Diva on Detour:Patricia Racette
Featuring Craig Terry, piano
Acclaimed as the Madame Butterfly and Tosca of her generation, Patrica Racette has appeared in the most prestigious opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House, La Scala, Paris Opera and the Bayerisch Statsopera. However it is a little know fact that Racette actually started out as a Cabaret Artist and DIVA ON DETOUR is a return to her beginnings as she “belts out” the Classics from the Great American Songbook. This live recording of her intimate evening of songs by Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and Edith Piaf is a treat for all music and theatre lovers. Read Glen Roven's Huffington Post piece on Producing for Pat.
The Man That Got Away
Patricia Racette
at 54Below
Cover of Opera News
Electronic Press Kit
Glen Roven has produced a CD that exuberantly proclaims Racette's mastery of an altogether
different idiom. While she brings to bear certain assets of concert singing -- particularly extended range and breath control that permits her to hold notes far longer than the average chantoozy --
she gives herself over freely to the demands of the art form,
exploiting a gutsy chest voice, alert attention to rhythm,
and expressive devotion to language. S
William Madison
The soprano Patricia Racette, celebrated for her portrayals of Puccini heroines, is the latest in a lengthening list of classical singers to venture into cabaret, with her show “Diva on Detour” at 54 Below. That is also the title of her new album recorded with Craig Terry.While listening to Ms. Racette sing intensely dramatic renditions of classic torch songs, it was easy to feel the emotional connection between Puccini and the worlds of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and especially Édith Piaf, whose songs “La Vie en Rose” and “Mon Dieu” she delivered with particular fervor. Because the Piaf songs invite all-out declamation, they are intrinsically operatic in a way that the saloon songs in her set were not, and Ms. Racette rode them proudly.
Because Ms. Racette’s rougher-edged pop voice is very distinct from her operatic one, you also never had the uncomfortable feeling of a highbrow vocalist looking down her nose while on a slumming expedition. Unlike many opera singers who are more concerned with vocal sound than with sense, Ms. Racette was also fully attentive to the lyrics of “Here’s That Rainy Day,” “Angel Eyes,” and “The Man That Got Away.”
William Holden, The New York Times
So In Love