In a world where winning is everything, it's a big risk to praise the mastery of the art of losing...and yet, Elizabeth Bishop's villanelle has inspired books, films, and now art songs. One Art catalogs personal loss, and emphasises the duty of artists to create in response to the experience of loss. Casabianca, a playful yet complex take on Felicia Dorothea Heman's poem, and Objects & Apparitions - her translation of Octavio Paz' tribute to Joseph Cornell (who made his artworks out of things that others had lost or discarded) - both echo the theme of artistic creation as an act of defiance against the inevitable. On this recording, I have used Paula Kimper's unaccompanied settings of Bishop's poetry as a framework, punctuating sets of Lieder and Chanson from the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Strauss' Opus 27 was written as a love letter and wedding present for his bride, soprano Pauline de Ahna. The three poets he chose to set, Karl Henckell, Heinrich Hart, and John Henry Mackay, produced verses of intense passion which tell of love discovered, pursued, and consummated. Debussy's Ariettes Oubliées chart the complete opposite: Verlaine's poems, reflecting his own disastrous affair with Rimbaud, express the painfully accurate ups and downs of a disintegrating, toxic relationship. Aubert's rarely performed duet setting of Verlaine's 'La Lune Blanche' reminds us that the poet was also capable of capturing moments of exquisite beauty. Elizabeth Bishop’s life (1911-1979) was marked by extreme loss, voracious travel, and great achievement (most notably winning a Pulitzer Prize.) She had wanted to be a composer, then a painter, and sometimes felt she had become a poet ‘by accident.’ For the rest of us, it was a happy accident: her poetry shows the power of art to turn disaster into beauty, to put us in touch with the truth of what it is to be human. - Laure Meloy __________ Soprano Laure Meloy is a keen proponent of contemporary classical music, and has premiered many new works, including the role of Ariel in the Hungarian State Opera premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Tempest (which she also covered for the Metropolitan Opera.) Critically acclaimed as Hecuba in English Touring Opera’s Olivier Award winning production of Tippett’s King Priam, she sang in the world premiere of Paula Kimper’s Patience and Sarah at the Lincoln Center Festival. Her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut was as Queen of Night in Die Zauberflöte. Other roles include: Fiordiligi, Constanze, Lucia, Lulu, Zerbinetta, and Poppea. She has appeared throughout Europe and the U.S.A., including with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and Opera North. She has released two opera CDs, Sorcery & Seduction and Virgins & Queens, and her voice was featured on the soundtrack of the BBC/Sony film Rocketmen. This is her first art song recording. 'Astounding...a scene stealer.’ Bachtrack.com ‘Impressive.’ The New York Times ‘Pleasing flexibility and admirable control.’ Opera News ‘Outstanding.’ The Spectator ‘Stunningly confident, pure and accurate.’ London Evening Standard ‘Virtuosic.’ The Observer ‘Mesmerising.’ MusicDurham.co.uk Christopher Gould read music at Clare College, Cambridge before taking up a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music to study accompaniment, supported by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust. On graduating he was awarded Her Royal Princess Alice’s Prize for outstanding contribution to the Royal Academy of Music and in 2001 was made an Associate. The first young pianist to receive an award from The Geoffrey Parsons Trust in 1996, he also won first prize in two prestigious competitions: the Gerald Moore Award (1998) and the Wigmore International Song Competition (2001.) In the U.K. he has performed with Sarah Walker, Ann Murray, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Geraldine McGreevy at the Wigmore Hall, St Johns Smith Square, the Purcell Room and on BBC Radio 3. Concerts abroad include recitals at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Opera House in Lille, and in Italy, Israel and Japan. Recital projects include performing Winterreise with Andrew Foster-Williams in a multimedia presentation for Opera North. Discography includes The Water is Wide, with mezzo-soprano Diana Moore, Who are these children? with tenor Daniel Norman (BIS Records), and a CD of the Britten Canticles (Stone Records.) Paula M. Kimper is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and has been active in New York City for 35 years as a composer of opera, theater, dance, film and song. Her entire catalogue of scores was recently acquired by the Loeb Music Library of Harvard University. Ms. Kimper’s first opera, Patience & Sarah, premiered in Lincoln Center Festival ’98, and was seen in 2016 in a revival at The Players Theatre presented by Paula Kimper Ensemble. The Captivation of Eunice Williams premiered in Deerfield, MA in July 2004, and toured the Balkan region in 2008. The Bridge of San Luis Rey premiered at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA, in 2007. Ms. Kimper’s fourth opera TRUTH, An American Opera about Sojourner Truth, premiered in February 2012 at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA, and appeared in the NY International Fringe Festival 2013. "Here is a Place" was commissioned by OPERA America for "The OPERA America Songbook." Kimper is a Columbia University Community Scholar and Executive Director of the New York Opera Alliance. Paula Kimper Ensemble is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas. Femme Lunatique Productions was founded to create, programme and record new art music. Projects range from bespoke concert and site-specific performances, devising and producing recordings, to conducting educational workshops and presentations about the health benefits of singing. Special emphasis is given to the work of women composers and poets, and releasing the power of the female voice. In 2016, Femme Lunatique Productions was named Runner Up to the Women in the Arts Award at the Kent Women in Business awards. One Art is the first work to be commissioned directly by Femme Lunatique.