Born in Albi, France, Gabrielle Philiponet was a flutist and cellist before studying the voice with Daniel Ottevaere. As a member of the Opera Studio of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, she was a prize winner at the prestigious Reine Elisabeth Competition.

Often acclaimed as one of the finest French lyric sopranos of the moment, her wide-ranging repertoire spans from Mozart to contemporary music.

Closely associated with the French repertoire, Gabrielle debuted at the Opéra de Paris with Frasquita (Bizet, Carmen), a role she also interpreted for the Bayerische Staatsoper and Aix-en-Provence Festival. She appeared as Micaëla in Metz, Massy and Lille, and was Leïla (Bizet, Les Pêcheurs de Perles) at the Opéra de Lille and Opéra de Nice. She made her debut as Marguerite (Gounod, Faust) at Opéra de Saint-Etienne and in the title role of Gounod's Mireille at Opera de Metz. She sang Lalla-Roukh's title-role by F. David for the Wexford Festival Opera. She performed Antonia and Stella (Offenbach, Les Contes d'Hoffman) after Massenet’s Cendrillon for both La Monnaie in Bruxelles and Gand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel with the Symphonic Orchestra of Montréal. She sang Plautine (Rameau, Le Temple de la Gloire) with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco.

More recently, György Vashegyi invited her for Lilia (Félicien David, Herculanum) with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra in Budapest, and the french composer, Bruno Mantovani entrusted her with the world premiere of Amours, his first song cycle for voice and piano based on the poems of renaissance poet Etienne Jodelle, at Capitole de Toulouse. 

Gabriella has worked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Pablo Heras-Casado, Lorenzo Viotti, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Alain Altinoglu, Karel Mark Chichon, Andreas Spering, Hervé Niquet, Roland Böer, Laurent Campellone, Giuseppe Grazioli, Roberto Forés-Veses and Paul Goodwin.

She regularly appears in leading roles from the romantic operatic repertoire, singing Magda in Puccini’s Rondine for the Nancy Opera and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Belgian National Orchestra at the Bruxelles Palais des Beaux-Art. She performed Mimi in La Bohème in Spain and was Musetta in the same opera in Marseille, Metz, Massy and for “Musiques en fête” at Chorégies d’Orange which was broadcast live on France 3 (TV) and on France Musique (radio). She embodied her signature role of Violetta in Verdi’s Traviata in Paris, New Orleans, Massy, among other cities and was to be heard as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello in Saint-Etienne Opera. 

Other career highlights include the Mozart roles of Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at Angers-Nantes Opera and Grand Avignon Opera, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra de Rouen and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at Nancy Opera. She mastered Adina (Donizetti, L’Elisir d’amore) at the Toulouse and Nice Operas, Corinna (Rossini, Il viaggio a Reims) in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nice, Marseille, Montpellier, Nancy and Vichy.

Also on stage as an interpreter of operetta, Gabrielle starred as Rosalinde in J. Strauss’ Fledermaus at Opéra Grand Avignon, and as Lisa in Lehár’s Das Land des Lächelns at Opéra de Tours. Earlier in her career, she brought to life light Offenbach roles including La Princesse Hermia in Barbe-Bleue (Angers-Nantes Opera, Opéra de Rennes), Gabrielle in La Vie parisienne (Opéra de Toulon), Eurydice in Orphée aux Enfers (Opéra de Montpellier) and Rosita in Un Mari à la porte with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the field of sacred music, she sang, among other works, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Poulenc’s Sept répons des ténèbres, both with the Orchestre National de Lille, and was Gabriel and Eva in The Creation by Haydn for the Clermont-Ferrand Opera.

She sang the Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Lyon National Orchestra conducted by Ben Glassberg. 

March 2023