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1<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

Saturday 15 June 2013 7.30pm, Hall<br />

Claudio Monteverdi Madrigals, Book 5<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

Paul Agnew tenor/director<br />

This concert is part of a complete cycle of Monteverdi<br />

madrigals being performed by <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> and<br />

Paul Agnew throughout Europe between 2011 and 2015.<br />

Programme produced by Harriet Smith; printed by Vertec<br />

Printing Services; advertising by Cabbell (tel. 020 8971 8450)<br />

Confectionery and merchandise including organic ice cream,<br />

quality chocolate, nuts and nibbles are available from the<br />

sales points in our foyers.<br />

Please turn off watch alarms, phones, pagers, etc. during the<br />

performance. Taking photographs, capturing images or using<br />

recording devices during a performance is strictly prohibited.<br />

If anything limits your enjoyment please let us know during<br />

your visit. Additional feedback can be given online, as well as<br />

via feedback forms or the pods located around the foyers.


Luca Marenzio (1553/4–99)<br />

Sinfonia (from Intermedio II,<br />

La pellegrina, 1589)<br />

Donne, il celeste lume (Il quarto libro<br />

de madrigali a sei voci, 1587)<br />

Sinfonia (from Intermedio II,<br />

La pellegrina)<br />

Claudio Monteverdi<br />

(1567–1643)<br />

Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque<br />

voci (1605):<br />

Cruda Amarilli, che col nome<br />

ancora<br />

O Mirtillo, Mirtillo anima mia<br />

Era l’anima mia<br />

Emilio de’ Cavalieri<br />

(c1550–1602)<br />

Sinfonia (from end of Act 2,<br />

Rappresentatione di Anima, e di<br />

Corpo, 1600)<br />

Claudio Monteverdi<br />

Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque<br />

voci:<br />

Ecco, Silvio – Prima parte<br />

Ma, se con la pietà – Seconda<br />

parte<br />

Dorinda, ah, dirò mia – Terza<br />

parte<br />

Ecco, piegando le genocchie –<br />

Quarta parte<br />

Ferir quel petto, Silvio? – Quinta<br />

e ultima parte<br />

Luca Marenzio<br />

Sinfonia (from Intermedio II,<br />

La pellegrina)<br />

interval 20 minutes<br />

Claudio Monteverdi<br />

Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque<br />

voci:<br />

Ch’io t’ami – Prima parte<br />

Deh, bella e cara – Seconda parte<br />

Ma tu, più che mai dura – Terza e<br />

ultima parte<br />

Emilio de’ Cavalieri<br />

Sinfonia (from end of Act 2,<br />

Rappresentatione di Anima, e di<br />

Corpo)<br />

Claudio Monteverdi<br />

Il quinto libro de madrigali a cinque<br />

voci:<br />

Che dar più vi poss’io?<br />

M’è più dolce il penar per Amarilli<br />

Ahi, come a un vago sol<br />

Troppo ben può questo tiranno<br />

Amore!<br />

Amor, se giusto sei<br />

T’amo, mia vita!<br />

E così, a poco a poco (for six<br />

voices)<br />

Sinfonia. Questi vaghi concenti<br />

(for nine voices)<br />

Musical editions prepared by<br />

Pascal Duc (<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>)<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

