Lea Desandre / Thomas Dunford / Jupiter AMAZONE

 

AMAZONE

Sara Mingardo / Cenacolo Musicale SE CON STILLE FREQUENTI

SE CON STILLE FREQUENTI

Insula Orchestra / Laurence Equilbey MAGIC MOZART

                                                                MAGIC MOZART

Les Arts Florissants / William Christie MONTEVERDI L'incoronazione di Poppea

                                                   L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA

Lea Desandre / Natalie Pérez / Chantal Santon-Jeffery / Opera Fuoco / David Stern BERENICE, CHE FAI?

Berenice, que fai… Or frantic Berenice. Metastasio’s heroin, facing a dilemma of love versus duty, inspired the great operatic composers such as Hasse, Haydn, Mozart such as one of their female peers, still unknown today, Marianna Martinez, contemporary and even neighboring some of them.

To interpret this colorful character, three singers and an orchestra: the mezzo Léa Desandre, rewarded at the Victoires de la Musique in 2017, the sopranos Natalie Perez and Chantal Santon-Jeffery, and the impetuous conductor David Stern at the head of his period instruments-ensemble, Opera Fuoco.

True actors, these musicians restore the theatrical dimension of these scores without sacrificing the sensitive and fragile aspect of the character. An emotional complexity, between exhilarating madness and more tragic pages, that we find in Hasse’s Sinfonia, from his opera Antigono and of which Opera Fuoco gives us a full version of panache.

Sabine Devieilhe / Lea Desandre / Le Concert d'Astrée / Emmanuelle Haïm HANDEL Italian Cantatas

Although Handel was destined to become the most illustrious representative of Italian opera of his era, he actually spent very little time in Italy. However, it was during one of his brief trips that he composed most of his cantatas aimed at a select local private audience. The cantata differs from an operatic aria because although it is composed of several pieces (sacred or profane) it theoretically has no theatrical or dramatic characteristics. This form flourished in particular in the baroque era in response to the new vogue for “domestic” concerts. Handel composed approximately sixty cantatas, mostly for the female voice. But a leopard cannot change its spots and the form inevitably takes on a theatrical aspect in this musician’s hands.

Surprisingly, the cantatas that Handel wrote in the earlier years of his career remain relatively little known. The thrilling theatricality of three works composed in Italy – Armida abbandonata, La Lucrezia and Aminta e Fillide is savoured to the full by conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, soprano Sabine Devieilhe, mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and the instrumentalists of Le Concert d’Astrée.