On this album she reveals herself not just as a fine singer, but also as a lyricist who expresses her feelings for a number of orchestral works through her own words. She wrote words to Gustav Mahler's touching theme of his 5^th Symphony, and called it Immense amore. Talk about capturing my heart with that one as an opening piece of this new CD, for Mahler stands high at the top of my favorite composers. She also wrote words to part of Dvorak's New World Symphony, that section to which I always want to sing the words of Stephen Foster's Homeward Bound. It seems, I am not alone in wanting to express that piece in words.

Choquette had a stormy beginning, so to speak. She was born during a typhoon in Tokyo to parents, who lived there as members of the diplomatic corps. That may be why she is always on the road. She is conversant in English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian and German aside from French. It is, therefore, disappointing to hear her sing Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehar's Dein ist mein ganzes Herz from his Land des Lächelns (Land of Smiles) in French rather than in its original German. This happens to be one of Lehar' s most beautiful songs and the German words are perfectly suited to it. Otherwise, there is no complaint about the manner in which she sang the song.

Among other composers included on the CD are Mascani, Chopin, Offenbach, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Donizetti, Verdi, Toselli, Monteverdi, and Schubert. At various times she is accompanied by her daughter Eléonore Lagacé and the counter tenor, David DQ Lee, as well as a choir and orchestra. In addition, Choquette chose to include The Last Rose of Summer on this CD, and a new work by the Canadian composer, Michel Cassar.

Æterna Romantica is the second in a trilogy of CDs. The first one explored works of a more spiritual nature, simply called Æterna. It includes works by Mozart, A. Lloyd Webber, J.S. Bach, Handel, Schubert, and Franck among others. It is as beautifully rendered by Choquette as her current CD. Based on these two albums, one looks forward to further CDs by the artist.

In both of these albums, Choquette voice is coloured beautifully by deeply emotional identification with the music she has chosen to sing. Although she is known internationally more for her comic side, being the French Canadian version of our Primadonna on a Moose: Mary Lou Fallis, Choquette has a serious side that gives her musical expression in these two CDs considerable weight. She knows how far she can take her voice and she employs it well, never straining a tone or going higher than need be. Both of these albums can be highly recommended.