Soprano<br />

Miriam Allan<br />

Maud Gnidzaz<br />

Hannah Morrison<br />

Mezzo-soprano<br />

Stéphanie Leclercq<br />

Lucile Richardot<br />

Tenor<br />

Paul Agnew<br />

Sean Clayton<br />

Bass<br />

Lisandro Abadie<br />

Marduk Serrano López<br />

Violin<br />

Myriam Gever<br />

Sophie Gevers-Demoures<br />

Viola<br />

Galina Zinchenko<br />

Simon Heyerick<br />

Viola da gamba<br />

Anne-Marie Lasla<br />

Basso continuo<br />

Archulute<br />

Thomas Dunford<br />

Lute<br />

Massimo Moscardo<br />

Harpsichord<br />

Florian Carré<br />

Language coach<br />

Rita de Letteriis<br />

<strong>Barbican</strong> Classical Music Podcast<br />

Catherine Bott travels to Paris to talk exclusively to Paul<br />

Agnew about the controversy that surrounded Monteverdi’s<br />

Fifth Book of Madrigals at the time of its composition, the<br />

music’s extraordinary depth of passion and the genesis of<br />

the world’s first opera.<br />

Available on iTunes, Soundcloud and the <strong>Barbican</strong> website<br />

2


‘Harsh and little pleasing to the ear’:<br />

Monteverdi’s Fifth Book of Madrigals<br />

On 16 November 1598, a group<br />

of composers and performers<br />

gathered at the house of the<br />

nobleman Antonio Goretti in<br />

Ferrara. Many of the assembled<br />

company were visitors to the north<br />

Italian city, there to take part in the<br />

wedding festivities for Margaret of<br />

Austria, sister of the future Emperor<br />

Ferdinand II, and Philip III, king<br />

of Spain and Portugal. Details of<br />

what they heard appeared two<br />

years later in a book of music<br />

theory by Giovanni Maria Artusi,<br />

a canon regular of San Salvatore<br />

in Bologna and former pupil<br />

of the composer and influential<br />

theorist Gioseffo Zarlino. Artusi’s<br />

text, presented in the form of a<br />

dialogue, included an account of<br />

Goretti’s impromptu concert of new<br />

madrigals, supposedly reported to<br />

the author by the ‘Austrian Luca’.<br />

‘The madrigals were sung and<br />

repeated, but without giving the<br />

name of the author,’ Luca recalled.<br />

‘The texture was not unpleasing.<br />

But … in so far as it introduced<br />

new rules, new modes and new<br />

turns of phrase, these were harsh<br />

and little pleasing to the ear.’<br />

Artusi provided music examples<br />

for three of the offending<br />

madrigals and attacked their use<br />

of certain dissonances ‘in so open<br />

and exposed a manner’. The<br />

compositions, although presented<br />

anonymously in Artusi’s treatise,<br />

would have been widely recognised<br />

as the work of Claudio Monteverdi.<br />

Their supposed shortcomings<br />

included breaches of the golden<br />

rules of harmony and counterpoint,<br />

established and refined over<br />

several generations by composers<br />

such as Adrian Willaert, Cipriano<br />

de Rore and Palestrina and<br />

codified by Zarlino. Artusi subjected<br />

passages from Monteverdi’s<br />

‘Cruda Amarilli, che col nome<br />

ancora’ to particularly severe<br />

criticism. The work, published as<br />

the opening piece in its composer’s<br />

Fifth Book of Madrigals, baffled<br />

Artusi. Its heightened expression<br />

may have been conceived to<br />

please the ear – but that was no<br />

excuse for subverting the rational<br />

rules of textbook composition.<br />

Monteverdi and the ‘moderns’<br />

pushed Artusi and the two<br />

characters in his dialogue to lament<br />

the ‘barbarisms’ and ‘imperfections’<br />

to be found in works by fashionable<br />

‘new inventors’. The so-called<br />

Artusi–Monteverdi controversy,<br />

like so many of today’s culture<br />

wars, was fought over the ground<br />

of convention, pitching tradition<br />

against innovation, academic rigour<br />

against creative freedom. The scale<br />

and substance of Artusi’s attack,<br />

magnified with the publication of<br />

his second anti-modern treatise in<br />

1603, prompted Monteverdi to set<br />

out the case for musical modernity<br />

in print. His response was much<br />

more than a salve for wounded<br />

pride; in fact, it helped define and<br />

clarify what the musicologist Claude<br />

V. Palisca aptly described as ‘one<br />

of the deepest crises in musical<br />

composition’. Monteverdi’s Fifth<br />

Book of Madrigals, published in<br />

Venice in 1605, contains a short<br />

introductory essay in which the<br />

composer announces his intention<br />

to issue a treatise called Seconda<br />

pratica, overo Perfettione della<br />

moderna musica (‘Second practice,<br />

or perfection of the modern music’).<br />

The ‘second practice’ in question,<br />

Monteverdi explained, differed<br />

from the generally accepted<br />

practice of counterpoint established<br />

in various works of the mid-1500s<br />

by Gioseffo Zarlino. ‘Some,<br />

not suspecting that there is any<br />

practice other than that taught<br />

by [Zarlino],’ he continued, ‘will<br />

wonder at this [second practice],<br />

but let them be assured that, with<br />

regard to the consonances and<br />

dissonances, there is still another<br />

way of considering them, different<br />

from the established way, which,<br />

with satisfaction to reason and<br />

the senses, defends the modern<br />

method of composing.’ Although<br />

Monteverdi never completed his<br />

theory book, the essay in his Fifth<br />

Book served as a manifesto for the<br />

‘new music’. Its principal point was<br />

underlined in 1607 in a printed<br />

statement by the composer’s<br />

brother, Giulio Cesare Monteverdi,<br />

who noted that the purpose of<br />

breaking time-honoured rules of<br />

counterpoint ‘has been (in this kind<br />

of music) to make the [poetic text]<br />

the mistress of the [music] and<br />

not the servant’. Giulio Cesare<br />

cited Luca Marenzio and Emilio<br />

de’ Cavalieri among those who, like<br />

his brother, understood the need<br />

to direct melody and harmony to<br />

the service of poetic expression.<br />

Monteverdi’s Fifth Book of<br />

Madrigals opened with a letter<br />

3 Programme note


of dedication to his employer,<br />

Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of<br />

Mantua. In it, the composer noted<br />

how the nobleman had ‘not<br />

scorned’ to hear his madrigals<br />

‘many times in [his] royal<br />

chambers while they were written<br />

in manuscript and … gave sign<br />

of welcoming them with singular<br />

favour’. He hoped that the printed<br />

pieces would, ‘under the protection<br />

of so great a prince … live an<br />

eternal life to the shame of those<br />

tongues which seek to bring death<br />

to the works of others’. Artusi<br />

and his followers were clearly<br />

in Monteverdi’s mind here. The<br />

works of the Fifth Book have much<br />

in common with the composer’s<br />

Fourth Book of Madrigals of 1603,<br />

in terms of musical style, emotional<br />

breadth and choice of verse: 10<br />

of the pieces in the Fourth Book<br />

and nine in the Fifth set texts by<br />

the poet, diplomat and courtier<br />

Battista Guarini, including tales<br />

of unrequited love and loss from<br />

his pastoral tragicomedy Il pastor<br />

fido (‘The faithful shepherd’) of<br />

c1580–5. What sets the Fifth Book<br />

apart from its predecessor was<br />

Monteverdi’s inclusion of a basso<br />

continuo for the harpsichord,<br />

chitarrone or other similar<br />

instrument, which he intended<br />

specifically for the last six madrigals<br />

and for the others ad libitum. The<br />

composer’s addition of parts for<br />

instruments reflected the emerging<br />

practice of converting polyphonic<br />

madrigals into solo songs with<br />

instrumental accompaniment,<br />

among the experiments that led<br />

to the proliferation of monody in<br />

such theatrical works as Cavalieri’s<br />

Rappresentatione di Anima, e di<br />

Corpo and the two settings of<br />

Rinuccini’s Euridice composed by<br />

Caccini and Peri for the marriage<br />

of Marie de’ Medici to Henry IV<br />

of France in October 1600.<br />

Artusi’s criticisms of ‘Cruda Amarilli’<br />

no doubt influenced Monteverdi’s<br />

decision to place the work at the<br />

