D’Oustrac is dazzling across these various personae, to which she brings not only luscious vocalism but also a blistering intensity. No less impressive is the Ensemble Amarillis…for zest and bustling invention, the band at times outstrips Folly herself. The enjoyment of a refined French enunciation is reason enough to buy this disc. D’Oustrac relishes her words, and squeezes gestures from them.

With her wide range of colour and her care for the sound and sense of words, the French mezzo makes each character vividly distinct. She is also a risk-taker, unafraid of a harsh or whining tone where apt, yet never resorting to caricature...The concept is imaginative, the repertoire (Purcell apart) hardly familiar, and the performances both probing and enlivening. Emphatically recommended.