Born in Albi, France, Gabrielle Philiponet was a flutist and cellist before studying the voice with Daniel Ottevaere. As a member of the Opera Studio of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, she was a prize winner at the prestigious Reine Elisabeth Competition.
Often acclaimed as one of the finest French lyric sopranos of the moment, her wide-ranging repertoire spans from Mozart to contemporary music.
Closely associated with the French repertoire, Gabrielle debuted at the Opéra de Paris with Frasquita (Bizet, Carmen), a role she returned to for the Bayerische Staatsoper and Aix-en-Provence Festival. She appeared as Micaëla in Metz, Lille and Massy, and was Leïla (Bizet, Les Pêcheurs de perles) at the Opéra de Lille and Opéra de Nice. She made her debut as Marguerite (Gounod, Faust) at Opéra de Saint-Etienne and her title role debut in Gounod’s Mireille at Opéra de Metz. Gabrielle performed Massenet’s Cendrillon for both La Monnaie in Bruxelles and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges by Ravel with the Symphonic Orchestra of Montréal. Add to this the title role in Félicien David’s Lalla-Roukh for the Wexford Festival Opera and Plautine in Rameau’s Le Temple de la Gloire with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco.
More recently, György Vashegyi invited her for Félicien David’s Herculanum (Lilia) with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra in Budapest, and French composer Bruno Mantovani entrusted her with the world premiere of Amours, a cycle of melodies for voice and piano based on the poems of Renaissance poet Etienne Jodelle, at Capitole de Toulouse.
Gabrielle has worked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Alain Altinoglu, Karel Mark Chichon, Ingo Metzmacher, Andreas Spering, Hervé Niquet, Roland Böer, Laurent Campellone, Giuseppe Grazioli, Roberto Forés-Veses, Paul Goodwin, Pablo Heras-Casado, Lorenzo Viotti.
She regularly appears in leading roles from the romantic operatic repertoire, singing Magda in Puccini’s Rondine for the Nancy Opéra and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Belgian National Orchestra at the Bruxelles Palais des Beaux-Arts. She performed Mimì in La Bohème in Saint-Etienne and was Musetta in the same opera in Marseille, Metz, Massy and for “Musiques en fête” at Chorégies d’Orange which was broadcast live on France 3 (TV) and on France Musique (radio). She embodied her signature role of Violetta in Verdi’s Traviata in Paris, New Orleans, Massy, among other cities, was to be heard as Desdemona in Otello in Saint-Etienne and debuted as Alice in Falstaff in an Antonello Allemandi/Denis Podalydès production for the Opéra de Lille, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and Théâtre de Caen.
Other career highlights include the Mozart roles of Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at Angers-Nantes Opéra and Opéra Grand Avignon, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra de Rouen and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the Opéra de Nancy. She mastered Adina (Donizetti, L’Elisir d’amore) at the Toulouse and Nice Operas, Corinna (Rossini, Il viaggio a Reims) in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nice, Marseille, Montpellier, Nancy and Vichy.
Recent and future engagements include Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine in a new production of Opéra-Théâtre de Metz and La Songeuse in the world premiere of Voyage d’Automne by French composer Bruno Mantovani at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. Gabrielle will return to the role of Mimì in La Bohème for the Opéra Grand Avignon.
