Les Arts Florissants - Barbican

Pascal Gély 

Sunday 18 October 2009 7.30pm 

LSO St Luke’s 

Les Arts Florissants 

Laura Claycomb soprano 

Kristian Bezuidenhout fortepiano 

Jonathan Cohen conductor 

Gluck Orphée et Euridice – Dance of the Furies; Dance of the 

Blessed Spirits 

Gluck Paride ed Elena – Ballet 

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 18, K456 

Interval 

Haydn Symphony No. 80 

Mozart Arias for soprano and orchestra: 

Idomeneo – Quando avran fine omai … Padre, germani, 

addio 

Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio 

Ah! se in ciel, benigne stelle 

These concerts are part of a series of programmes 

between London and Paris co-produced by the Barbican 

Centre, the Salle Pleyel and the Cité de la Musique on the 

occasion of the 30th anniversary of Les Arts Florissants.

introduction 

Les Arts Florissants at 30 

What a difference a generation makes. In the past 30 years, the world of Baroque music-making has been transformed. 

Musicians had for a while been acquiring the skills of playing old instruments and rediscovering former playing styles, but it 

was only during the 1970s that these made a major impact on the wider public. Of course there had been pioneers before 

this: a whole generation of enthusiasts and researchers had explored old repertory, and Arnold Dolmetsch had played his 

clavichord in candlelit London drawing rooms to the delight of George Bernard Shaw and Percy Grainger. But this was 

essentially an esoteric activity – until a new generation of players and conductors launched themselves into the re-creation of 

Baroque ensembles in the 1970s. 

William Christie’s achievement with his French group Les Arts Florissants from 1979 onwards has been an outstanding part of 

this revival, for it grew out of a repertory that many had thought inaccessible – the distant world of the French Baroque, with 

its rich and dense texts, its complex ornamentation and rhetoric, and its unfamiliar emotional language. What Christie and 

his young ensemble achieved in spectacular fashion was to show how, when performed with penetrating understanding and 

vivid communication, this music could be made as available and exciting as any on offer. From Charpentier (who gave the 

ensemble its name) and Lully through to Rameau, Les Arts Florissants lit up this music and brought it to life with unparalleled 

success. 

Christie’s ensemble has moved from the French Baroque into Handel and Purcell, Monteverdi and Landi, and beyond that to 

Haydn and Mozart. It has gained a huge following for its fresh insights into Haydn’s The Creation and Monteverdi’s Vespers, 

and its staged operas here at the Barbican – the fantastical, video-dominated production of Rameau’s Les Paladins and Luc 

Bondy’s severely intense staging of Handel’s Hercules – have been among the highlights of our output. 

So it is appropriate that this anniversary season celebrates the historic achievement of Les Arts Florissants with opera 

(Purcell’s immortal Dido and Aeneas), oratorio (Handel’s rarely performed Susanna) and the French choral motets that the 

group has made its own. And it is also entirely typical of its work with younger artists that for two of these anniversary 

concerts, William Christie hands the baton on to directors of the next generation, Jonathan Cohen and Paul Agnew. Like the 

great music of the past, Les Arts Florissants will continue to reinvent itself as it looks towards the next 30 years. 

Nicholas Kenyon 

Managing Director 

2


30th Anniversary 

Celebration 

William Christie and his ensemble present 

an exciting and diverse musical showcase 

celebrating their 30th anniversary 

Sun 18 Oct 09 7.30pm 

LSO St Luke’s 

Jonathan Cohen conducts 

Haydn’s Symphony No 80 and 

music by Mozart and Gluck. 

Returns only 

Sun 25 Oct 09 7pm 

A performance of Handel’s 

rarely-heard oratorio Susanna 

with soloists including William 

Burden, Alan Ewing and 

Sophie Karthäuser. 

Sun 8 Nov 09 7.30pm 

Union Chapel 

Talented British conductor and 

tenor Paul Agnew leads this 

performance of Monteverdi’s 

Sixth Book of Madrigals. 