beginning of the Fifth Book. The<br />

madrigal’s sudden and unresolved<br />

dissonances, mostly delivered<br />

on strong beats, and striking<br />

chromatic inflections, speak for a<br />

musico-poetic art form of inventive<br />

freshness and intense expression.<br />

‘O Mirtillo, Mirtillo anima mia’<br />

echoes and amplifies the harmonic<br />

richness of ‘Cruda Amarilli’, notably<br />

so in the dissonances used to carry<br />

the words ‘che chiami crudelissima<br />

Amarilli’. Monteverdi here creates<br />

an opening diptych of tremendous<br />

emotional power, exploring the<br />

interior wounds inflicted by love<br />

on the shepherdess Amaryllis<br />

and the shepherd Mirtillo. The<br />

composer also explores Guarini’s<br />

dialogues for the ill-matched rustics<br />

Silvio and Dorinda, developing<br />

a dramatic framework for their<br />

story in the five madrigals from<br />

‘Ecco, Silvio’ to ‘Ferir quel petto,<br />

Silvio?’ Monteverdi brings the<br />

couple’s narrative to life with<br />

colourful dissonances and, above<br />

all, through his imaginative use of<br />

polyphonic declamation. The spirit<br />

of theatrical interplay also rules<br />

the following group of madrigals,<br />

projected with potent force in<br />

Mirtillo’s self-pitying laments to his<br />

beloved, the bipartite ‘Ch’io t’ami’<br />

and ‘Ma tu, più che mai dura’.<br />

The last half dozen pieces of the<br />

Fifth Book belong to the category<br />

of continuo madrigals. Monteverdi<br />

here uses various permutations<br />

of instruments and voices to build<br />

extended musical structures, which<br />

in turn support bold contrasts of<br />

texture and expressive tone. He also<br />

employs vocal virtuosity to heighten<br />

rhetorical flourishes in his chosen<br />

texts and possibly to counterbalance<br />

the more reserved vocal style of the<br />

collection’s a cappella madrigals.<br />

As the scholar Gary Tomlinson has<br />

noted, Monteverdi’s first continuo<br />

pieces provided him with ‘the means<br />

to inject a novel representational<br />

realism and immediacy into the<br />

traditional madrigalian framework<br />

of five voices’. The composer<br />

variously exploited those means<br />

in his Fifth Book, marking a clear<br />

break with the style of the foregoing<br />

a cappella madrigals in ‘Ahi, come<br />

a un vago sol’, while retaining<br />

a connection with the past in its<br />

4


haunting ensemble refrain, ‘Ah,<br />

che piaga d’Amor’. Vocal virtuosity<br />

and melodic eloquence serve<br />

the cause of textual expression in<br />

‘Amor, se giusto sei’ and ‘T’amo,<br />

mia vita!’, arguably the richest<br />

jewels in the Fifth Book’s crown.<br />

<strong>Les</strong>sons learned here were soon put<br />

to use by Monteverdi in works of a<br />

larger scale, among them Orfeo,<br />

the first great landmark of opera.<br />

Echoes of Venetian polychoral<br />

motets and other works conceived<br />

for multiple groups of singers<br />

and instrumentalists sound in the<br />

closing composition of this book.<br />

It has been suggested that ‘Questi<br />

vaghi concenti’, written for nine<br />

voices and strings, may have been<br />

created as a showpiece to launch<br />

the new madrigal collection’s<br />

publication in Mantua, although<br />

no evidence survives to support this<br />

claim. Whatever the work’s origins,<br />

its use of antiphonal ensembles<br />

and various permutations of<br />

soloists signals Monteverdi’s<br />

progressive credentials.<br />

As a prodigiously talented<br />

teenager, Claudio Monteverdi<br />

explored and imitated the style of<br />

other composers in the process<br />

of finding his own musical voice.<br />

He followed the lead of Luca<br />

Marenzio and Luzzasco Luzzaschi<br />

in his First Book of Madrigals of<br />

1587, absorbing lasting lessons<br />

from Marenzio’s high-spirited<br />

canzonettas for three voices.<br />

Marenzio, around a dozen years<br />

older than Monteverdi, delighted<br />

in the musical setting of individual<br />

words, poetic imagery and even<br />

the sounds of nature. His late<br />

madrigals, published in the second<br />

half of the 1590s, are part of the<br />

great shift away from Zarlino’s<br />

rulebooks towards a new world<br />

of expressive composition, rich in<br />

audacious chromatic harmonies<br />

and arresting dissonances. ‘Donne,<br />

il celeste lume’ from Marenzio’s<br />

Fourth Book of Madrigals of<br />

1587 probably began life as a<br />

musical intermedio or interlude for<br />

Cristoforo Castelletti’s comedy Le<br />

stravaganze d’amore (‘The vagaries<br />

of love’), first performed during<br />

carnival season at the Duke of<br />

Sora’s palace in Rome in March<br />

1585. Marenzio appears to have<br />

been invited to compose the last<br />

of five madrigals in Castelletti’s<br />

entertainment. His response is a<br />

vivacious showpiece for nine voices.<br />

Marenzio’s other surviving works<br />

for theatrical performance were<br />

written in 1589 for the lavish<br />

wedding festivities convened in<br />

Florence for the marriage of Grand<br />

Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici and<br />

the French princess Christine of<br />

Lorraine. La pellegrina (‘The Pilgrim<br />

Woman’), a composite dramatic<br />

work crafted by a group of<br />

outstanding composers, librettists,<br />

instrumentalists and singers, stood<br />

as a landmark for the emerging<br />

new music of emotional expression.<br />

The lyrical Sinfonia to Pellegrina’s<br />

second intermedio sets the scene<br />

for the contest between the Muses<br />

and the Pierians, a mythic singing<br />

competition and eternal metaphor<br />

for the power of artistic inspiration.<br />

The multi-talented composer,<br />

dancer, diplomat and administrator<br />

Emilio de’ Cavalieri, a member of<br />

an aristocratic Roman family, was<br />

charged with the task of overseeing<br />

the 1589 Florentine intermedi and<br />

with contracting the composers<br />

for La pellegrina. Cavalieri turned<br />

this experience to good use when<br />

he wrote the Rappresentatione di<br />

Anima, et di Corpo in 1600, the first<br />

surviving play entirely set to music.<br />

In addition to instrumental sinfonias,<br />

Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione<br />

included speech-like recitatives,<br />

simple and virtuoso madrigals<br />

and solo songs, a pattern soon to<br />

be developed in the new medium<br />

of opera. Although theoreticians<br />

and composers continued to<br />

debate musical style for many<br />

years, it was already clear by the<br />

time of the Rappresentatione that<br />

the expressive art of the ‘second<br />

practice’ stood for music’s future.<br />

Programme note © Andrew Stewart<br />

For texts, see page 6.<br />

5 Programme note


Texts<br />

Luca Marenzio<br />

Donne, il celeste lume<br />

Donne, il celeste lume<br />

de gl’occhi vostri, che sì dolce splende,<br />

I nostri petti accende;<br />

ma l’alma dentro a le gran fiamme vive<br />

non sface, anzi di lor si nutre e vive.<br />

Stravaganza d’amore,<br />

ch’arda in eterno, e mai non strugga un core.<br />

Ladies, the celestial light<br />

Ladies, the celestial light<br />

of your eyes, a light that gleams so soft,<br />

sets our hearts ablaze;<br />

yet amid the bright and leaping flames<br />

the soul dies not, but feeds upon them and lives.<br />

‘Tis a vagary of love,<br />

that a heart may burn eternally and be not consumed.<br />

Cristoforo Castelletti: Le stravaganze d’amore, Act IV<br />

scene 17<br />

Claudio Monteverdi<br />

Fifth Book of Madrigals<br />

Cruda Amarilli<br />

Cruda Amarilli, che col nome ancora<br />

d’amar, ahi lasso, amaramente insegni;<br />

Amarilli, del candido ligustro<br />

più candida e più bella,<br />

ma de l’aspido sordo<br />

e più sorda e più fera e più fugace,<br />

poi che col dir t’offendo<br />

i’ mi morrò tacendo.<br />

Cruel Amaryllis<br />

Cruel Amaryllis, your very name, alas,<br />

betokens the bitterness of love;<br />

Amaryllis, paler and more beautiful<br />

than the pale privet flower,<br />

yet wilder, more elusive and unhearing<br />

