Accompanied by the Franco-Spanish classical guitarist Thibaut Garcia, French-Danish operatic soprano Elsa Dreisig sings Ave Maria, a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin prayer Ave Maria. The piece consists of a melody by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod that he superimposed over only a very slightly changed version of Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of his The Well-Tempered Clavier, 1722.
Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
The piece was originally published in 1853 as “Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach”. The piece consists of a melody by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod (17 June 1818 – 18 October 1893) that he superimposed over an only very slightly changed versia popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin prayer Ave Maria, originally published in 1853 as “Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach”.
“Ave Maria” consists of a melody by the French Romantic composer Charles Gounod that he superimposed over only a very slightly changed version of Bach’s Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of his The Well-Tempered Clavier, 1722.
The 1853 publication has French text, but it is the 1859 version with the Latin Ave Maria that became popular.
Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) lyrics
Latin
Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Ave, ave dominus
Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in muli eribus
Et benedictus
Et benedictus fructus ventris
Ventris tuae, Jesus
Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Mater Dei
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Ora pro nobis
Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Nunc et in hora mortis
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Ave Maria
English translation
Ave Maria
Full of Grace
Mary, full of grace
Mary, full of grace
Hail, hail, lord
The Lord is with thee
You
And blessed
And blessed is the fruit of your womb
Your belly, Jesus
Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Mother of God
Pray for us sinners
Pray for us
Pray, pray for us sinners
Now and in the hour of death
And in the hour of our death
And in the hour of our death
And in the hour of our death
Ave Maria
Elsa Dreisig
Elsa Dreisig (born in Paris in 1991) is a French-Danish operatic soprano. Based at the Berlin State Opera, she made a European career in both opera and concert. Her opera roles include, besides the standard lyric soprano repertoire such as Mozart’s Fiordiligi and Bizet’s Micaëla, Baroque opera such as Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, and the world premiere of Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee.
She is the daughter of the Danish opera singer Inge Dreisig and the French singer, conductor, and director Gilles Ramade. She sang in the children’s choirs of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie and the Opéra National de Lyon.

She studied singing with Valérie Guillorit at the Conservatoire de Paris and at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with Regina Werner-Dietrich.
From 2015 to 2017, Dreisig was a member of the opera studio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, leading to a permanent engagement by Daniel Barenboim. She appeared there as Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, in the title role of Verdi’s La Traviata, as Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and as Dircé in Cherubini’s Médée.
In the 2018/19 season, she performed as Diane in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, conducted by Simon Rattle, and took part as Natascha in the world premiere of Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee, directed by Claus Guth and conducted by Matthias Pintscher.
In 2015, she achieved first prize at the Neue Stimmen competition and placed second, behind Lise Davidsen, at the Queen Sonja International Music Competition. In 2016, she won first prize at the Operalia singing competition in Guadalajara, created by Plácido Domingo. and was voted “Newcomer of the Year” in the critics’ choice of the Opernwelt magazine. She was also awarded the Victoires de la Musique Classique award in the category “vocal discovery”.
Dreisig first appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2017 as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, and first at the Paris Opera. In 2018, she performed as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème at the Opernhaus Zürich, and as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at the Paris Opera. In 2019, she was Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani, again at the Paris Opera.
In late 2019, she first appeared at the Royal Opera House in London as Pamina. In August 2020, she first performed on stage at the Salzburg Festival as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, staged by Christof Loy. In January 2021, she performed the title role in Massenet’s Manon produced by David Bösch at the Staatsoper Hamburg. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance took place without an audience but was broadcast via live streaming by Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
In 2017, Dreisig undertook a European tour with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle, singing in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, including her first time at the Salzburg Festival. She appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberg, as well as with the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
She has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Fabio Luisi, Franz Welser-Möst, Massimo Zanetti, and David Zinman.
In 2018, she released her first solo album Miroir(s) on Warner Classics / Erato Records, for which she was nominated in the category Recital at the International Opera Awards 2019 [de]. In 2020, the second album was released, Morgen, with pianist Jonathan Ware.
Thibaut Garcia
Thibaut Garcia, the Franco-Spanish guitarist, was born in 1994 in Toulouse, where he began learning the guitar at the age of seven. He then won the guitar prize in the class Paul Ferret. At the age of 16, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, in Olivier Chassain’s class, while at the same time benefiting from the guidance of Judicaël Perroy.
At the age of 16, he was awarded the First Prize at the Ana Amalia competition in Weimar, Germany. Since then, he has won first prize in several international competitions, in particular, the Guitar Foundation of America at Oklahoma City, USA, in 2015, the José Tomas at Petrer, Spain, in 2014, and the International Competition of Seville, Spain, in 2013. Since then he has been asked to sit on their juries and to give master classes. In 2015, he was named sponsee of the Académie Charles Cros. In 2019, he was named ‘Instrumental Revelation’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique.

In 2016, Thibaut Garcia made his concerto debut with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He appeared in other concertos in the next few months, especially with the Baden-Baden Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, Orchestre de Cannes PACA, the Orchestre de Dijon-Bourgogne, and the BBC orchestras.
In 2017, Thibaut Garcia was appointed BBC New Generation Artist, which led him to perform in recitals and in concertos in the UK. That year he notably made his debut in London’s Wigmore Hall.
When it comes to chamber music, Thibaut Garcia has played with Edgar Moreau, Raphaël Sévère, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Antoine Mornière, Boris Grelier, Anaïs Constans, La Marca brothers, Kathryn Rudge…
In 2016, he signed exclusively with Warner Classics/Erato for his recording projects, with the first release Leyendas. His second album, Bach Inspirations, was released in the fall of 2018.
Sources
- Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod) on Wikipedia
- Elsa Dreisig’s official website