Thu 26 Nov 09 7.30pm 

Grand Motets by Lully, Rameau, 

Desmarest and Campra with 

soloists including Patricia 

Petibon and Toby Spence. 

Watch video interviews and listen to music clips 

at www.greatperformers.org.uk 

Box Office 0845 120 7557 

The Barbican is 

provided by the 

City of London 

Corporation

programme note 

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–87) 

Orphée et Euridice (1774) 

Dance of the Furies; Dance of the Blessed Spirits 

Elena ed Paride (1770) 

Ballet 

When the Emperor Francis I and his retinue heard Gluck’s 

Orfeo ed Euridice in Vienna’s Burgtheater on 5 October 

1762 they were doubtless expecting a lightweight pastoral 

entertainment. The occasion – the Emperor’s name-day – 

and the opera’s billing as an azione teatrale (‘theatrical 

action’) promised as much. What they got was a work of 

startling originality and emotional power that integrated 

chorus, soloists and ballet in dramatic complexes and broke 

down the clear-cut division between recitative and aria. 

Gluck’s librettist Ranieri de’ Calzabigi was a disciple of the 

French Enlightenment, and a passionate opponent of the 

artifices and excesses of Italian opera, as was the composer. 

Calzabigi took the archetypal myth of Orpheus’s descent to 

Hades to rescue Euridice and pared it down to essentials; 

Gluck’s music was correspondingly strong and direct, shorn 

of rococo frills and fripperies. The composer’s watchwords 

were dramatic truth and ‘beautiful simplicity’: no more 

pandering to the whims of overindulged and overpaid star 

singers. From the solemn opening chorus onwards, his music 

makes its effect with swift, shattering economy. 

In 1774 Gluck revised and expanded Orfeo as Orphée et 

Euridice, adding new arias and ballet numbers, including 

the ‘Dance of the Furies’, for dance-mad Paris, but diffusing 

the elemental force of the original. In Vienna the hero – part 

symbolic demigod, part human lover – had been sung by the 

castrato Gaetano Guadagni. The French deemed castratos 

an offence against nature, so Gluck duly reworked the role 

for the celebrated haute-contre (high tenor) Joseph Legros, 

in the process making Orpheus a more heroic figure. 

In the first scene of Act 2, Orpheus has subdued the Furies 

with the eloquence of his singing. After he has passed 

4 

through the gates of Hades, they revert to their true nature in 

a thrilling, torrential D minor dance. An inveterate recycler, 

Gluck lifted this ‘Air de Furies’ from his 1761 ballet Don Juan. 

It became one of his most famous movements, and a crucial 

influence on the Sturm und Drang (‘Storm and Stress’) 

symphonies of Haydn, Mozart and others. Stygian darkness 

yields to the pure, dazzling light of the Elysian Fields in the 

‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’, an F major minuet of unearthly 

serenity. For Paris Gluck added, as a central trio, a sinuous 

D minor flute solo that leaves an aftertaste of sadness. 

A flop at its Viennese premiere in 1770, Gluck’s third socalled 

‘reform’ opera, Paride ed Elena, has always 

remained in the shadows. Where its predecessors, Orfeo 

and Alceste, are dramas of life and death, Paride ed Elena 

deals with Paris’s wooing of Helen. Cupid pulls the strings, 

while Athene appears as a malign dea ex machina with a 

prophecy of future carnage, which the lovers then blithely 

disregard. Paride ed Elena is even more static than Alceste, 

and suffers from having an all-soprano cast – prime reasons 

for its neglect. But much of the music is glorious. Variety 

comes from Gluck’s portrayal of the two national characters, 

Sparta and Troy. The Trojan Paris sings music in Gluck’s most 

ravishing vein, while Helen, far from being the sex-kitten of 

popular myth, maintains a certain Spartan aloofness until 

her final capitulation. 