than the deaf serpent,<br />

since by speaking I offend you,<br />

in silence shall I die.<br />

Battista Guarini: Il pastor fido, I, 2<br />

O Mirtillo<br />

O Mirtillo, Mirtillo anima mia,<br />

se vedessi qui dentro<br />

come sta il cor di questa<br />

che chiami crudelissima Amarilli,<br />

so ben che tu di lei<br />

quella pietà che da lei chiedi avresti.<br />

Oh anime in amor troppo infelici!<br />

Che giova a te, cor mio, l’esser amato?<br />

Che giova a me l’aver sì caro amante?<br />

Perché, crudo destino,<br />

ne disunisci tu, s’Amor ne stringe?<br />

E tu perché ne stringi,<br />

se ne parte il destin, perfido Amore?<br />

O Mirtillo<br />

O Mirtillo, my beloved Mirtillo,<br />

if you could but see inside<br />

the heart of the one<br />

you call cruellest Amaryllis,<br />

I know full well you would feel<br />

just that pity you beg of her.<br />

O spirits so unhappy in love!<br />

My heart, what good is it to be loved?<br />

What good to me to have so dear a lover?<br />

Why, cruel destiny,<br />

do you divide us, when Love would bind us?<br />

And why do you bind us together,<br />

when destiny divides us, perfidious Love?<br />

Battista Guarini: Il pastor fido, III, 4<br />

6<br />

Era l’anima mia<br />

Era l’anima mia<br />

già presso a l’ultim’ore,<br />

e languia come langue alma che more,<br />

quand’anima più bella e più gradita<br />

volse lo sguard’in sì pietoso giro<br />

My spirit<br />

My spirit was already approaching<br />

its final hours,<br />

and was fading like a dying soul<br />

when a most lovely and welcome spirit<br />

turned a gaze of such mercy on me


che mi mantenn’in vita.<br />

Parean dir quei bei lumi:<br />

deh, perché ti consumi?<br />

Non m’è sì car’il cor ond’io respiro<br />

come se’ tu, cor mio.<br />

Se mori, ohimè, non mori tu, mor’io.<br />

Battista Guarini: Madrigali, LXV<br />

Ecco, Silvio, colei – Prima parte<br />

Ecco, Silvio, colei che in odio hai tanto;<br />

eccola in quella guisa<br />

che la volevi a ponto.<br />

Bramastila ferir, ferita l’hai;<br />

bramastila tua preda, eccola preda;<br />

bramastila al fin morta, eccola a morte.<br />

Che vòi tu più da lei? Che ti può dare<br />

più di questo Dorinda? Ah, garzon crudo!<br />

Ah, cor senza pietà! Tu non credesti<br />

la piaga che per te mi fece Amore:<br />

puoi questa or tu negar de la tua mano?<br />

Non hai credut’il sangue<br />

ch’i’ versava per gli occhi;<br />

crederai questo che ’l mio fianco versa?<br />

Ma, se con la pietà – Seconda parte<br />

Ma, se con la pietà non è in te spenta<br />

gentilezza e valor che teco nacque,<br />

non mi negar, ti prego,<br />

anima cruda sì, ma però bella,<br />

non mi negar a l’ultimo sospiro<br />

un tuo solo sospir. Beata morte,<br />

se l’addolcissi tu con questa sola<br />

dolcissima parola,<br />

voce cortese e pia:<br />

va’ in pace, anima mia.<br />

Dorinda, ah, dirò mia – Terza parte<br />

Dorinda, ah, dirò mia, se mia non sei<br />

se non quando ti perdo e quando morte<br />

da me ricevi, e mia non fosti allora<br />

che ti potei dar vita?<br />

Pur mia dirò, ché mia<br />

sarai mal grado di mia dura sorte;<br />

e, se mia non sarai con la tua vita,<br />

sarai con la mia morte.<br />

as to spare my life.<br />

Those beautiful eyes seemed to say:<br />

‘Ah, why do you suffer so?<br />

My own heart and life are not so dear<br />

to me as are you, my love.<br />

If you die, alas, I, not you, shall perish.’<br />

Lo, Silvio – First Part<br />

Lo, Silvio, she whom you so detest;<br />

see, there she lies,<br />

just as you wanted her to.<br />

You longed to hurt her, you have done;<br />

you longed for her to be your victim, so she is;<br />

finally, you longed for her death, she is dying.<br />

What more do you want from her? What more<br />

than this can Dorinda give you? Ah, cruel youth!<br />

Ah, pitiless heart! You did not believe in<br />

the wound dealt me by Love for you:<br />

can you now deny this one, dealt by your hand?<br />

You did not believe in the life blood<br />

that poured from my eyes;<br />

will you now believe in the blood pouring from my side?<br />

Yet, if your innate kindness – Second Part<br />

Yet, if your innate kindness and courage<br />

died not when your pity did,<br />

deny me not, I beg you,<br />

cruel, yet beautiful spirit,<br />

no, at my last breath deny me not<br />

one last sigh from you. Death would be<br />

a blessing, were you to ease it<br />

with the sweetest of words,<br />

in gentle and holy tones:<br />

‘Go in peace, my love’.<br />

Dorinda, ah, shall I call you mine – Second Part<br />

Dorinda, ah, shall I call you mine,<br />

though you are only mine now that I lose you<br />

to death by my hand, and were not mine<br />

when I could have given you life?<br />

Still I shall call you mine, for you shall be so<br />

despite the cruel will of destiny;<br />

and if you cannot be mine in life,<br />

I shall claim you with my death.<br />

7 Texts


Ecco, piegando le genocchie – Quarta parte<br />

Ecco, piegando le genocchie a terra,<br />

riverente t’adoro<br />

e ti chieggio perdon, ma non già vita.<br />

Ecco li strali e l’arco;<br />

ma non ferir già tu gli occhi o le mani,<br />

colpevoli ministri<br />

d’innocente voler; ferisci il petto,<br />

ferisci questo mostro<br />

di pietad’e d’amor aspro nemico;<br />

ferisci questo cor che ti fu crudo!<br />

Eccoti il petto ignudo.<br />

Lo, I bend my knees to the ground – Fourth Part<br />

Lo, I bend my knees to the ground,<br />

reverently adore you<br />

and beg you for forgiveness, though not for my life.<br />

Here are my bow and arrows;<br />

but do not hurt my eyes or hands,<br />

offending instruments<br />

of an innocent will; pierce my breast,<br />

strike that monster<br />

inimical to love and pity;<br />

pierce the heart that was cruel to you!<br />

Behold, my naked breast.<br />

Ferir quel petto, Silvio? – Quinta e ultima parte<br />

Ferir quel petto, Silvio?<br />

Non bisognava a gli occhi miei scovrirlo,<br />

s’avevi pur desio ch’io te ’l ferissi.<br />

Oh bellissimo scoglio,<br />

già da l’onde e dal vento<br />

de le lagrime mie, de’ miei sospiri<br />

sì spesso in van percosso,<br />

è pur ver che tu spiri<br />

e che senti pietate? O pur m’inganno?<br />

Ma sii tu pur o petto molle o marmo,<br />

già non vo’ che m’inganni<br />

d’un candido alabastro il bel sembiante,<br />

come quel d’una fera<br />

oggi ha ingannato il tuo signor e mio.<br />

Ferir io te? Te pur ferisca Amore,<br />

ché vendetta maggiore<br />

non so bramar che di vederti amante.<br />

Sia benedetto il dì che da prim’arsi!<br />

Benedette le lagrime e i martiri!<br />

Di voi lodar, non vendicar, mi voglio.<br />

Pierce your breast, Silvio? – Fifth and Final Part<br />

Pierce your breast, Silvio?<br />

You were wrong to unclothe it before me<br />

if you wished me to wound it.<br />

O most handsome rock,<br />

so often vainly buffeted by<br />

the floods of my tears<br />

and the breeze of my sighs,<br />

can it be true that you are alive<br />

and capable of pity? Or am I deceived?<br />

But be your heart soft, or hard as marble,<br />

I do not want a handsome face,<br />

fair as alabaster, to deceive me,<br />

as a wild beast today<br />

deceived your lord and mine.<br />

I hurt you? Let Love hurt you,<br />

for no better vengeance can I long for<br />

than to see you in love.<br />

Blessed be the day I have yearned for!<br />

Blessed tears and suffering!<br />

Tis your praise I desire, not my vengeance.<br />

Battista Guarini: Il pastor fido, IV, 9<br />

interval: 20 minutes<br />

Ch’io t’ami – Prima parte<br />

Ch’io t’ami, e t’ami più de la mia vita,<br />

se tu no ’l sai, crudele,<br />

chiedilo a queste selve<br />

che te ’l diranno, e te ’l diran con esse<br />

le fere lor e i duri sterpi e i sassi<br />

di questi alpestri monti<br />

che ho sì spesse volte<br />

intenerito al suon de’ miei lamenti.<br />

If, cruel girl– First Part<br />

If, cruel girl, you know not<br />

that I love you, love you more than life,<br />

ask these forests<br />

and they will tell you, as will<br />

the beasts within them, the scrubland and rocks<br />

of these steep mountains<br />

so often roused to pity<br />

by the sound of my lamenting.<br />

