soprano
The soprano Apolline Raï-Westphal trained at the CRR in Paris and then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where she was accepted in 2019 in Alain Buet’s class and then that of Frédéric Gindraux. A prizewinner in several opera competitions, in 2023 she won the Grand Prix de l’Académie Ravel de Saint Jean de Luz and 6 other prizes at the Gordes International Melody Competition. For the 2023/2024 season, she joined the Brahms class at the Académie Musicale Philippe Jarrousky.
In 2022, she made her debut at the Opéra-Comique in Glück’s Armide. Since then, Apolline’s career has developed on several leading stages, including the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Opéra d’Avignon, the Opéra de Rennes, the Capitole de Toulouse and the Opéra de Nice. Already highly regarded in the baroque repertoire, she has collaborated with conductors such as Christophe Rousset, Leonardo García Alarcón, Alexis Kossenko, Camille Delaforge and Johannes Pramsohler. Her young career has already seen her perform in Purcell’s Didon et Enée at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Belinda), Glück’s Armide at the Opéra-Comique (Phénice and Lucinde), Lully’s Atys at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Opéra Royal de Versailles (Melpomène and Mélisse), Joséphine Stepheson’s Narcisse (Chloé) and the title role in Régis Campo’s La petite sirène.
In concert, she has appeared under the baton of Jean-Claude Casadesus alongside Karine Deshayes as part of the Les Étoiles du Classique Festival, in recital with Bertrand Chamayou in a programme of French mélodies, in Bach cantatas with Les Ambassadeurs conducted by Alexis Kossenko, in the Tragic Haendelian figures programme with the Talens lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset, in recital at the Capitole de Toulouse alongside the pianist Anne Le Bozec in the Mozart jeune homme programme, at the Présence Compositrice Festival accompanied by the guitarist Antonin Vercellino, in recital with the duo she forms with the pianist Paul Coispeau. ..
On the recording front, she recently recorded the roles of Melpomène and Mélisse in Lully’s Atys conducted by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens lyriques, released in January 2024 on the Château de Versailles spectacle label.
In 2024-2025 we find her in Honneger’s Danse des morts and Hindemith’s Santa Susanna at the Opéra de Nancy, a recital at the Opéra de Massy alongside Nathalie Dessay, La Passion selon Matthieu in Aix-en-Provence, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and at the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, a programme of seventeenth-century Italian music with Les Talens lyriques in a duet with her sister Thaïs Raï-Westphal, Rameau’s Les Fêtes de Ramire with La Chapelle Harmonique, and the role of Minerva in Campra’s Carnaval de Venise on a national tour with the ensemble Il Caravaggio, conducted by Camille Delaforge.
Apolline Raï-Westphal sang at the Saint-Denis Festival in 2024, in a recital for patrons.