Gluck magnified these national contrasts in the opera’s 

splendid choruses and ballet music. In the five-movement 

ballet sequence in Act 1, three brusque, angular dances for 

the Spartans alternate with two beguiling numbers for the 

Trojans: a gavotte that Gluck later recycled for the French 

version of Orfeo, and a dulcet minuet – something of a 

Gluck speciality.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) 

Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat major, K456 (1784) 

1 Allegro vivace 

2 Andante un poco sostenuto 

3 Allegro vivace 


When Mozart departed the service of the hated Archbishop 

Colloredo of Salzburg in 1781, helped by history’s most 

famous kick up the backside, he was confident that fame 

and fortune in Vienna were his for the taking. For the next 

few years he was triumphantly vindicated in what he dubbed 

‘the land of the clavier’, earning a handsome living from 

teaching, publishing his works and giving concerts. Though 

Mozart spent almost as fast as he earned, he was for a time, 

at least, a shrewd business operator; and he promoted 

himself as both performer and composer in the magnificent 

series of piano concertos he premiered at his own 

subscription concerts, held during Lent and Advent and 

attended by the Viennese social and musical elite. 

Mozart entered the B flat Concerto, K456, in his thematic 

catalogue on 30 September 1784. While the evidence is not 

watertight, he seems to have intended the work not only for 

his own use but also for the blind pianist Maria Theresia 

Paradies to perform in Paris. Mozart probably introduced 

the concerto to the Viennese at a Lenten subscription concert 

on 13 February 1785. Three days later Leopold Mozart, 

visiting his son and daughter-in-law in their apartment in the 

most fashionable quarter of Vienna, described the event to 

his daughter Nannerl: ‘Your brother played a glorious 

concerto … I had the great pleasure of hearing all the 

interplay of the instruments so clearly that tears of sheer 

delight came to my eyes. When your brother left the stage the 

Emperor tipped his hat and called out “Bravo, Mozart!” and 

when he came on to play there was huge applause.’ 

Like all Mozart’s Viennese concertos, K456 is a wonderful 

amalgam of keyboard virtuosity, symphonic organisation 

and vivid operatic characterisation. The opening Allegro 


vivace begins with one of the composer’s favourite march 

gambits, though it is immediately apparent that these are toy 

soldiers. Mozart’s use of woodwind, as an independent 

group of ‘characters’, is especially piquant: and many of the 

movement’s playful, epigrammatic themes are fashioned as 

dialogues between wind and strings, and between the 

various members of the wind group. The diatonic chirpiness 

of the opening is offset by a louring chromatic passage in 

B flat minor, with the woodwind playing in gaunt octaves 

against stabbing accents from the strings. Typically, when 

Mozart brings back this passage in the solo exposition he 

makes it even more dramatic, with sweeping keyboard 

arpeggios. 

This momentary darkening of mood foreshadows the 

Andante second movement, a theme and five variations in 

Mozart’s favourite ‘pathetic’ key of G minor. The first three 

variations chart a gradual increase of tension; and in the 

third the forlorn piano entreats the implacable orchestra like 

some tragic operatic heroine. The fourth variation then turns 

to G major for a vision of pastoral innocence, coloured by 

luminous woodwind writing. The poignant coda equivocates 

between major and minor in a way it would be tempting to 

call Schubertian were it not equally characteristic of Mozart. 

Introspection is summarily banished by the finale, a 

boisterous 6/8 ‘hunting’ rondo whose main subject seems to 

mock the theme of the Andante. Midway through the 

movement Mozart springs the concerto’s biggest surprise, 

spiriting the music to an exotically remote B minor, and 

setting up a clash of metre, with the orchestra (first bassoon 

to the fore) playing in 2/4 against the soloist's 6/8 before 

roles are reversed. 