8


Deh, bella e cara – Seconda parte<br />

Deh, bella e cara e sì soave un tempo<br />

cagion del viver mio, mentr’al ciel piacque,<br />

volgi una volta e volgi<br />

quelle stelle amorose,<br />

come le vidi mai, così tranquille<br />

e piene di pietà, prima ch’io moia;<br />

ché ’l morir mi fia dolce.<br />

E dritt’è ben che, se mi furo un tempo<br />

dolci segni di vita, or sien di morte<br />

quei belli occhi amorosi;<br />

e quel soave sguardo<br />

che mi scorse ad amare,<br />

mi scorga anco a morire;<br />

e chi fu l’alba mia<br />

del mio cadente dì l’espero or sia.<br />

Ma tu, più che mai dura – Terza e ultima parte<br />

Ma tu, più che mai dura,<br />

favilla di pietà non senti ancora;<br />

anzi t’inaspri più,<br />

quanto più prego.<br />

Così senza parlar, dunque, m’ascolti?<br />

A chi parlo infelice? A un muto sasso?<br />

S’altro non mi vòi dir, dimm’almen: mori!<br />

E morir mi vedrai.<br />

Quest’è ben, empio Amor, miseria estrema:<br />

che sì riggida ninfa<br />

non mi risponda e l’armi<br />

d’una sola sdegnosa e cruda voce<br />

sdegni di proferire<br />

al mio morire.<br />

Battista Guarini: Il pastor fido, III, 3<br />

Che dar più vi poss’io?<br />

Che dar più vi poss’io?<br />

Caro mio ben, prendete: eccovi il core,<br />

pegno de la mia fede e del mio amore.<br />

E se per darli vita a voi l’invio,<br />

no ’l lasciate morire;<br />

nudritel di dolcissimo gioire,<br />

ché vostro il fece Amor, natura mio.<br />

Non vedete, mia vita,<br />

che l’immagine vostra è in lui scolpita?<br />

Anonymous<br />

Ah, beloved, fair – Second Part<br />

Ah, beloved, fair and once my dear<br />

reason for living, when it so pleased heaven,<br />

turn once more and look at me<br />

with those loving stars,<br />

full of as much peace and mercy<br />

as I ever saw in them, before I die;<br />

so that death may come gently to me.<br />

And it is right that<br />

those fair and loving eyes<br />

that once meant life to me, now mean death;<br />

and the gentle gaze<br />

that led me to love,<br />

let it now lead me to death;<br />

and let she who was my dawn<br />

now, as I languish, be my evening star.<br />

But, harder of heart – Third and Final Part<br />

But, harder of heart than ever,<br />

you still feel not a spark of pity;<br />

indeed the more I beg,<br />

the more unrelenting you become.<br />

Can you then hear me and say nothing?<br />

To whom do I, poor wretch, speak? A dumb rock?<br />

If nothing else, at least say to me: ‘die!’<br />

And you will see me perish.<br />

Wicked Love, this is truly dreadful misery:<br />

this unfeeling nymph<br />

answers me not and<br />

you even deny me the weapons<br />

of a cruel and angry voice<br />

at my death.<br />

What more can I give you?<br />

What more can I give you?<br />

My beloved, take this: I give you my heart<br />

as a token of my faith and of my love.<br />

And as I give it to you to save its life,<br />

do not let it die;<br />

nourish it with the sweetest joy,<br />

for Love made it yours, Nature mine.<br />

Can you not see, my life,<br />

that your image is etched upon it.<br />

9 Texts


M’è più dolce il penar per Amarilli<br />

M’è più dolce il penar per Amarilli<br />

che ’l gioir di mill’altre;<br />

e se gioir di lei<br />

mi vieta il mio destino, oggi si moia<br />

per me pur ogni gioia.<br />

Viver io fortunato<br />

per altra donna mai, per altr’amore?<br />

Né, potendo, il vorrei,<br />

né, volendo, il potrei.<br />

E, s’esser può ch’in alcun tempo mai<br />

ciò voglia il mio volere,<br />

o possa il mio potere,<br />

prego il ciel ed Amor che tolto pria<br />

ogni voler, ogni poter mi sia.<br />

The pain I suffer for Amaryllis<br />

The pain I suffer for Amaryllis is sweeter<br />

than the joy felt by a thousand others;<br />

and if my destiny<br />

forbids me to have her, let all other happiness<br />

die for me today.<br />

Could I live contented<br />

for any other woman, any other love?<br />

Neither would I, if I could,<br />

nor could I, if I would.<br />

And, should it ever come to pass<br />

that I be willing,<br />

or that I be able,<br />

I beg heaven and Love first to take<br />

my will and ability from me.<br />

Battista Guarini: Il pastor fido, III, 6<br />

Ahi, come a un vago sol<br />

Ahi, come a un vago sol cortese giro<br />

de’ duo belli occhi, ond’io<br />

soffersi il primo dolce stral d’Amore,<br />

pien d’un novo desio,<br />

sì pront’a sospirar torna ’l mio core.<br />

Lasso, non val ascondersi, ch’omai<br />

conosco i segni che ’l mio cor addita<br />

de l’antica ferita.<br />

Ed è gran tempo pur che la saldai.<br />

Ah, che piaga d’Amor non sana mai!<br />

Alas, as if toward a graceful, lovely sun<br />

Alas, as if toward a graceful, lovely sun<br />

am I drawn to two beautiful eyes, from which<br />

I was struck by Love’s first dart,<br />

full of a new desire,<br />

my heart, ready for love, now returns.<br />

Alas, there is no use in hiding, for by now<br />

I know the signs that my heart gives<br />

of the old wound.<br />

And it is high time this wound closed.<br />

Ah, Love’s wounds never heal.<br />

Battista Guarini: Madrigali, CII<br />

Troppo ben può<br />

Troppo ben può questo tiranno Amore!<br />

Poi che non val fuggire<br />

a chi no ’l può soffrire.<br />

Quand’io penso talor com’arde e punge,<br />

io dico: ah, core stolto,<br />

non l’aspettar, che fai?<br />

Fuggilo, sì che non ti prenda mai.<br />

Ma, non so, com’il lusinghier mi giunge<br />

ch’io dico: ah, core sciolto,<br />

perché fuggito l’hai?<br />

Prendilo, sì che non ti fugga mai.<br />

Tyrannous Love<br />

Tyrannous Love does his work all too well!<br />

So well that in vain will those<br />

who cannot endure him try and flee.<br />

When I think of how love burns and stings,<br />

I say: ‘Ah, foolish heart,<br />

stay not, what are you doing?<br />

Run from him ere he catches you.’<br />

Somehow, though, his flattery touches me<br />

so that I say: ‘Ah, errant heart,<br />

why did you flee?<br />

Catch him ere he runs from you.’<br />

Battista Guarini: Madrigali, C<br />

10<br />

Amor, se giusto sei<br />

Amor, se giusto sei,<br />

fa’ che la donna mia<br />

anch’ella giusta sia.<br />

Io l’amo, tu il conosci ed ella il vede,<br />

ma pur mi strazia e mi trafigge il core,<br />

e per più mio dolore<br />

Love, if you are just<br />

Love, if you are just,<br />

make my lady<br />

equally fair-minded.<br />

I love her, you know it and she sees it,<br />

and yet she tortures me, pierces my heart,<br />

and has no faith in me,


e per dispreggio tuo, non mi dà fede.<br />

Non sostener, Amor, che nel tuo regno,<br />

là dove io ho sparta fede, mieta sdegno;<br />

ma fa’, giusto signore,<br />

ch’in premio del mio amor, io colga amore.<br />

Anonymous<br />

T’amo, mia vita!<br />

T’amo, mia vita! La mia cara vita<br />

dolcemente mi dice, e in questa sola<br />

sì soave parola<br />

par che trasformi lietamente il core<br />

per farmene signore.<br />

Oh, voce di dolcezza e di diletto;<br />

prendila tosto Amore;<br />

stampala nel mio petto.<br />

Spiri solo per lei l’anima mia:<br />

t’amo! Mia vita la mia vita sia.<br />

Battista Guarini: Madrigali, LXVI<br />

E così, a poco a poco (a sei voci)<br />

E così, a poco a poco,<br />

torno farfalla semplicetta al foco,<br />

e nel fallace sguardo<br />

un’altra volta mi consumo ed ardo.<br />

Ah, che piaga d’Amore<br />

quanto si cura più tanto men sana;<br />

ch’ogni fatica è vana<br />

quando fu punto un giovinetto core<br />

dal primo e dolce strale.<br />

Chi spegne antico incendio il fa immortale.<br />

Battista Guarini: Madrigali, CIV<br />

Questi vaghi concenti (a nove voci)<br />

Questi vaghi concenti<br />

che gli augelletti intorno<br />

vanno temprando a l’aparir del giorno,<br />

sono, cred’io, d’amor desiri ardenti.<br />

Sono pene e tormenti<br />

e pur fanno le selve e ’l ciel gioire<br />

al lor dolce languire.<br />

Deh, se potessi anch’io<br />

così dolce dolermi<br />

per questi poggi solitari ed ermi,<br />

che quella a cui piacer sola desio<br />

gradisse il pianger mio!<br />

Io bramerei, sol per piacer a lei,<br />

eterni i pianti miei.<br />

Anonymous<br />

injuring me, and galling you.<br />

