* En anglais uniquement
Soprano
Emoke Baráth came on the recording scene in 2017 with a pair of albums that suggested a strong future in both early music and traditional repertory. She has continued to pursue both specialties and is an exceptionally versatile singer.
Baráth was born in 1985 in Kerepestarcsa, Hungary, and took up the piano at age six, later also taking lessons on the cello and harp. She did not start singing until her teens, studying first with József Hormai at the King St. Stephen's Secondary School of Music in Budapest and then Julia Paszthy at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. A third-prize finish at the Dvorák International Competition in the Czech Republic in 2009 set her sights on an international career, and in 2011, she moved to Florence for a year for studies with
Leonardo de Lisi at the Luigi Cherubino Conservatory. Several more major prizes followed, and in late 2012 came
Baráth's recording debut: the role of Sesto in a Naïve label recording of Handel's Giulio Cesare under veteran conductor
Alan Curtis.
From the beginning,
Baráth has pursued dual specialties in Baroque and traditional repertoire. She sang the title role in Francesco Cavalli's Elena at the prestigious Aix-en-Provence Festival in France in 2013 and, in the 2013-2014 season, took the role of Nanetta in the Budapest Opera's production of
Verdi's Otello. That year also saw
Baráth tour Europe as the soprano in
Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, in performances by
Les Musiciens du Louvre under
Marc Minkowski. She attracted the attention of and performed with other top early music groups, including the
Accademia Bizantina (under
Andreas Scholl) and
Le Concert d'Astrée under
Emmanuelle Haïm. She has also appeared with modern-instrument orchestras, including the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra in
Handel's Messiah and the
Liverpool Philharmonic in
Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and her range overall is wide; in her repertory are several 17th century opera roles and
Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor. The year 2017 saw
Baráth return to the recording studio for
La Storia di Orfeo, a collection of 17th century Orpheus pieces assembled by
Philippe Jaroussky and a set of
Debussy songs released on the
Hungaroton label. She signed with the Erato label in 2018 and released the aria collection
Voglio Cantar the following year, featuring music by
Barbara Strozzi. In 2020,
Baráth was heard on a recording of
Handel's early opera
Almira, HWV 1, on the CPO label, and in 2022, she released Dualità: Handel Opera Arias on Erato. ~ James Manheim