5


Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) 

Symphony No. 80 in D minor (1783–4) 

1 Allegro spiritoso 

2 Adagio 

3 Menuetto 

4 Finale: Presto 

During the 1780s Haydn led something of a double life as 

provincial Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Nicolaus 

Esterházy and an international celebrity whose symphonies, 

quartets and piano trios were in demand throughout 

northern Europe. Publishers in the 18th century liked to issue 

instrumental works in batches of three or six; and beginning 

with Nos 76–8 of 1782 – designed for an aborted visit to 

London – all Haydn’s later symphonies were written in sets 

for consumption beyond the Esterházy court. The triptych 

Nos 79–81 from 1783–4, published more or less 

simultaneously in Vienna, Paris and London, proved even 

more popular than the 1782 symphonies. With his by now 

shrewdly developed commercial sense, Haydn secured 

additional profit from sales to publishers in Lyon and Berlin, 

and, true to form, sold ‘exclusive’ manuscript copies to 

several patrons in Austria and Germany. Two of the 

symphonies (we do not know which) were performed at 

a concert of the Viennese Tonkünstler-Societät in March 

1785, in a programme that also included Mozart’s cantata 

Davide penitente. 

In sets of three or six symphonies and quartets it was 

customary to include one work in the minor key: Haydn’s No. 

83, ‘La poule’ in the Paris set (1785–6), and Mozart’s G minor 

Symphony No. 40 are cases in point. Whereas the flanking 

major-key symphonies of the 1783–4 triptych, Nos 79 and 81, 

are essentially popular in tone, the tensions inherent in the 

minor mode make No. 80 a more expressively complex work. 

No Haydn symphony movement juxtaposes the vehement 

and the flippant as disconcertingly as the opening Allegro 

spiritoso. For most of its course the exposition lives up to the 

expectations aroused by the turbulent opening theme, 

ground out by cellos and basses against frenzied violin 

6 

tremolos. Then, at the last moment, Haydn introduces a 

comically trivial Ländler tune that, but for its irregular 

phrasing (four plus three bars), could have drifted in from a 

Viennese beer garden. Despite a ferocious burst of activity 

from the main theme, the Ländler dominates the 

development, turning up in various remote keys (starting with 

D flat major) separated by quizzical silences. The 

recapitulation, as usual in late Haydn, radically reworks the 

events of the exposition, varying and developing the main 

theme before plunging to D major and giving the Ländler the 

last word, its phrasing now ‘normalised’ into four plus four 

bars. In the process a movement that had begun in strenuous 

Sturm und Drang mode ends in the utmost levity: just the kind 

of thing that offended po-faced North German critics during 

Haydn’s lifetime. 

The sonata-form Adagio, in B flat, also lives on extreme 

contrasts. Its serene, gracious opening melody is ruffled by 

an agitated tutti, with swirling sextuplets in second violins and 

violas. The development, beginning with the main theme in 

B flat minor and reaching an impassioned climax in G minor, 

rises to a higher pitch of dramatic intensity than any previous 

Haydn symphony slow movement. Back in D minor, the stern 

minuet (whose stalking theme distantly recalls the symphony’s 

opening) encloses a beautiful D major trio that sets an 

ancient Gregorian chant against a restless, chromatically 

inflected accompaniment. If the two middle movements are 

wholly serious, Haydn the humorist takes immediate control 

in the scintillating, quixotic finale. The syncopated opening, 

fashioned so that we do not initially hear it as syncopated, is 

one of the composer’s best rhythmic jokes. 

Programme notes © Richard Wigmore

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

Arias 

Idomeneo, K366 (1781) – Quando avran fine omai … Padre, germani, addio! 

Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio, K418 (1783) 

Ah! se in ciel, benigne stelle, K538 (1788) 


Mozart retained a love for the female voice throughout his 

life, often transferring his affections for the vocal qualities of 

his sopranos and mezzos to affairs of the heart – real or 

imaginary. The three Mozart arias we hear tonight were 

inspired by two very particular voices. In Idomeneo, his first 

great opera seria, the part of Ilia (a Trojan princess, 

imprisoned by Idomeneo, the King of Crete, and in love with 

Idomeneo’s son, Idamante) was written for Dorothea 

Wendling, half of a renowned sisterly singing duo (Elisabeth 

Wendling took the role of Elettra in the same work). Mozart 

had written other vocal pieces for them but this was the first 

opportunity to write at length. The recitative and aria, 

‘Quando avran fine omai … Padre, gemani, addio!’, is 

dramatically positioned straight after the fraught overture, so 

it’s the very first vocal utterance we hear and it immediately 

sets the tone – of the torment Ilia is suffering (and the evident 

virtuosity of Dorothea Wendling), in a recitative that concisely 

brings us up to speed with the background to the story, 

combining storytelling with high emotion, the music echoing 

the twists and turns as hate and love are portrayed. The 

anxiety of the recitative turns to sad resolution in the aria, as 

Ilia faces up to that eternal conflict (just think of Dido and 

Aeneas), between heart and head, love for an individual and 

loyalty to one’s family. It’s hardly surprising that Dorothea 

pronounced herself very happy with the role. 


The voice behind the aria ‘Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!’ was that 

of Aloysia Weber, with whose family Mozart had lodged in 

1778 and to whom he had declared his love. Unfortunately it 

was not reciprocated (she married the painter and actor 

Joseph Lange in 1780, while Mozart subsequently married 

her younger sister, Constanze). The aria was one of two he 

wrote for Aloysia for a revival of the deservedly forgotten 

opera Il curioso indiscreto (which translates roughly as ‘The 

nosy parker’), by Pasquale Anfossi. By all accounts, the revival 

was a flop with the exception of Mozart’s contributions. He 

audibly plays to Aloysia’s strengths: a brilliant upper register, 

delicacy of ornamentation and the ability to sustain a musical 

line, all qualities that contribute to the characterisation of 

Clorinda who, denying her love for the Count, implores him 

to return to Emilia – her rival for his affections. 

Laura Claycomb’s final vocal offering this evening, ‘Ah! se in 

ciel, benigne stelle’, was also originally intended for Aloysia 

Lange (née Weber) and sets words by the Italian poet and 

librettist Metastasio (1698–1782), whose texts Mozart drew on 

throughout his life. The extended nature of the aria – the tone 

set by a far from inconsequential orchestral tutti – and its 

stratospheric and agile vocal writing, coupled with its 

heartwrending sentiments, once again bear testimony to 

Aloysia’s prodigious talents, and must surely have brought 

the house down when she premiered it in1788. 

Programme note © Sharona Volcano 

7

text and translation 

Quando avran fine omai … Padre, germani, addio! 

Recitative 

Quando avran fine omai l’aspre sventure mie? 

Ilia infelice! Di tempesta crudel misero avanzo, 

del genitor e de’ germani priva, 

del barbaro nemico misto col sangue 

il sangue vittime generose, 

a qual sorte più rea ti riserbano i Numi? … 

Pur vendicaste voi di Priamo 

e di Troia i danni e l’onte? 

Perì la flotta Argiva, 

e Idomeneo pasto forse sarà d’orca vorace … 

ma che mi giova, oh ciel! 

se al primo aspetto di quel prode Idamante, 

che all’onde mi rapì, l’odio deposi, 

e pria fu schiavo il cor, 

che m’accorgessi d’essere prigioniera. 

Ah qual contrasto, oh Dio! 

d’opposti affetti mi destate nel sen odio, ed amore! 

Vendetta deggio a chi mi dié la vita, 

gratitudine a chi vita mi rende … 

oh Ilia! oh genitor! oh prence! oh sorte! 

oh vita sventurata! oh dolce morte! 

Ma che? m’ama Idamante? … 

ah no; l’ingrato per Elettra sospira, 

e quell’Elettra meschina principessa, esule d’Argo, 

d’Oreste alle sciagure a queste arene fuggitiva, 

raminga, è mia rivale. 

Quanti mi siete intorno carnefici spietati? … 

orsù sbranate vendetta, gelosia, odio, 

ed amore sbranate sì quest’infelice core! 

