Julie Roset
Shirley Thomson
Catherine Znak
Peppie Johnson
“Roset’s singing would melt a heart of stone, uniformly gleaming yet shaped to perfection, and inhabiting every twist and turn of Handel’s matchless vocal lines.”
Europadisc Classical, August 2022
As the First Prize winner at Operalia 2023 and Grand Winner of the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Julie Roset has quickly established herself as one of the finest coloratura sopranos of her generation. Her performances as Zémire (Zémire et Azor) at Opéra Comique in 2023 garnered unanimous acclaim, Le Figaro writing “the young soprano catches the light with her singing as natural as it is intelligent”.
Highlights of Roset’s 2024/25 season include debut appearances with both Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris in performances of Mahler Symphony No.2 conducted by Thomas Søndergård and Esa-Pekka Salonen, respectively, her debut in Copenhagen with Danish National Symphony Orchestra as Belinda in concert performances of Dido and Aeneas under Geoffrey Paterson and a first appearance at the Musikverein in a performance of Messiah with Lautten Compagney Berlin and Arnold Schoenberg Chor conducted by Erwin Ortner. On the opera stage, she returns to Opéra Comique as Timna in Rameau’s Samson, directed by Claus Guth and conducted by Raphaël Pichon, and to Teatro Real in choreographed performances of Les Indes galantes with Cappella Mediterranea under Leonardo Garcia Alarcón.
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Already making her mark on the operatic landscape, Julie Roset’s 2023/24 season included her debut at Opéra de Paris as Amour in a new staging by David McVicar of Charpentier’s Médée under William Christie, staged performances of Die Schöpfung at Opéra de Lorraine with Music Director Marta Gardolińska, and a return to Festival d’Aix-en-Provence singing the role of the Angel in Rameau’s Samson under Pichon. Other recent operatic successes include Euridice and La Musica in Sasha Waltz & Guests’ acclaimed production of L’Orfeo at Teatro Real Madrid and the roles of Valletto and Amore in Ted Huffmann’s inspired staging of L’incoronazione di Poppea at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence both conducted by Alarcón and Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with Les Arts Florissants conducted by Paul Agnew.
As a concert performer, Julie Roset is in high demand with recent debuts including concert performances of Il re pastore at Salzburg Festival with Mozarteum Orchestra conducted by Adam Fischer, Christmas Oratorio with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Ottavio Dantone, Acis and Galatea with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Alarcón, a curated programme of baroque arias entitled Elemental with ensemble Twelfth Night at Carnegie Hall and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Ensemble Pygmalion (Pichon). Julie Roset has formed strong connections with several ensembles including Leonardo Garcia Alarcón’s Cappella Mediterranea with whom her performances include Sacrati’s La Finta Pazza at Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Le Concert de la Loge with Julien Chauvin in critically acclaimed performances of Haydn’s La création and Handel’s La resurrezione both at Festival de Saint-Denis.
On disc Julie Roset can be heard in her solo recording of works by Handel entitled Salve Regina, with Millenium Orchestra and released on the Ricercar label. Other recent recordings include Sigismondo d’India’s Lamenti e Sospiri with Capella Mediterranea on Ricercar, Brabant with Holland Baroque released on Pentatone and Dido and Aeneas with Les Argonauts released on the Aparté label.
Julie Roset began her vocal studies at an early age, joining the Conservatoire du Grand Avignon, going on to graduate with honours from the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève, and she was awarded her artist diploma in Opera Studies from the Juilliard School in 2022.
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“Julie Roset portrays Amour as both mischievous and reassuring, playing the role immensely despite the concert’s ‘recital’ version, getting involved at every turn, with meticulous diction, ease throughout the upper tessitura and, above all, an appreciable focus and breadth of timbre that give her arias a particular brassy flavour and generosity.”
“Her high notes are brilliant, her vibrato under control, and her fluid vocal line adds an ethereal dimension to her interpretation.”
“Julie Roset is impressive in her confidence and ease. Her ability to vary her interpretation sometimes as a voluptuous languor, sometimes as an otherworldly beauty of suspended high notes and sometimes as an assertive projection, the roundness of the timbre remaining immutable.”
“Julie Roset (freshly crowned at the prestigious Operalia Competition) demonstrates a warm, flexible, brilliant, and richly nuanced voice in a singing style that effortlessly shapes the music.”
“Julie Roset is an Amour with a clear, shiny and warm voice, playing with the score by offering effects that are as brilliant as they are agile”
“Julie Roset is the jewel of the evening: her disconcertingly easy high notes reflect obvious grace and charisma. The portrayal of Amour is the most successful and the singer’s mischief delights the spectator. It is an understatement to say that this is a sensational debut at the Paris Opera.”
