Emilia Petrescu – The Outstanding Performer of the Baroque Cantata

This year marks two decades since the passing away of the distinguished performer and singing teacher Emilia Petrescu, a symbol of the generation of singers from the second half of the 20th century, a refined artist who has always been remembered for her unique interpretive versions of various lied, oratorio and cantata opuses. Her fascinating and solid musical culture, her rigorous singing technique or her search for original vocal approaches to the scores that she performed are just some of the basic components of the purity of her interpretive style, which deserves to be commented on based on some famous performances. Being highly appreciated by critics and having built a remarkable career both in Romania and abroad, the soprano Emilia Petrescu is the role model of any vocation artist who dedicated herself to both performing and teaching. Starting from Grigore Constantinescu᾽s monograph (Emilia Petrescu-The Queen of Classical Singing in Concert), as well as various articles on her artistic activity, we will focus on analysing certain excepts forms several cantatas with a view to highlighting the singer᾽s unique manner of performing baroque works.