VÉRONIQUE GENS
Passion
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Sunday
10
Sep 2023
Sunday, September 10, 2023
15:00
Concert

VÉRONIQUE GENS

Passion

Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas | Ensemble Les Surprises

Ordenskirche St. Georgen

Duration approx. one hour, no break.

Whether afflicted mothers, unhappy lovers, abandoned or raging women – on the opera stage we are constantly meeting strong female figures who defy their fate, sometimes heroic, sometimes silent and self-denying, but always self-assured and ready to suffer. The prominent French soprano Véronique Gens devotes this programme to these complex and stout-hearted operatic heroines in a very special way: together with the young ensemble Les Surprises and its artistic director Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, she has compiled a pasticcio opera out of works by leading French composers which sounds out the complex range of emotions between passion, bitter complaint, jealousy and desire for revenge. The programme was released on CD in 2021 and demands the ingenious and charismatic role interpretations that have propelled Veronique Gens and her vocal art to the top of the contemporary Baroque scene.

At the hub of this highly emotional pasticcio we meet not only the grand protagonists of Jean-Batiste Lully but also Marc Antoine Charpentier‘s Médée and figures from lesser-known works – some never previous published – by such composers as Henry Desmarest, André Cardinal Destouches, Pascal Collasse, François Rebel and François Francœur.

Shuttle included: Departure at 02.15 p.m. Wölfelstr. 4 at the Iwalewahaus (approx. 50 metres from the Opera House) and back after the concert

 

Programme

 

ACT I
MALHEUREUSE MÈRE

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687)
Overture from Persée LWV 60

Henry Desmarets (1661–1741)
“Désirs, transports”
Aria from Circée

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Air II from Proserpine LWV 58

Entrée des Bretons
Passepied from Ballet du temple de la paix LWV 69

“Ô malheureuse mère”
Aria and Chorus from Proserpine LWV 58

“Que tout se ressente de la fureur que je sens”
Aria and Chorus Proserpine LWV 58

 

ACT II
ARMIDE ABANDONNÉE

Jean-Baptiste Lully
“Enfin il est en ma puissance“
Aria from Armide LWV 71

André Cardinal Destouches (1672–1749)
Air pour les néréides – Air pour les divinités
from Les Eléments S.153

Jean-Baptiste Lully
“Espoir si cher et si doux”
Aria from Atys LWV 53

Dieux des Enfers
Sarabande from Ballet de la naissance de Vénus LWV 27

Canaries from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme LWV 43

 

ACT III
L’APPEL DES ENFERS

Jean-Baptiste Lully
“Toi qui dans ce tombeau”
Aria from Amadis LWV 63

Prélude aus Amadis LWV 63

Pascal Collasse (1649–1709)
“Calme tes déplaisirs”
Aria from Achille et Polyxène

Tempête from Thétis et Pélée

 

ACT IV
TRANQUILLE SOMMEIL, FUNESTE MORT

Jean-Baptiste Lully
“Voici le favorable temps”
Air de La Nuit from Le Triomphe de l’Amour LWV 59

Henry Desmarets
Chœur du Sommeil from La Diane de Fontainebleau

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Pompe Funèbre from Alceste LWV 50

“La mort, la mort barbare”
Aria and Chorus from Alceste LWV 50

 

ACT V
MÉDÉE FURIEUSE

André Cardinal Destouches
Air pour les heures from Les Eléments S.153

François Rebel (1701–1775) / François Francœur (1698–1787)
Musette et Sarabande from Le Ballet de la Paix

Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704)
“Quel prix de mon amour”
Aria from Médée H.491

“Noires filles du styx”
Aria and Chorus from Médée H.491

François Rebel / François Francœur
Air pour les esprits malfaisants from Le ballet de la Paix

 

Véronique Gens Soprano
Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas Musical Director, Harpsichord and Organ
Ensemble Les Surprises

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