“Julie Roset won over the audience with the freshness of her tone, the sovereign beauty of her phrasing and the delicacy of her musicality. Perfectly equal in all registers, ideally projected, her voice with its silver tone is reminiscent of the greatest singers who have ventured into this score.”
“Julie Roset always springs forth like a cathedral spire, embodying simplicity, but never omitting depth. Her magnificent projection responds to a breathtaking mastery of resonance with the orchestra. Her voice expresses the words beautifully and her musical interpretation is especially moving. It will take time to find an artificial intelligence capable of surpassing the pleasure of listening to this rising soprano!”
“[Julie Roset] immediately exults in the aria “ Tornami a vagheggiar ” from Alcina , her voice bursting forth with dizzying ease. The ease also derives from her ornamentation of the Da Capo, giving priority to the high notes in spectacular flights. The careful delivery preserves all the delicacy of the timbre and evokes the languor of amorous waiting by stretching out the sounds adorned with a warm vibration.”
“Julie Roset’s silvery soprano deepened throughout the performance: another well-judged and well-executed trajectory.”
“In the role of Love, Julie Roset stands out for the lightness of her range, the brilliance of her tone as well as her deeply baroque attacks.”
“In the role of Zémire, [Julie Roset] reaches great heights with her singing which is as natural as it is intelligent, light in the high register, strong in the middle register, with agility and luminous legato. Her technique paves the way for expression: the future is at her feet.”
“Julie Roset (Zémire), fresh as a rose, a coloratura with strength in her tone, plays with vocal pyrotechnics and astounding ambition in the ‘air de la fauvette.”
“The queen of the performance is without question Julie Roset. […] Her high notes are rounded and full of tender harmonies, her vocalises have a liquid agility, the middle register is strong and she portrays Zémire with sincerity. All these qualities are present in the aria ‘La Fauvette avec ses petits’ where her voice never seems forced, even in the highest register which flows with ease, the canto di sbalzo is splendid, […], and the trills have the precision of the beating wings of a colibri bird. All that is already remarkable, but what’s more is that she succeeds in tainting the first part of the aria with a hint of fear, while the second part shines with a melancholy delivered with stunning simplicity, and the reprise of the first part explodes with courage, as if she is already certain that Azor has been convinced to set her free.”
“Having already performing in various projects with Leonardo García Alarcón, Julie Roset (Ange, Gabriel et Eve), makes herself known through the beauty of her voice and her incredible ease in the top register[…] the young soprano demonstrates art at the highest level, musically and poetically — every note counts. A revelation for lots of listeners and an artist worth following very closely.”
“Julie Roset is quite simply astounding! She has everything: beautiful tone, vocal flexibility, sensitivity, virtuosity… Her first appearance is splendid, the ‘air de printemps’ is full of freshness and joyfulness, and bird-like in its agility.”
“The French soprano Julie Roset was the gentle Euridice and La Musica, performing with vocal and physical suppleness.”
“Roset sings with crystalline beauty and heartfelt sincerity; the technical élan and exuberance of the ‘Quonaim’ finale have irresistible conviviality.”
“Vocally, we must highlight the magnificent work of Julie Roset, one of the countless emerging talents of the French Baroque”
“The young French soprano Julie Roset is a Euridice to consider for the next decades, both musically and vocally, to which is added her versatility to dance alongside the virtuosos of the company Sasha Waltz.”
“This voice, so moving in its simplicity, brings to these pieces a real aura of sincerity: a little gem”
“Unquestionably, Julie Roset’s star shines with an increasingly assertive brilliance. The qualities are obvious: technical solidity, supple and precise agility, freshness of a delightful timbre. It dwells with touching simplicity in the relatively well-known motets of Händel.”
“We can only salute the judicious choice of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon to assign the soprano Julie Roset the role of Galatea. Her voice works wonders in this complex role requiring perfect vocal mastery.”
“To embody the charming Galatea, an almost idealized paragon of love, the young Julie Roset deploys the freshness and lightness of her voice, particularly in the subtle vocalizations “
“The angelic sweetness of Julie Roset’s soprano suited the gentle Euridice of the first two acts, and in Act III, when she visited the suicidal Aristeo as an avenging wraith, she summoned an unexpected vehemence of declaration.”
“Julie Roset (Amour) has both superb timbre and supple agility.”
“Julie Roset’s sharp and mischievous Amour demonstrates beautiful high notes and a very pure line.”
“Julie Roset ….. the sparkling and lively soprano brilliantly performs her victory duet with Prometheus.”
“In the role of the Philistine, the young Julie Roset is quite simply flawless. Gentle without being naive, she imbues each of her passages with solid vocals and psychological insight.”