Grant not, Love, that in your kingdom,<br />

where I have sown faith, I should gather disdain;<br />

allow me, just lord,<br />

to harvest love in return for my love.<br />

I love you, beloved!<br />

‘I love you, beloved!’ My beloved<br />

softly tells me, and with<br />

these sweet words,<br />

she seems to transform my heart with joy<br />

and make a lord of me.<br />

Oh, voice of sweetness and delight;<br />

clasp it now, Love;<br />

imprint it in my heart.<br />

Let my spirit live for her alone:<br />

I love you! Let my beloved be my life.<br />

And thus, little by little (for six voices)<br />

And thus, little by little,<br />

like a foolish moth to the flame<br />

I flutter, and in her traitorous gaze<br />

am burned and consumed once again.<br />

Ah, the more Love’s wounds heal,<br />

the more painful they become;<br />

all efforts are vain<br />

when a young man’s heart<br />

has been struck by love’s first dart.<br />

He who quenches an old flame makes it immortal.<br />

These lovely songs (for nine voices)<br />

These lovely songs<br />

that the little birds<br />

sing all around as day breaks<br />

are, for me, passionate songs of love.<br />

They are pain and torment<br />

and yet their sweet languor<br />

brings joy to the woods and the sky.<br />

Ah, if only I too could<br />

sing such sweet sorrow<br />

on these bare and lonely hills,<br />

if only she whom alone I wish to please<br />

were to welcome my lament!<br />

I would wish my weeping eternal,<br />

just to bring her pleasure.<br />

Translations by Susannah Howe. Monteverdi translations<br />

reproduced by kind permission of Naxos Rights US, Inc.<br />

11 Texts


About tonight’s performers<br />

Paul Agnew tenor/director<br />

Born in Glasgow, Paul Agnew<br />

received his initial musical education<br />

with the Birmingham Cathedral<br />

choir. He then entered Magdalen<br />

College, Oxford, where he continued<br />

his musical studies. He sang with the<br />

Consort of Musicke before joining<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> in 1992, making<br />

his debut as Hippolyte in Rameau’s<br />

Hippolyte et Aricie, conducted by<br />

William Christie.<br />

He went on to sing many major roles<br />

with the group, notably in Rameau’s<br />

Platée, <strong>Les</strong> Boréades and <strong>Les</strong> Indes<br />

galantes. He is regularly invited<br />

to the Edinburgh and Lufthansa<br />

festivals and the BBC Proms. He<br />

frequently sings with ensembles such<br />

as the Berlin and Royal Liverpool<br />

Philharmonic orchestras, City of<br />

Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,<br />

the Orchestra of the Komische<br />

Oper Berlin, Orchestra of the Age<br />

of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli<br />

Consort & Players. He appears with<br />

leading conductors such as Marc<br />

Minkowski, Ton Koopman, Sir John<br />

Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe<br />

and Emmanuelle Haïm.<br />

Among the productions in which he<br />

has taken part are Lully’s Thésée<br />

(title-role) at the Théâtre des Champs-<br />

Élysées and Armide (Renaud),<br />

produced by Robert Carsen.<br />

His discography includes Beethoven<br />

Lieder, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ,<br />

Monteverdi’s Vespers, Charpentier’s<br />

La descente d’Orphée aux enfers and<br />

Rameau’s Grands motets.<br />

In 2006, Paul Agnew began to<br />

take on the role of musical director<br />

for certain projects with <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong><br />

<strong>Florissants</strong>, beginning with Vivaldi’s<br />

Vespers and continuing with<br />

Handel’s odes and anthems and<br />

Lamentazione, a concert devoted to<br />

Italian Baroque polyphony. In 2010<br />

he conducted <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> in<br />

Purcell’s The Indian Queen. He is also<br />

co-director of Le Jardin des Voix, <strong>Les</strong><br />

<strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>’ academy for young<br />

singers. This interest in the training<br />

of new generations of musicians has<br />

also led him to conduct the French<br />

Baroque Youth Orchestra.<br />

Now associate conductor of <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong><br />

<strong>Florissants</strong>, Paul Agnew launched<br />

in 2011 a project to perform<br />

Monteverdi’s complete madrigals,<br />

which involves nearly 100 concerts<br />

and will continue into 2015.<br />

P. Kornfeld<br />

Lisandro Abadie bass<br />

Lisandro Abadie was born in Buenos<br />

Aires, Argentina. He obtained his<br />

singing diplomas at the Schola<br />

Cantorum Basiliensis (with Evelyn<br />

Tubb) and the Lucerne School of<br />

Music (with Peter Brechbühler). He<br />

was awarded the Edwin Fischer<br />

Gedenkpreis in 2006 and was a<br />

finalist in the 2008 Handel Singing<br />

Competition.<br />

In 2010 he created the title-role in<br />

Oscar Strasnoy’s Cachafaz, staged<br />

by Benjamin Lazar in Quimper,<br />

Rennes and Paris. Highlights of 2011<br />

included tours with the Orchestra of<br />

the Age of Enlightenment (Messiah),<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>, <strong>Les</strong> Folies<br />

Françaises and <strong>Les</strong> Talens Lyriques.<br />

Last year he returned to the London<br />

Handel Festival.<br />

He has sung under the direction<br />

of William Christie (The Fairy<br />

Queen and Landi’s Sant’Alessio),<br />

Facundo Agudín (Così fan tutte,<br />

Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, The<br />

Marriage of Figaro, Bach’s St John<br />

Passion, the Requiems of Mozart<br />

and Fauré and Puccini’s Mass),<br />

Christophe Rousset (Pergolesi’s San<br />

12


Guglielmo), Laurence Cummings<br />

(Belshazzar and Theodora), Hervé<br />

Niquet (Marais’s Semele,which he<br />

has also recorded), Anthony Rooley<br />

(Hayes’ The Passions), Václav Luks<br />

(St Matthew Passion and Handel’s<br />

La Resurrezione), Maurice Steger<br />

(Handel’s Acis and Galatea), Jan<br />

Tomasz Adamus (Messiah) and<br />

Paul Agnew (works by Purcell and<br />

Monteverdi), among many others.<br />

He has collaborated with ensembles<br />

such as <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>, Collegium<br />

1704 and Mala Punica, and regularly<br />

performs with the pianist and<br />

composer Paul Suits.<br />

Notable among Lisandro Abadie’s<br />

discography are his recording of<br />

Hayes’ The Passions,which received<br />

a Choc de Classica award, and<br />

the premiere recording of Christian<br />

Favre’s Requiem.<br />

Miriam Allan soprano<br />

Born in Newcastle, New South<br />

Wales, Miriam Allan has been based<br />

in England since 2003.<br />

She has been a soloist with leading<br />

orchestral and choral organisations<br />

from all over the world, including<br />

the Monteverdi Choir and<br />

English Baroque Soloists, London<br />

Baroque, <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>,<br />

Auckland Philharmonia, Concerto<br />

Copenhagen, Il Fondamento,<br />

Gewandhaus Kammerchor, Leipzig<br />

Kammerorchester, Concerto<br />

Köln, ChorWerk Ruhr, Sydney<br />

Philharmonia Choirs, Australian<br />

Chamber Orchestra, Chacona and<br />

Arcadia.<br />

She has worked with many of the<br />

leading directors and conductors<br />

of today, including Sir John Eliot<br />

Gardiner, Lars Ulrik Mortensen,<br />

Laurence Cummings, William Christie<br />

and Roy Goodman. She appears<br />

on numerous recordings, highlights<br />

of which include Pinchgut Opera’s<br />

Fairy Queen and Dardanus, The<br />

Wonders of the World with Echo du<br />

Danube and Mozart’s Requiem with<br />

the Leipzig Kammerorchester and<br />

Gewandhaus Kammerchor.<br />

In 2009 she toured Australia with<br />

Ironwood Ensemble and performed<br />

Messiah with the Queensland and<br />

Melbourne Symphony orchestras,<br />

directed by Stephen Layton. After<br />

making her debut with Glyndebourne<br />

Festival Opera in Purcell’s The Fairy<br />

Queen in 2009, she continued with<br />

that production to Paris, Caen and<br />

New York in 2010.<br />

Recent highlights include <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong><br />