Aria 

Padre, germani, addio! 

Voi foste, io vi perdei. 

Grecia, cagion tu sei. 

E un greco adorerò? 

8 

When will my bitter misfortunes be ended? 

Unhappy Ilia, wretched survivor of a dreadful tempest, 

bereft of father and brothers, 

the victims’ blood spilt and mingled 

with the blood of their savage foes, 

for what harsher fate have the gods preserved you? 

Are the loss and shame 

of Priam and Troy avenged? 

The Greek fleet is destroyed 

and Idomeneo perhaps will be a meal for hungry fish … 

But what comfort is that to me, ye heavens, 

if at the first sight of that valiant Idamante, 

who snatched me from the waves, I forgot my hatred, 

and my heart was enslaved 

before I realised I was a prisoner. 

O God, what a conflict of warring emotions 

you rouse in my breast, hate and love! 

I owe vengeance to him who gave me life, 

gratitude to him who restored it … 

O Ilia! O father, O prince, O destiny! 

O ill-fated life, O sweet death! 

But yet does Idamante love me? 

Ah no; ungratefully he sighs for Electra; 

and that Electra, unhappy princess, an exile from Argos 

and the torments of Oresetes, who fled, 

a wanderer, to these shores, is my rival. 

Ruthless butchers, how many of you surround me? … 

Then up and shatter, vengeance, 

jealousy, hate and love; yes, shatter my unhappy heart! 

Father, brothers, farewell! 

You are no more; I have lost you. 

Greece, you are the cause; 

and shall I love a Greek?

D’ingrata al sangue mio 

So che la colpa avrei; 

Ma quel sembiante, oh Dei! 

Odiare ancor non so. 

Padre, germani, addio, etc. 

Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio! 

Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio! 

Qual è l’affanno mio; 

Ma mi condanna il fato 

A piangere e tacer. 

Arder non può il mio core 

Per chi vorrebbe amore 

E fa che cruda io sembri, 

Un barbaro dover. 

Ah conte, partite, correte, 

Fuggite, lontano da me. 

La vostra diletta Emilia v’aspetta, 

Languir non la fate, 

È degna d’amor. 

Ah stelle spietate! 

Nemiche mi siete. 

Mi perdo s’ei resta, oh Dio, Mi perdo. 

Ah, conte, partite … 

Partite, correte, d’amor non parlate, 

È vostro il suo cor. 

Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle 

Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle, 

La pietà non è smarrita, 

O toglietemi la vita, 

O lasciatemi il mio ben. 

Voi, che ardete ognor sì belle 

Del mio ben nel dolce aspetto, 

Proteggete il puro affetto 

Che inspirate a questo sen. 

I know that I am guilty 

of abandoning my kin; 

but I cannot bring myself, 

O gods, to hate that face. 

Father, brothers, farewell, etc. 

I would like to explain to you, oh God, 

how great is my anguish! 

Fate, however, condemns me 

to weep and keep silent. 

My heart cannot burn 

for him who would desire love 

and a pitiless duty 

makes me appear cruel. 

Alas, Count, part from me, hurry, 

flee far from me. 

Your beloved Emilia awaits you, 

don’t keep her languishing, 

she is worthy of love. 

Alas, pitiless stars! 

You are hostile to me. 

I am lost if he remains, oh God! I am lost. 

Ah, Count, part from me. 

Part from me, hurry, do not talk of love, 

her heart is yours. 

Ah, kind stars, if Heaven 

has not abandoned mercy, 

then take my life from me, 

or let me keep my beloved. 

You, who always shine so brightly 

on my darling’s sweet face, 

protect the pure affection 

which you inspire in that heart. 

text and translation 

9

Pascal Gély 

about the performers 

About tonight’s performers 

Jonathan Cohen conductor 

Jonathan Cohen was born in 

Manchester in 1977. In demand as a 

cellist, conductor and keyboard player, 

his repertoire ranges from the Baroque 

to contemporary music. 

