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Vivaldi
L’oracolo in Messenia
concert performance
Friday 20 February 2015 7pm, Hall
Emile Ashley
Europa Galante
Fabio Biondi director/violin
Magnus Staveland Polifonte
Marianne Beate Kielland Merope
Vivica Genaux Epitide
Marina de Liso Emira
Julia Lezhneva Trasimede
Franziska Gottwald Licisco
Rupert Enticknap Anassandro
There will be two intervals of 20 minutes
following Acts 1 and 2
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About the
performers
Simon Fowler
of Venice and a Choc de la Musique; this was
soon followed by many other awards, including
Diapasons d’Or and Gramophone awards and,
in 2006, their recording of Vivaldi’s opera Bajazet
was nominated for a Grammy.
Fabio Biondi
Fabio Biondi director/violin
Born in Palermo, Fabio Biondi began his
international career at an early age. Driven by
a deep cultural curiosity, he was introduced to
pioneers of the new approach to Baroque music,
an opportunity that was to change the direction
of his career. Since then, he has performed with
period-instrument ensembles including Cappella
Real, Musica Antiqua Wien, Il Seminario Musicale,
La Chapelle Royale and Les Musiciens du Louvre. In 1990, he founded Europa Galante, a group
which, thanks to its concerts and awardwinning recordings, rapidly became the most
internationally renowned of Italian Baroque
ensembles. It has been invited to play at leading
festivals and concert halls around the world,
including La Scala in Milan, the Accademia
Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Suntory Hall
in Tokyo, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the
Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musikverein in
Vienna, the Lincoln Center in New York and the
Sydney Opera House.
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Their first recording of Vivaldi concertos won
Fabio Biondi and his group the Premio Cini
Fabio Biondi’s musical interests span three
centuries, taking in established composers and
long-forgotten figures. This is illustrated in his
varied discography, which includes Vivaldi’s
The Four Seasons, Corelli’s Concerti grossi, the
oratorios, serenatas and operas of Alessandro
Scarlatti, Handel operas, and the 18th-century
Italian violin repertoire (Veracini, Vivaldi, Locatelli,
Tartini), as well as sonatas by Bach, Schubert and
Schumann. Central to his music-making is a desire
to create performances that are authentic but
free from dogmatism. To this end, he collaborates
as conductor and soloist with a wide variety of
orchestras, including the Santa Cecilia in Rome,
Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, European
Baroque Orchestra, Halle Opera, the Mahler
and Zurich Chamber orchestras, Chamber
Orchestra of Norway and Orchestre National
of Montpellier.
He also performs in duo with piano, harpsichord
and fortepiano at prestigious venues around the
world, including the Cité de la Musique in Paris,
Hogi Hall in Tokyo, Auditorio Nacional de Música
in Madrid and the Wigmore Hall. Since 2005 he
has been artistic director for Baroque music at
the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and, since
2011, has been an academician at the Accademia
Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Fabio Biondi plays an Andrea Guarneri violin
from 1686. He also plays a 1766 Ferdinando
Gagliano violin, owned by his teacher Salvatore
Cicero and kindly lent to him by the Salvatore
Cicero Foundation in Palermo.
Forthcoming highlights include appearances at
La Monnaie, Norwegian National Opera, Perm
State Opera and Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
About the performers
Kraemer, Andrew Manze, Marc Minkowski,
Juan Bautista Otero, Andrew Parrott, George
Petrou, Christophe Rousset, Jukka-Pekka Saraste,
Federico Maria Sardelli and Marc Soustrot.
Magnus Staveland
His operatic roles include Tamino (The Magic
Flute), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ferrando
(Così fan tutte), Evandre (Gluck’s Alceste),
Medoro (Haydn’s Orlando Paladino), Aret
(Haydn’s Philemon und Baucis), the titlerole in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica, Lucano
(L’incoronazione di Poppea), Telemaco (Il ritorno
d’Ulisse in patria), Jupiter (Gounod’s Philémon et
Baucis) and La Natura and Pane (Cavalli’s
La Calisto).
Magnus Staveland is also much sought-after
as a concert and oratorio singer and regularly
appears at leading venues and festivals
throughout Europe. He has built an unusually
broad concert repertoire, spanning works from
the early 17th century to the present day. Much
of his time is devoted to new music and he has
participated in a number of world premieres.
