Soprano Hannah De Priest, who is on an upward trajectory as a leading interpreter of 17th and 18th century repertoire, caps a breakout season (including performances with Haymarket Opera and Bella Voce, leading roles with Boston Early Music Festival, and debuts with Music of the Baroque and Bach in the City) with her debut solo album. Referencing both Greek mythology and the Arcadian Academy in 17th century Rome, Arcadian Dreams features secular Baroque cantatas by Rameau, Handel, Thomas Louis Bourgeois, and Louis Lefebvre with Les Délices, an early music ensemble founded by baroque oboist Debra Nagy. De Priest’s rise as a Baroque specialist is linked with Les Délices and their breakout debut at the 2023 Boston Early Music Festival where De Priest was also performing in the festival’s centerpiece opera Circé by Henri Desmarets. The Boston Globe praised Les Délices’s French Baroque program with Hannah De Priest who “was magnetic, driving 18th-century composer François Colin de Blamont’s own Circé cantata with dramatic poise and shimmering, subtle ornamentations that entwined with founder Debra Nagy’s oboe and recorder.” The album also includes Albinoni’s Oboe Sonata in C major and a keyboard sonata by Domenico Scarlatti, showcasing Nagy and harpsichordist Mark Edwards.

I’m thrilled that more audiences will learn what we already know in Chicago: Hannah De Priest is a star. This album is particularly notable for the focus on French Baroque repertoire, in which De Priest excels and embellishes with stylish confidence.
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