Nathalie Paulin - Handel: SEMELE, No, no! I'll take no less, Victoria 2009

THE SONGBIRD: Canadian soprano Nathalie Paulin holds a Master’s Degree from the Université de Montréal. She won the Montréal Symphony Competition and the Dvorak prize, and has been honored by the George London Foundation, Toronto's Young Mozart Singers’ Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition. Her operatic repertoire includes French heroines (Melisande, Micaela, Hero, Leila, Manon, and Antonia); Baroque operas by Cavalli, Handel, Lully, and Purcell; Mozart's Pamina, Despina, Zerlina, Susanna, and the Countess; and new works such as Ariel in Hoiby's "The Tempest." Paulin makes regular appearances at festivals and venues in concert works including masses by Beethoven and Haydn, cantatas by Bach, Faure's "Requiem," and "Carmina Burana." THE MUSIC: Handel's oratorio "Semele" premiered at Covent Garden in London in 1744. It was only performed six times during Handel's life, but regained popularity in the 20th Century and is now regularly performed in concert and as a staged opera. The plot centers around the god Jupiter taking human form for his affair with Semele, a beautiful self-involved mortal. Jupiter's wife Juno discovers this adultery and plots Semele's downfall by cunningly using Semele's own vanity against her. At Juno's persuasion that it will make her immortal, Semele insists that Jupiter reveal his full divine form to her -- he reluctantly agrees and his fiery thunderbolts destroy her. From her ashes arises Jupiter's son Bacchus, god of wine and festivities.