He began his solo career as a cellist, 

performing with the Orchestra of the 

Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia 

Orchestra, Scottish Chamber 

Orchestra and The King’s Consort, 

and today he continues to give 

concerts as a cellist with the London 

Haydn Quartet. 

In recent years Jonathan Cohen has 

turned increasingly to conducting, 

studying with Nicholas Kraemer and 

Vladimir Jurowski and specialising in 

the Baroque and Classical repertoires. 

Building on his experience of early 

music (which goes back to his student 

10 

Laurence Mullenders 

years in Cambridge), he conducted 10 

performances of The Fairy Queen at 

the Théâtre d’Aix-la-Chapelle in 2006. 

He regularly assists William Christie 

(Idomeneo, The Creation, Rameau’s 

Les Paladins and Handel’s L’Allegro, il 

Penseroso ed il Moderato) and since 

2008 he has shared the conducting of 

several productions with him, notably 

Hérold’s Zampa and Purcell’s The 

Fairy Queen. He is also in regular 

demand as assistant conductor to 

Emmanuelle Haïm. 

This season Jonathan Cohen conducts 

Les Arts Florissants in Dido and 

Aeneas, Actéon and The Fairy Queen 

in Amsterdam, Paris and New York. 


Native Texan Laura Claycomb, known 

for her delicacy, refinement and 

theatricality in high-flying repertoire, is 

one of the world’s foremost lyric 

coloraturas. Following concurrent 

degrees in Music and Foreign 

Languages at Southern Methodist 

University and a subsequent 

apprenticeship with San Francisco 

Opera, she made her European debut 

as Giulietta (I Capuleti e I Montecchi) in 

Geneva, reprising it in Paris, Los 

Angeles and Munich. She has 

subsequently garnered acclaim as 

Gilda (Rigoletto) in Houston, Toronto, 

Paris, Lausanne, Tel Aviv, Santiago de 

Chile and Bilbao; Cleopatra (Giulio 

Cesare) in Houston, Drottningholm 

and Montpellier; and the title-roles of 

Lucia di Lammermoor in Houston, Tel 

Aviv, Seoul and Moscow, and La Fille 

du Régiment in San Francisco, Turin, 

Houston and Rome. Other signature 

roles include Linda di Chamounix, 

Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Anne 

Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Amanda 

(Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre), 

Morgana (Alcina), Adèle (Le comte 

Ory), Ophélie (Thomas’s Hamlet) and 

the creation of Queen Wealtheow in 

Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel. 

She also regularly performs in concert 

with leading conductors and 

orchestras.

Fourth Symphony with Michael Tilson 

Thomas and the San Francisco 

Symphony, Le Grand Macabre under 

Esa-Pekka Salonen, a disc of Handel 

duets directed by Emmanuelle Haïm, 

Vaughan Williams’s Sir John in Love 

with Richard Hickox, two recordings 

of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, under 

Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Colin 

Davis, and recordings of lesser-known 

operas by Meyerbeer, Balfe, Pacini 

and Thomas. 

Marco Borggreve Her recordings include Mahler’s 


Kristian Bezuidenhout was born in 

South Africa in 1979 and his teachers 

included Malcolm Bilson, Paul O’Dette 

and Robert Levin. He won First Prize 

and the Audience Prize in the 2001 

Bruges Fortepiano Competition. 

He regularly performs on fortepiano, 

harpsichord and modern piano in 

North America, Europe, Australia and 

Asia. Among the festivals at which he 

has appeared are those of Barcelona, 

Boston, Bruges, Esterhaza, Utrecht, St 

Petersburg, Vermont, Venice and West 

Cork. He is currently professor of the 

Eastman School of Music and in Basle. 

His recordings include solo fortepiano 

works and violin sonatas by Mozart, 

Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, and 

Bach concertos with Daniel Hope. 