He has worked with conductors such as
Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, Ivor Bolton,
Alessandro De Marchi, Rafael Frühbeck de
Burgos, René Jacobs, Alexander Joel, Nicholas
Marianne Beate Kielland
Marianne Beate Kielland Merope
The Norwegian mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate
Kielland regularly works with conductors such
as Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi, Philippe
Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, René Jacobs,
Marc Minkowski, Vasily Petrenko, Daniel Reuss,
Helmut Rilling, Christophe Rousset, Federico
Maria Sardelli, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki and
Robin Ticciati.
She frequently appears in major concert halls
and at festivals throughout Europe and Japan.
She has built a wide repertoire that spans music
from Monteverdi, via Bach, Handel, Mozart,
Beethoven, Mahler and Schoenberg, to Cage
and Stockhausen.
Recent highlights have included the Messenger
and Proserpine (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo) and
Piacere (Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del
disinganno) at the Norwegian National Opera;
Apollo (Handel’s Terpsichore) in Brussels,
Versailles, Malta and Caen; Storgé (Handel’s
Jephtha), Fernando (Ariosti’s La fede ne’
tradimenti) in Siena and Montpellier; and
concerts of Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, Brahms’s Alto
Rhapsody, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, Mahler’s
Symphony No 8 and Das Lied von der Erde and,
3
The Norwegian tenor Magnus Staveland has
appeared at opera houses and festivals such
as La Scala, Milan, La Fenice in Venice, Teatro
del Maggio Musicale in Florence, Teatro
Regio in Turin, Teatro Real Madrid, Staatsoper
Berlin, Opéra Garnier in Paris, Opéra du Rhin
in Strasbourg, Opéra Garnier in Monaco,
La Monnaie in Brussels, Vlaamse Opera in
Antwerp, Royal Swedish Opera, Norwegian
National Opera, Royal Danish Opera and the
Aix-en-Provence and Innsbruck festivals.
Espen Mortensen
Magnus Staveland Polifonte
most frequently; Bach’s St Matthew Passion in
Paris, Lyon, Lorient, Vézelay, Cologne, Zurich,
Bodø, Oslo and Kristiansand.
roles in Ariodante, Arminio and Giulio Cesare.
She has sung at major opera houses throughout
Europe and beyond, including those of Berlin,
Bilbao, Brussels, Caen, Cracow, Innsbruck, Lisbon,
London, Madrid, Montpellier, Palermo, Paris,
Strasbourg, Venice, Vienna, Dallas, Minneapolis,
Pittsburgh, San Diego and Washington.
She has made more than 40 recordings of
oratorios, operas, cantatas and songs by Bach,
Handel, Vivaldi, Caldara, Scarlatti, Beethoven,
Schumann, Mussorgsky, Martin, Chausson,
Korngold, Suppé, Schoenberg, Webern,
Berg and Sigurd Islandsmoen. In 2012 she
was nominated for a Grammy for her album
Veslemøy Synsk, which features works by Grieg
and Olav Anton Thommessen.
Harry Heleotis
Equally in demand on the concert platform, she
has sung with La Cetra under Andrea Marcon,
Les Talens Lyriques under Christophe Rousset,
Cappella della Pietà Turchini under Antonio
Florio, Concerto Köln, Venice Baroque Orchestra,
Les Agrémens, Cappella Gabetta, the Basle
and Munich Chamber orchestras, New York
Chamber Symphony, Orchestre National de
France, Toulouse Capitole Orchestra, Bamberg
Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic.
She has also appeared at festivals in Prague,
Lanaudière, Montpellier, Antibes, San Remo,
Ravello, New York, Rheingau, St Denis, Buenos
Aires, Moscow, Salzburg and, in Alaska, at
Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.
Recent and forthcoming projects include concerts
with Europa Galante at the Reate Festival in
Italy, Veracini’s Adriano in Siria in Valencia and
Madrid and the current tour of Vivaldi’s L’oracolo
in Messenia; in addition she gives a concert
tour with Simone Kermes entitled ‘Rivalries’ and
performs in Giulio Cesare with Opera Fuoco in
Shanghai and Alcina in Moscow.