<strong>Florissants</strong>’ ongoing Monterverdi<br />

madrigal project, a return to<br />

Australia for performances with the<br />

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,<br />

her debut with the Bach Collegium<br />

Japan, under Masaaki Suzuki, and<br />

the role of Costanza in Pinchgut<br />

Opera’s production of Vivaldi’s<br />

Griselda. This year she appears<br />

with Le Concert d’Astrée and<br />

gives concerts with the Sydney<br />

Philharmonia Choirs and Collegium<br />

Musicum, Perth.<br />

Miriam Allan is a vocal coach at<br />

Westminster Abbey and Head<br />

of Singing at Bloxham School,<br />

Oxfordshire.<br />

Sean Clayton tenor<br />

Sean Clayton trained at the<br />

Birmingham Conservatoire and<br />

London’s Royal College of Music.<br />

His operatic roles have included<br />

Elder Gleaton (Carlisle Floyd’s<br />

Susannah) and Don Eusebio (Rossini’s<br />

L’occasione fa il ladro) for Wexford<br />

Festival Opera; Apollo (Semele)<br />

for British Youth Opera; Shepherd<br />

(Orfeo) for English Bach Festival<br />

Trust and English Touring Opera,<br />

as well as, for the latter, Sailor (Dido<br />

and Aeneas); Rupert Burns (The<br />

Impresario) and Toby (The Medium)<br />

for Second Movement; Fenton (The<br />

Merry Wives of Windsor) for Opera<br />

South; M. Prospect (Offenbach’s<br />

Not in front of the Waiter) for Jubilee<br />

13 About the performers


Opera; and Giocondo (Rossini’s La<br />

pietra del paragone) and Fenton<br />

(Falstaff) for Stanley Hall Opera.<br />

He has sung in concert with the<br />

Gåvle Symphony Orchestra and<br />

has also appeared with the Apollo<br />

and English Chamber orchestras,<br />

the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the<br />

London Mozart Players and the<br />

Ten Tors Orchestra, as well as at<br />

Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the<br />

Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Martin-inthe-Fields,<br />

St John’s, Smith Square,<br />

Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, The<br />

Music Hall, Aberdeen, and most<br />

of the major UK cathedrals.<br />

Recent and current engagements<br />

include Little Bat (Susannah) for<br />

English Touring Opera; Sandy (The<br />

Lighthouse) at the Montepulciano<br />

Festival; Aurelius (King Arthur) for<br />

Der Lautten Compagney; and The<br />

Fairy Queen in Aix-en-Provence.<br />

He has also toured with <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong><br />

