita Gorr with the bad-ass side of Shirley Verrett, and the sensuality of Anna Caterina Antonacci.”
Mezzo-soprano Aude Extrémo, with a voice like chocolate velvet, floated her high notes with intoxicating ease and swept majestically through her iconic solos.
‘… with a vocal freshness throughout the range, like the radiant Aude Extrémo (Fricka). The French mezzo finds here a role that is perfectly suited to her means, emphasizing the beauty of her timbre with astounding ease, as much as her powerful and admirably projected voice’.
“Distinguished from the team is Aude Extrémo’s Métella, with a great vocal and stage presence.”
“Aude Extrémo confirms that she is the Carmen of her generation: between her sumptuous voice and the intelligence of her interpretation, we are conquered by this proud and distinguished Carmen. So natural and touching that we can only fall in love.”
“For her part, Aude Extrémo confirms — if it was needed! — the immense Carmen that she is. Everything is perfectly in place: the voice, rich and deep, gives this mezzo-soprano all the means necessary to portray an extremely seductive, and at the same time vulnerable, Carmen. Her charisma and sensitivity make it possible to convey all the complexity of a character that is deeply bewitching but also sometimes tortured. Aude Extrémo also demonstrates her great comic strength, especially in the spoken passages.”
“Extrémo, auburn mane and golden ankle boots, sets the scene on fire as soon as she appears. The voice is rich, full-bodied, and opulent in the lower register.”
“Aude Extrémo masters all the facets of Carmen which she plays with a suicidal, casual, seductive, brutal, disdainful and sensual energy. Obviously, this “zingara” will never be tamed. The voice embraces the colours of the role, with ample and warm bass notes, hoarseness to portray Carmen’s animality, and airy trebles to recall her infinite freedom.”
“Beyond the intrinsic beauty of the timbre — its bass as opulent as its conquering highs, such phrasing and impeccable diction — she impresses by embodying the character with such naturalness, resolution and sensitivity that we can only love her; thus establishing herself as one of the best Carmen’s of the moment.”
“Aude Extrémo is easy to qualify: it is THE voice of Carmen.”
“There remains Aude Extrémo, who made her stage debut in the role. Well here she is, this Carmen that we all expect: freed from the traditional image of a vulgar whore, she dances with distinction, and fascinates with her distinguished movements and costume. The lioness temperament is there, the infantile and spontaneous character on occasion too, but tempered by the suffering of the abused woman who, disturbed by the fits of violence from her lover, seems to hesitate before finally choosing her fate. Her voice is of course part of the seduction which emanates from her, the treble of a brilliant and controlled instrument is an object of fascination, like the opulent and black bass which she never abuses, proportioning its effects in a bewitching habanera, a séguedille contained until the explosion, and a bewitching Card Air.”
“Aude Extrémo embodies a memorable creature; she pours, full throttle, the creamy and almost cavernous metal of her ample mezzo. One will rarely have listened to Carmen more domineering, more fatal… She is a weapon of massive seduction. When she sings, everything is erased in this vocal relief, this silk with infinite breath, both sensual and monstrous.”
“In the title role, Aude Extrémo confirms her place as the most exhilarating French mezzo of her generation (alongside Clémentine Margaine) thanks to her racy voice of an unusual magnitude, attached to a biting and endearing tone…her stage presence, all of determination, glorifies a Carmen who — assuming the consequences of her actions, without hesitation and without nostalgia — dares to live and love to the full.”
“Fricka often remains a secondary role but this scene…becomes epic when it is thus seized by a voice of such temper and of such a presence.”
“For her second excursion to Wagnerian lands (after Venus in the Parisian version of Tannhäuser in Monte Carlo), Aude Extrémo was a great success in Fricka. The voice is full, sonorous, skilfully projected even into the highest notes of the role and the character, skilfully portrayed, escapes the caricatural interpretations which sometimes reduce Fricka to a simple jealous and hysterical wife.”
“Beware of Fricka’s anger, since Aude Extrémo is burning the boards, outraged wife draped in the divine splendors of her opulent mezzo!”
“Her voice is deep, even guttural, her chest impressive, capable of captivating in the bass and blazing in the treble. In opera arias — Massenet and Saint-Saëns — she deploys her playing with intense dramatic expressiveness. ”
“In Amnéris, the French Aude Extrémo is the great revelation of the evening. What an interesting timbre, what flexibility in the voice, with a bass that allows her to embody both the roles of mezzo (the high register is clear) as those of contralto (her Bordeaux Dalila, last season, made an impression)! Her whole last act is of a very high standard.”
“Aude Extrémo (Venus, Tannhäuser), look-alike of Jean Harlow or Zsa Zsa Gabor, ineffable of vocal musical intelligence, deploys the most languid seductions and God, the influential melisms of the Paris version suit her well!”