Kirstin Chávez: Amour: Les Chansons que j'aime
Navona Records

Mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez is perhaps best known for her globe-spanning performances as Carmen, a role she was seemingly born to play as a descendent of Spain and person fluent in French. For more than two decades, she's riveted audiences in the USA, Canada, Germany, Wales, Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan, France, Italy, and Austria with her portrayal. Building on that, she co-created with stage director Johnathon Pape the production Carmen Inside Out, which has likewise appeared around the world. It's characteristic of Chávez that she doesn't just deliver the words but prior to doing so explores the role so deeply she understands the inner world of the character and the motivations that led her to make the choices she did.

Chávez's expertise extends far beyond one role, however. She's appeared in operas by Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier), Picker (An American Tragedy), Heggie (Dead Man Walking), Dvorák (Rusalka), and others, and has sung on the concert stage works by Mozart (Requiem), Rossini (Stabat Mater), Mahler (Rückert Lieder), and more. Her powerful projection, dramatic presence, and natural sensuality have made this veteran of the opera and concert stages a sought-after singer the world over.

A somewhat different side is showcased on this recital release with renowned Italian pianist Paolo André Gualdi, who brings to the collaboration an impressive performance history of his own. Chávez might have been born in New Mexico and spent her childhood in Malaysia, but as French culture has been a huge part of her life for decades the time felt right for her to indulge her love of French chanson with a seventeen-song set recorded in November 2025 at The University of Utah.

The selections range from songs familiar—Debussy's “Beau Soir,” Bizet's “Habanera,” and Louiguy's “La vie en rose,” to mention three—to others less so. Rather than present one song for each of the seventeen composers, Chávez has more smartly coupled single ones by some with multiples by others, such that Henri Duparc and Camille Saint-Saëns are represented by two apiece and in a mini-recital of sorts Reynaldo Hahn five (two from Chansons Grises). In a nice gesture, Chávez cedes the stage entirely to Gualdi for renditions of Liszt's “Au lac de Wallenstadt” whose serene, impressionistic character complements the transporting tone of the album, and “Sous le ciel de Paris,” a song written for the 1951 French film Under the Sky of Paris and treated to a breezy, jazz-inflected reading.

The material endears the moment the pianist introduces Émile Paladilhe's “Psyché” at a seductively slow tempo, his gentle touch an ideal support to Chávez's confident essaying of the emotional arc. Hahn's songs follow, their intoxicating allure readily apparent in the tinkling four-note figure with which “À Chloris” begins. Chávez seems to luxuriate in the slow, contemplative pace with which “L'énamourée” is executed. Concluding the Hahn set is “L'heure exquise,” its pretty, lullaby-like lilt enhancing its appeal. The set takes a haunting turn with the advent of “Beau Soir,” whose atmospheric evocation is brought vividly to life by the recital partners, Chávez investing her performance with contrasting emotional colours and Gualdi accompanying her exquisitely.

Duparc's “Chanson triste” and “Phidylé” perpetuate the French art song style of the album with a kind of lyrical expressiveness that suits Chávez to a tee. Nodding to Carmen, her passionate rendering of “Habanera” captures the joy she experiences inhabiting the role. From Saint-Saëns' 1877 opera Samson et Dalila, we get “Amour, viens aider” and the ever-luminous “Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix,” whose flowing arcs Chávez and Gualdi execute with the requisite grace. Taking us away from the opera stage to the concert hall is “La Mer,” a crowd-pleasing charmer by French showman Charles Trenet, and at album's end “La vie en rose.” Of course it's impossible to not hear Edith Piaf when it's performed, but that hasn't dissuaded countless others from recording their own versions. Rather than bellow, Chávez sings the song with restraint, which lends it an intimacy that's less pronounced in other versions.

November 2026