Press Review
The debut album by Camille Allérat, Julie Roset, and Ana Vieira Leite hinted at a unique and dazzling success. But admirers of these three talented young singers (two of whom have recently been performing more frequently in opera) will be reassured by this second release, which explores the possibilities offered by three soprano voices—heard individually and in all their variations—through works by Lully, Clérambault, Lambert, Lalouette, and their contemporaries.
This is an exceptionally beautiful album—a fusion of imagination, intellectual curiosity, and technical mastery that invites listeners into the sonic world of La Néréide.
October 20, 2025​​​
The three singers of the ensemble — Camille Allérat, Julie Roset, and Ana Vieira Leite — explore the inner turmoil of their protagonists as they transition from childhood to adulthood: “the tension between piety and passion, between inner life and expression, between heart and mind.”
The two 18th-century Misereres for three voices and basso continuo, in particular, captivate the listener with their enchanting harmonies, their highly sophisticated ornamentation, and their shifting atmospheres. In the Airs, the sighs of love, the overflowing emotions and their difficult restraint (“Je ne sais pas ce que je sens” by Du Parc), the peaceful nature (“L’âme contente dans sa solitude” by Lully, on a text by François Berthod), or the torments of amorous memories (“Je m’abandonne à vous” by Sébastien Le Camus) are imbued with a tone of wistful nostalgia.
The musical interpretation by sopranos Camille Allérat, Julie Roset, and Ana Vieira — faithful to the Baroque style with its direct vocal delivery — together with Miguel Henry (theorbo, lute), Salomé Gasselin (viola da gamba), and Emmanuel Arakélian (organ), leaves nothing to be desired in its expressive versatility and remarkable cohesion.
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October 20, 2025
“Le Coeur et la Raison” thus plays on contrasts: liturgical rigor on one side, sincere secularism on the other. But instead of merely oscillating between these two poles, La Néréide intertwines them. From the very first moments, it’s clear that no one here is content to simply “reproduce” — they interpret, explore, breathe. (...) When Camille Allérat sings that simple phrase in “J’aime, je suis aimée”, it sounds so natural that one could believe it improvised. Julie Roset delights in “Lorsqu’avec une ardeur extrême”, moving between pride and vulnerability, while Ana Vieira Leite, in “Quand une âme est bien atteinte”, reaches that point where music and emotion become one. (...) What strikes the listener is that these three voices not only complement one another in timbre, but truly listen to each other. They blend, yet they also clash — subtle irregularities, deliberate breaths, infinitesimal nuances of intonation. This is precisely where the charm lies. For perfection can be dull; tension is born of life. The program is ingeniously designed: it doesn’t offer a linear narrative, but rather lets emotions overlap — a dialogue between heaven and earth, between the young woman of Saint-Cyr and the singers of today. And although the CD contains 27 tracks, it never feels overloaded. Instead, it unfolds like a finely woven fan, slowly, piece by piece.
October 15, 2025
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The album project is highly original and truly compelling.
The interpretation is simply delightful — a perfect demonstration of the sensualist theory, typical of the Counter-Reformation, in which edification is achieved through pleasure. In the Miserere settings, the timbres of the three sopranos from the ensemble La Néréide blend or respond to one another with complete sorority, to the point where one often doesn’t even try to distinguish who is singing what.
In the solo arias, each singer brings her own distinct color: Julie Roset’s tone is more innocent, Ana Vieira Leite brings a more sensual
warmth, and Camille Allérat offers a deeper, more serious hue. But it is always grace — in every sense of the word — that prevails, carried
by an enveloping continuo.
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October 6, 2025
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​"... three French sopranos imagining the life of a young girl at this boarding school and the music she might have sung as she used her voice to establish her identity. Reminding us, as they do, that to make music is to tell a story which they do here with heart stopping beauty."
Deutschlandfunk : "le coeur et la raison", the new album by "la Néréide"
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October 5, 2025
​“(…)Sopranos Camille Allérat, Julie Roset, and Ana Vieira Leite sang in striking synchrony. Their voices—Allérat’s poised and grounded, Roset’s diaphanous and crystalline, Leite’s edged with theatrical intensity—blended like wine from the same vineyard: distinct varietals with subtle, resonant differences. (…) Instrumental contributions lent a golden aura to the voices. (…)
Carried by three young artists of extraordinary sensitivity, the voices of Ferrara’s hidden women rang out beneath stone vaults and sunlit windows, lifted high, reverberant, and free.”
June 15, 2025
​​“Especially noteworthy was how the three singers articulated the texts with great clarity, allowing even the most subtle details to be understood”
June 10, 2025
musica Dei donum
The singing of Camille Allérat, Julie Roset and Ana Vieira Leite is impressive. This is technically demanding repertoire, which is not easy to perform, but they succeed with flying colors. It is essential that the many details in Luzzaschi's setting of the texts are realized to the full, and that is the case here. There is a strong contrast in content and mood between Io mi son giovinetta (I am a maiden and laugh and sing in the spring) and the ensuing Occhi del pianto mio (Eyes of my weeping, cause of my bitter and cruel torment, I beg you now, let me die), and in both cases the performers hit the nail on the head. An important tool of singers at the time was the messa di voce. That has not been overlooked by the singers on this disc. If you purchase this disc you certainly will not regret it and regularly return to it. This is an impressive revival of the art of the Concerto delle donne.
May 2024
The three sopranos in La Néréide, for their part, demonstrate impressive expertise. Intervening in imitation or exchanging places in the polyphony, they draw the audience into the threads of their melodies, the sea goddesses (the Nereids) then transforming into enchanting sirens. The texts and the "affetti" relating to them are carefully interpreted and the voices stretch out in a straight but nevertheless supple and delicate delivery. They adorn their singing with remarkable ease and reach the peaks in Marenzio's a cappella piece (Belle ne fe' natura) with impeccable balance and accuracy.
May 5, 2024
The Dijon's audience covered praise on the instrumentalists and singers of this evening as well as in the company of Alfonso II d'Este and his close courtiers.
11 October 2023
