CD: Emmanuelle Haim/Le Concert d'Astree, with Natalie Dessay, Pavol Breslik, Ann Hallenberg, and Sonia Prina: Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

We're just past Independence Day, Bastille Day is close at hand, and it seems that, aside from the recent Folklife Festival and Harry Potter mania, I cannot escape all things French.

For openers, I made a rare trip to the cinema to see Paris, je'taime, 18 short films -- fables, romances, tragedies, shaggy dog stories, all set you know where -- created by a variety of directors and featuring an international cast. You'll spot the usual suspects -- Fanny Ardant, Juliette Binoche, et al -- but keep an eye out for Steve Buscemi, Gena Rowlands, and a few other surprises.

Continuing my airfare-free trip to France, I rented the DVD of Le Placard (The Closet), a subversive little French comedy featuring the great Daniel Auteuil as an accountant with no backbone and no luck. If you're having a bad day at the office, this is definitely for you.

Then I opened my Washington Post on Saturday and got an eyeful of the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, jogging across the pages. Apparently "Sarko the American" has drawn Gallic wrath, or at least disgruntlement, with his choice of a fitness program. I must say I'm with the French on this one. A stroll down the boulevard is, after all, much more civilized.

Given my frame of mind, I was set for a review of the career of French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay, who, between the recording studio and the opera house, has created a stir of her own. That voice of hers reaches notes in the stratosphere and is, as you would expect, well-suited for the Queen of Night in The Magic Flute and the title role in Lakme. However, Dessay has not shied away from an array of soubrette roles and the occasional bel canto part.

Prior to her vocal training, Dessay was an actress, and that experience apparently blended well with her singing technique. If you have seen her on Classic Arts Showcase, YouTube, or elsewhere, you know she doesn't simply glue herself to the stage and make pretty noises, like some wooden opera stars I won't name, but rather plunges into characterizations. Her Lucia is dangerously, heart-rendingly disturbed; her Cunegonde is giddy, greedy, and shamefaced all at once.

I happen to have her Mozart Heroines album, but if you really want to hear what she can do, check out Natalie Dessay: The Miracle of the Voice, a two-disc set available at Olsson's. The collection includes some genuine rarities and an astonishing breadth of composers. Yes, the lady's a natural choice for Delibes, Donizetti, or Mozart, but did you know she'd recorded compositions by Leonard Bernstein and Thelonious Monk?

I must admit, though, that I hadn't thought of Dessay in terms of Handel roles, despite her recent forays into the Baroque repertoire, and I was even more puzzled to find her latest project was a secular oratorio, an early composition from Handel, the rarely recorded Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (usually translated as "The Triumph of Time and Enlightenment").

The libretto is straightforward: Beauty (sung by Dessay) is first enticed by Pleasure (mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg), then gradually set upon the path of righteousness by Time (our tenor, Pavol Breslik) and Enlightenment (alto Sonia Prina).

If that description leaves you with the feeling you're being dragged back into the university lecture hall, calm down. This is delicious music, more than two hours of pleasure, however the texts may read, and you won't come away feeling ascetic. Moreover, Handel clearly recognized this for the compositional triumph it is, since he quoted from it later on.

There are no large choruses this time out, but prepare to be enraptured by the vocal beauty of the four soloists. True, the spotlight is on Dessay, but the other women shine, particularly Hallenberg, noted for her wonderful voice, as well as her interpretations of the Baroque repertoire.

The newcomer of the foursome is tenor Pavol Breslik, he of the beautiful tone and emotional resonance. Where have they been hiding this guy? "The opera houses and theaters of Europe, you baritone-obsessed twit" is an acceptable reply. This Slovakian tenor, winner of the Antonin Dvorak International Competition, is making his recording debut with Il trionfo. His stage work includes Bach, Donizetti, Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner, and I dare to hope this signals a long and rich career.

Emmanuelle Haim, our conductor, harpsichordist, and organist, has had a distinguished career in the Baroque repertoire and is, not surprisingly, an alumna of Les Arts Florissants. Her own ensemble, Le Concert d'Astree, performs exquisitely alongside our vocal soloists -- yet another triumph in a remarkable recording.