Highlights of last season include a tour 

with Frans Brüggen and the Orchestra 

of the 18th Century, performing 

Mozart’s late piano concertos. This 

season he plays concertos with the 

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, goes on 

tour with the Royal Concertgebouw 

Orchestra, conducted by Ton 

Koopman, performs and records 

Schumann’s Dichterliebe with Mark 

Padmore and takes part in the 2010 

Holland Festival, where he will be 

playing from Bach’s 48. 


about the performers 

The renowned vocal and instrumental 

ensemble Les Arts Florissants was 

founded in 1979 by William Christie, 

and takes its name from an opera by 

Marc-Antoine Charpentier. 

Since the acclaimed production of Atys 

by Lully at the Opéra Comique in Paris 

in 1987, it has been in the field of opera 

where Les Arts Florissants has found 

most success. Notable productions 

include works by Rameau (Les Indes 

galantes in 1990 and 1999, Hippolyte 

et Aricie in 1996, Les Boréades in 2003, 

Les Paladins in 2004), Charpentier 

(Médée in 1993 and 1994), Handel 

(Orlando in 1993, Acis and Galatea in 

1996, Semele in 1996, Alcina in 1999, 

Hercules in 2004 and 2006), Purcell 

(King Arthur in 1995, Dido and Aeneas 

in 2006), Mozart (The Magic Flute in 

1994, Die Entführung aus dem Serail at 

the Opéra du Rhin in 1995) and 

Monteverdi (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria 

at Aix-en-Provence in 2000, revived in 

2002, L’incoronazione di Poppaea in 

2005, and L’Orfeo at the Teatro Real 

de Madrid in 2008). 

Les Arts Florissants has an equally high 

profile in the concert hall, giving 

concert performances of operas 

(Zoroastre and Les fêtes d’Hébé by 

11

about the performers & player list 

Rameau, Idomenée by Campra, 

Jephté by Montéclair and L’Orfeo by 

Rossi), as well as secular chamber 

works (Actéon, Les plaisirs de 

Versailles and La descente d’Orphée 

aux Enfers by Charpentier and Dido 

and Aeneas by Purcell) and sacred 

music (grands motets by Rameau, 

Mondonville and Desmarest) and 

Handel oratorios. 

The ensemble has an impressive 

discography of over 70 CD recordings, 

most recently Haydn’s The Creation. Its 

most recent DVD is Il Sant’Alessio by 

Stefano Landi, filmed at the Théâtre de 

Caen, where, for the past 15 years, the 

ensemble has been artist-in-residence. 

Les Arts Florissants also tours widely 

within France, and is a frequent 

ambassador for French culture 

abroad, regularly appearing at the 

Brooklyn Academy, the Lincoln Center 

in New York, the Barbican Centre and 

the Vienna Festival. 

Les Arts Florissants receive financial 

support from the Ministry of Culture and 

Communication, the City of Caen and the 

Région Basse-Normandie. Their sponsor is 

Imerys. Les Arts Florissants are artists in 

residence at the Théâtre de Caen. 

12 


Musical Director 

William Christie 

Executive Manager 

Luc Bouniol-Laffont 

Tonight’s Conductor 

Jonathan Cohen 

Orchestra 

Violin I 

Nadja Zwiener leader 

Bernadette Charbonnier 

Martha Moore 

Benjamin Scherer 

Satomi Watanabe 

Violin II 

Catherine Girard 

Sophie Gevers-Demoures 

Michèle Sauvé 

George Willms 

Viola 

Galina Zinchenko 

Lucia Peralta 

Jean-Luc Thonnerieux 

Cello 

David Simpson 

Damien Launay 

Alix Verzier 

Double Bass 

Jonathan Cable 

Joseph Carver 

Flute 

Charles Zebley 

Serge Saitta 

Oboe 

Pier Luigi Fabretti 

Michel Henry 

Bassoon 

Claude Wassmer 

Philippe Piat 

Horn 

Helen MacDougall 

Benjamin Locher

Les Arts Florissants - Barbican

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