<strong>Florissants</strong> in works such as Purcell’s<br />

Dido and Aeneas, The Indian Queen<br />

and The Fairy Queen, Charpentier’s<br />

Actéon and Monteverdi madrigals.<br />

she also studied singing with<br />

Anne-Marie Blanzat, before<br />

specialising in Baroque music,<br />

attending masterclasses given by<br />

Kenneth Weiss, Howard Crook,<br />

Michel Laplénie, Jean Tubéry<br />

and Sophie Boulin. She then<br />

studied in Amsterdam with Valérie<br />

Guillorit and Elène Golgevit.<br />

She has appeared with such<br />

ensembles as Solistes XXI,<br />

Sagittarius, Ludus Modalis, A Sei<br />

Voci, Cappella Mediterranea and<br />

La Capella Reial de Catalunya.<br />

As a member of <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

she has sung in Charpentier’s<br />

David et Jonathas and Motet<br />

pour une longue offrande (which<br />

she has also recorded), Purcell<br />

anthems and The Fairy Queen<br />

and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.<br />

Under the direction of Paul<br />

Agnew she has participated in<br />

the Monteverdi madrigal project<br />

since its inception, in 2011.<br />

Highlights this season<br />

include concerts conducted<br />

by Gilbert Bezzina and<br />

Leonardo García Alarcón.<br />

University and Conservatoire. She<br />

subsequently joined Jean-Claude<br />

Malgoire’s Atelier Lyrique de<br />

Tourcoing. Under his leadership she<br />

made her debut at La Scala, Milan,<br />

in Vivaldi’s Vespers (1994) and at<br />

the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in<br />

Mozart’s Da Ponte operas (1996).<br />

She came to the attention of<br />

Gabriel Garrido, who gave her<br />

a role in Cavalli’s Ercole amante<br />

at the 2005 Ambronay Festival.<br />

Away from the opera house<br />

she has sung in Duruflé’s<br />

Requiem and Bach’s cantatas<br />

and St Matthew Passion.<br />

Six years ago she set up Providencia,<br />

an ensemble dedicated to exploring<br />

newly discovered sacred repertoire<br />

of the High Middle Ages in<br />

collaboration with musicologists.<br />

Though Stéphanie Leclercq is<br />

particularly associated with early<br />

music, she has also sung the titlerole<br />

in Offenbach’s La Grande<br />

Duchesse de Gérolstein and<br />

Carmen in La tragédie de Carmen,<br />

an adaptation of Bizet’s opera by<br />

Marius Constant and Peter Brook.<br />

Among the many leading<br />

directors with whom she works<br />

are Malgoire, Garrido, Jérémie<br />

Rhorer, Vincent Dumestre, Françoise<br />

Lasserre, Oswald Sallaberger<br />

and Dominique Debart.<br />

Maud Gnidzaz soprano<br />

Maud Gnidzaz’s earliest studies<br />

were in the flute, as well as singing<br />

in a number of children’s operas.<br />

While working towards her<br />

diploma at the École du Louvre,<br />

Stéphanie Leclercq<br />

mezzo-soprano<br />

Born in France, Stéphanie Leclerq<br />

began her musical education in Lille,<br />

continuing her studies at the city’s<br />

14<br />

Ledroit-Perrin


Hannah Morrison soprano<br />

The Scottish-Icelandic soprano<br />

Hannah Morrison studied the<br />

piano and singing at the Maastricht<br />

Academy of Music and completed<br />

her singing studies at the Cologne<br />

Academy of Music with Barbara<br />

Schlick and with Rudolf Piernay at<br />

the Guildhall School of Music &<br />

Drama. She also participated in<br />

masterclasses with Matthias Goerne,<br />

Christoph Eschenbach, Roger<br />

Vignoles, Sir Thomas Allen and<br />

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa among others.<br />

She frequently sings with <strong>Les</strong><br />

<strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> under Paul<br />

Agnew and William Christie.<br />

This season she tours with them<br />

to Madrid, Paris and London.<br />

In addition, she regularly works<br />

with ensembles such as the Holland<br />

Baroque Society and Christina<br />

Pluhar, L’arte del mondo under<br />

Werner Ehrhardt, Das Kleine<br />

Konzert under Hermann Max and<br />

Capella Augustina under Andreas<br />

Spering, with whom she will shortly<br />

perform Haydn’s La vera costanza.<br />

She has given a number of recitals<br />

in the UK (Oxford Festival, Kings<br />

Place and the Wigmore Hall) with<br />

the pianist Eugene Asti, with whom<br />

she has also recorded songs and<br />

duets by Mendelssohn for Hyperion.<br />

Last year she sang solo cantatas<br />

by Bach at the Bad Arolsen<br />

Baroque Festival, appeared with<br />

Christina Pluhar at the Innsbruck<br />

Early Music Festival and with<br />

Bach Collegium Japan under<br />

Masaaki Suzuki. This year she<br />

gives several concerts with Sir John<br />

Eliot Gardiner, singing in Bach’s<br />

St John’s Passion, B minor Mass and<br />

Ascension and Easter Oratorios.<br />

Hannah Morrison makes her<br />

Salzburg Festival debut in August<br />

and next year performs in<br />

Schumann’s Das Paradies und die<br />

Peri with the Leipzig Gewandhaus<br />

Orchestra, again with Gardiner.<br />

Lucile Richardot mezzo-soprano<br />

Lucile Richardot studied singing at<br />

the Paris Conservatoire and worked<br />

with, among others, Lionel Sow,<br />

Sylvain Dieudonné, Howard Crook,<br />

Margreet Honig, Noëlle Barker,<br />

Paul Esswood, Martin Isepp, Rinaldo<br />

Alessandrini, François Le Roux, Jan<br />

van Elsacker, Monique Zanetti and<br />

John Nelson. Her repertoire ranges<br />

from medieval to contemporary<br />

and she regularly sings with Solistes<br />

XXI, Correspondances, Pygmalion,<br />

l’Ensemble grégorien de Notre-<br />

Dame and appears as a soloist<br />

with Gérard <strong>Les</strong>ne, Skip Sempé,<br />

Jérôme Corréas, Patrick Cohën-<br />

Akenine, Patrick Ayrton, Gilles<br />

Colliard, Peter van Heyghen, Itay<br />

Jedlin, Benjamin Alard, Simon-<br />

Pierre Bestion and Till Aly. Last year<br />

she joined <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> for<br />

its Monteverdi madrigal project.<br />

Highlights to date have included<br />

Lully’s Cadmus et Hermione,<br />

the creation of the role of the<br />

First Aunt in Philippe Boesmans’<br />

Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne,<br />

Beat Furrer’s Wüstenbuch and<br />

her performance last year in<br />

Benjamin Hertz’s Love Box.<br />

Plans include Nono’s Prometheus<br />

in Paris, The Hague and Zurich<br />

and the role of the Spirit (Dido and<br />

Aeneas) with Le Poème Harmonique<br />

in Rouen and Versailles.<br />

Marduk Serrano López bass<br />

Born in Mexico, Marduk Serrano<br />

López initially studied cello at<br />

the Conservatorio Nacional de<br />

Música, before turning to singing,<br />

initially as a countertenor before<br />

discovering his true tessitura. In<br />

2003, fascinated by music of the<br />

17th and 18th centuries, he entered<br />

the Centre de Musique Baroque<br />

of Versailles where he earned<br />

his diploma with honours. He<br />

subsequently studied with Stéphanie<br />

Révidat and is currently working with<br />

Anna Maria Bondi. Additionally,<br />

he has undertaken courses and<br />

masterclasses with Alain Buet,<br />

Hervé Niquet, Isabelle Poulenard,<br />

15 About the performers


Maarten Koningsberger, Valérie<br />

Guillorit, Benjamin Perrot, Frédéric<br />

Desenclos and Viviane Durand.<br />

His repertoire ranges from the<br />

medieval and Baroque periods to<br />

Lied and mélodie. He also performs<br />

Latin-American folk music, in an<br />

attempt to bring it to wider attention.<br />

He has sung with ensembles<br />

including <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

(under William Christie and Paul<br />

Agnew), Le Concert Spirituel<br />

(under Hervé Niquet) and Le<br />

Concert d’Astrée, giving concerts<br />

in Europe, Asia and America.<br />

An interest in education has<br />

led Marduk Serrano López to<br />

collaborate with conservatories<br />

and musical institutions in<br />

Mexico and Guatemala.<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

The renowned vocal and<br />

instrumental ensemble <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong><br />

<strong>Florissants</strong> was founded in 1979 by<br />

the Franco-American harpsichordist<br />

and conductor William Christie,<br />

and takes its name from an opera<br />

by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.<br />

Since its production of Atys by Lully<br />

at the Opéra Comique in Paris in<br />

1987, it is in the field of opera that<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> has found most<br />

success. Notable productions include<br />

works by Rameau (<strong>Les</strong> Indes galantes<br />

in 1990 and 1999, Hippolyte et<br />

Aricie in 1996, <strong>Les</strong> Boréades in<br />

2003, <strong>Les</strong> Paladins in 2004), Lully<br />

and Charpentier (Médée in 1993<br />

and 1994, Armide in 2008), Handel<br />

(Orlando in 1993, Acis and Galatea<br />

in 1996, Semele in 1996 and 2010,<br />

Alcina in 1999, Hercules in 2004<br />

and 2006, L’Allegro, il Moderato ed<br />

il Penseroso in 2007), Purcell (King<br />

Arthur in 1995, Dido and Aeneas<br />

in 2006, The Fairy Queen in 2010),<br />

Mozart (The Magic Flute in 1994, Die<br />

Entführung aus dem Serail in 1995)<br />

and Monteverdi, whose opera trilogy<br />

was performed at the Teatro Real in<br />

Madrid between 2008 and 2010.<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> has an equally<br />

high profile in the concert hall,<br />

giving concert performances of<br />

operas (Zoroastre and <strong>Les</strong> fêtes<br />

d’Hébé by Rameau, Idomenée by<br />

Campra, Jephté by Montéclair,<br />

L’Orfeo by Rossi, Susanna and<br />

Julius Caesar by Handel and The<br />

Indian Queen by Purcell), as well<br />

as secular chamber works (Actéon,<br />

<strong>Les</strong> plaisirs de Versailles and La<br />

descente d’Orphée aux enfers by<br />

Charpentier), sacred music (Grands<br />

motets by Rameau, Mondonville and<br />

Desmarest) and Handel oratorios.<br />

The ensemble has a discography<br />

of over 80 CD recordings,<br />

including the recent Lamentazione,<br />

the first recording to be<br />

conducted by Paul Agnew.<br />

For 20 years the ensemble has been<br />

artist-in-residence at the théâtre<br />

de Caen. <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> also<br />

tours widely within France, and<br />

is a frequent ambassador for<br />

French culture abroad, regularly<br />

appearing at the Brooklyn Academy,<br />

the Lincoln Center in New York,<br />

the <strong>Barbican</strong> Centre, the Vienna<br />

Festival and Madrid’s Teatro Real.<br />

Since <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>’ 30th<br />

anniversary in 2009–10, William<br />

Christie has expanded the artistic<br />

management of the ensemble by<br />

appointing two young associate<br />

conductors, Paul Agnew and<br />

Jonathan Cohen, who both<br />

now conduct <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong><br />

each season in both small and<br />

large-scale programmes.<br />

Among other programmes<br />

marking its 2012/13 season, <strong>Les</strong><br />

<strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> present in Caen,<br />

Paris and New York the production<br />

of David et Jonathas recently<br />

premiered in Aix-en-Provence, and<br />

the sixth edition of Le Jardin des Voix<br />

on international tour. It also performs<br />

Charpentier’s oratorios Caecilia<br />

virgo et martyr and Filius prodigus, as<br />

well as Handel’s oratorio Belshazzar.<br />

<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong> receives<br />

financial support from the Ministry<br />

of Culture and Communication,<br />

the City of Caen and the Région<br />

Basse-Normandie. It is artist-inresidence<br />

at the Théâtre de Caen.<br />

IMERYS, the world leader in mineralbased<br />

specialties for industry,<br />

and ALSTOM, a global leader in<br />

the world of power generation,<br />

power transmission and rail<br />

infrastructure, are the Principal<br />

Sponsors of <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Arts</strong> <strong>Florissants</strong>.<br />

16

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