Concert information
Info
A perfect start to our Baroque Weekend – with one of the world’s leading early music ensembles. Les Arts Florissants has captivated audiences for over 45 years with its fresh and dynamic style. The secret? “No routine,” says founder and conductor William Christie. The programme focuses on vocal and instrumental music by George Frideric Handel, a master of melodic beauty. The evening’s centerpiece is the pastoral cantata Aminta e Fillide, in which a shepherd determinedly courts a reluctant nymph – an ideal context for expressive arias and duets.
Artists
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie harpsichord and direction
Ana Vieira Leite soprano
Shakèd Bar mezzo-soprano
Programme
George Frideric Handel
Trio Sonata in C minor, HWV 386a
George Frideric Handel
“No, di voi non vo' fidarmi”, Duet, HWV 189
George Frideric Handel
Trio Sonata in B flat major, HWV 388
George Frideric Handel
Aminta e Fillide, Cantata, HWV 83
Additional information
Duration ca. 1 hour and 30 minutes
Chamber Music Hall
22 to 52 €
Introduction
19:15
Remaining tickets are available by telephone via +49 30 254 88-999 or at the box office.
Pomp and circumstance
The Baroque – an age of superlatives
Golden, ornate, with magnificent façades – this is often our first impression of the Baroque. Yet behind the glittering surfaces of an era that stretched from the early 17th to the mid-18th century lies a world brimming with artistic curiosity, technical innovation, and striking contrasts.
Biography
William Christie
William Christie – harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist and educator – is one of the leading artistic figures of the historically informed performance movement. It is no surprise that among his students are such illustrious names as Christophe Rousset, Hervé Niquet and Emmanuelle Haïm. Born in Buffalo, New York, Christie studied at Harvard and Yale universities and, under the influence of his teacher Ralph Kirkpatrick, developed an interest in French musical culture. In 1971 he moved to Paris, where, eight years later, he founded the early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants, with which he became a pioneer in the field of Baroque music.
Through his research into historical source material, he unearthed countless treasures that had previously lain unnoticed in libraries and collections around the world. William Christie has recorded, among other works, the complete harpsichord oeuvre, several operas, and the Grands Motets by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Further releases – many of them recipients of major international awards – include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and King Arthur, Charpentier’s La Déscente d’Orphée aux enfers and Les Plaisirs de Versailles, Handel’s Orlando, Landi’s Il Sant’Alessio, as well as Couperin’s Leçons de ténèbres. A French citizen since 1995, Christie is a member of the Légion d’honneur and the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Ana Vieira Leite
From violin student to stage star: “It was only at the age of 15 that I discovered – thanks to a singing teacher with a very attentive ear – that I had an interesting timbre and could combine the best of music and theatre,” recalls Ana Vieira Leite. Success soon followed. The young Portuguese soprano was soon winning competitions, and made a name for herself. After studying at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo in Porto and completing her degree at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, she became a member of William Christie’s renowned academy Le Jardin des Voix in 2021. Her collaboration with Cappella Mediterranea also gave her career a further boost. “The stage is the best school,” she says.
These two ensembles in particular, she explains, offered her an ideal education in Baroque and Renaissance music. While bel canto had been the focus during her university studies, today the soprano specialises in early music, winning acclaim for her crystal-clear voice and compelling stage presence. A growing online community also follows her performances on social media. Most recently, under the baton of William Christie, she made her debut at the Opéra de Paris as Créuse in Charpentier’s Médée – “the most splendid Paris Opera debut I have seen this season,” wrote a critic from Opera Wire. Ana Vieira Leite is also a founding member of O Bando de Surunyo, an ensemble specialising in music of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Shakèd Bar
When Shakèd Bar made her New York debut as Fillide in a production of Handel’s cantata Aminta e Fillide conducted by William Christie, The New York Times praised her as “a voice of exceptional vitality and presence.” The mezzo-soprano from Jerusalem, who has won several prestigious competitions, has also enjoyed success in a wide range of roles – for example as Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and (while still completing her master’s degree at the Juilliard School) as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
This last production was enthusiastically received, not only in New York, but also in Versailles, London and Athens. Shakèd Bar completed her bachelor’s degree in voice at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She then worked in Venice with vocal coach Sherman Lowe and continued her studies in Berlin for two years. On the strength of her performance in a production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte conducted by Fabio Luisi, the conductor immediately engaged her for the soprano part in Mozart’s Requiem. Shakèd Bar has also appeared with Accademia Bizantina in Vivaldi’s Il Tamerlano and Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, and performed as Mrs. Meg Page in Falstaff at the Verdi Festival in Parma.
Les Arts Florissants
The “formidable Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) was founded in 1979 by William Christie. The vocal and instrumental ensemble has done more than almost any other group to revive the long-forgotten French Baroque repertoire of tragédie lyrique and opéra-ballet from the 17th and 18th centuries: from Lully, Charpentier and Rameau to works by Campra, Montéclair, Couperin and Mondonville. Ever since their legendary debut at the Opéra Comique in Paris with Jean-Baptiste Lully’s tragédie en musique Atys, the performances of Les Arts Florissants have ranked among the finest achievements in the rediscovery of Baroque musical theatre.
The ensemble, however, is not devoted exclusively to French Baroque opera. It attracts just as much attention with rediscovered sacred and secular vocal works, as well as with occasional ventures into Viennese Classicism – part of a longstanding tradition of research and innovation that the ensemble’s two artistic directors, William Christie and Paul Agnew, continue to cultivate with great dedication. In addition to its international tours, Les Arts Florissants can be heard in France each season in around 100 concerts and opera productions – at the Philharmonie, the Opéra Comique and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, at the Théâtre de Caen, at the Palace of Versailles, and at numerous festivals.
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