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Spoken text, recording by Nicole Tibbels

Gabriel Fauré, Gabriel Faure, Mélodies Vol.3, Op.7 no.1, Apres un reve, text by Romain Bussine (adaptation of an anonymous Italian text).

Nicole Tibbels, who is half French, grew up in a bi-lingual household in the north of England and now lives in London. She studied French at University of Sheffield and at the Sorbonne in Paris, became a secondary school French teacher, and then gained a scholarship to study Singing at the GSMD in London. After an early opportunity to work with Pierre Bernac at the Academie Ravel in St Jean de Luz and in masterclasses in London she began to specialise in the French repertoire, and quickly became recommended as a coach in the language alongside her successful singing career. She went on to take song classes at the Guildhall and now teaches at the RAM and TCM in London.

She makes a link between the technical difficulties of the language and the musical style, and is thus in great demand in the recording studio (EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Decca) and as well as with opera companies (Opera North, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Opera Rara and the Opera Comique in Paris), choirs (The Monteverdi Choir, The King’s Singers, The Sixteen Choir, The BBC singers, BBC Symphony and LSO Choruses) and conductors (Colin Davies, Georg Solti, John Eliot Gardiner, Stephen Cleobury). She regularly coaches a host of singers including Sarah Connolly, Elizabeth Watts, George Mosely, Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finlay, Mark Padmore, Felicity Lott and Kate Royal, and has worked with Andrea Bocelli, Thomas Hampson, Jennifer Larmore, Sylvia McNair, Jann Beuron, Joan Rogers and Bryn Terfel.