Vivica Genaux
Vivica Genaux Epitide
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She is particularly associated with the Rossini
roles of Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Angelina
(La Cenerentola) and Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri),
which she has performed more than 200 times
all over the world. Other roles have included
Malcolm (La donna del lago), Pippo (The Thieving
Magpie), Orisini (Lucrezia Borgia), Arsace
(Semiramide), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi),
Bradamante (Alcina), Marc’Antonio (Hasse’s
Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra), Sesto (Giulio Cesare),
Semilo (Hasse’s Solimano), Irene (Il Bajazet),
Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Juno and Ino (Semele),
Polinesso (Ariodante), Nerone (Domenico
Scarlatti’s Ottavia restituita al trono), Piacere (Il
trionfo del tempo e del disinganno) and the title-
Ribalta Luce Studio
Alaska-born mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux is
consistently praised for her compelling character
portrayals, allied to strong technical command
and the beauty of her distinctive voice. She is
regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of
Baroque and bel canto repertoire.
Marina de Liso
Marina de Liso Emira
Mezzo-soprano Marina de Liso studied singing
at the Conservatory of Rovigo, furthering
her studies at the Music School of Milan,
In concert she has performed with Accademia
Montis Regalis, La Venexiana, Accademia
Bizantina, Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia, The English Concert, Europa Galante,
Le Concert des Nations, Le Concert d’Astrée,
Academy of Ancient Music, Ensemble Matheus
and Il Giardino Armonico, among others.
Marina de Liso has made several recordings
for leading labels. Among them are Handel’s
Faramondo, an award-winning L’Orfeo with La
Venexiana, Saint-Saëns’s cantatas with Hervé
Niquet and J C Bach’s Zanaïda with Opera
Fuoco under David Stern.
Recent and future engagements include the
Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) in Verona under
Stefano Montanari; Euryclée (Fauré’s Pénélope)
at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Cornelia
(Giulio Cesare) under Dantone; Vivaldi’s Dorilla
in Tempe under Fasolis; Isabella (L’italiana in
Algeri) in Vichy and Verona; and Ragonde at
La Scala with Juan Diego Flórez.
About the performers
Julia Lezhneva
Julia Lezhneva Trasimede
The Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva first came
to the world’s attention at the age of 17 when
she won the sixth Elena Obraztsova International
Competition. Having earned an honours degree
in vocal studies and a piano diploma from the
Moscow Conservatory, she then studied at the
Cardiff International Academy of Voice under the
guidance of Dennis O’Neill and at the Guildhall
School of Music & Drama under Yvonne Kenny.
At the age of 18, she shared the concert stage
with Juan Diego Flórez at the opening of the
2008 Rossini Opera Festival under Alberto
Zedda, as well as making her first professional
recording (for Naïve) performing in Bach’s
B minor Mass with Les Musiciens du Louvre
under Marc Minkowski. Her critically acclaimed
discography also features Rossini arias (released
by Naïve in 2011) and, for Decca, for whom she
is now an exclusive artist, Handel’s Alessandro
and the award-winning solo disc Alleluia, under
Giovanni Antonini.
Highlights last season included the role of
Rossane in Alessandro in concert performances
in Budapest, Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna with
Armonia Atenea under George Petrou. She also
gave solo concerts with Il Giardino Armonico
in Bilbao, Vienna, Zagreb, here at the Barbican
Centre, Valladolid and at the Handel Festival in
Halle.
She has appeared in recital with pianist
Mikhail Antonenko at St Petersburg’s Great
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Baroque music is another focus of her career
and in the past two years she has performed
the following Handel roles: Arsace (Partenope)
in Ferrara and Modena, conducted by
Ottavio Dantone; Rosimonda (Faramondo)
on tour with Diego Fasolis (which they also
recorded); Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) in Genoa;
Andronico (Tamerlano) with Emmanuelle Haïm
at theThéâtre des Champs-Élysées; Medoro
(Orlando); Claudio (Silla) under Fabio Biondi in
Santa Cecilia in Rome; and Fileno (Clori, Tirsi
e Fileno) in Hanover under Andreas Spering.
She has also sung operas by Vivaldi, Cavalli,
Pergolesi, Domenico Scarlatti and Hasse.
Decca
specialising in Renaissance and Baroque
singing under Claudine Ansermet. In 2001 she
made her debut as Mistress Quickly (Falstaff).
Since then her roles have included Alcina
(Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso), Isabella (L’italiana
in Algeri), Marchesa Melibea (Il viaggio a
Reims), Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro),
Annio (La clemenza di Tito), Ragonde (Le
comte Ory) and Flaminia (Gluck’s L’innocenza
giustificata), which she has also recorded.
Philharmonic Hall, Moscow’s Pushkin Museum
of Fine Arts, Pamplona’s Teatro Gayarre and
the Girona Auditorium. Other highlights include
her Australian debut, participation in the Elena
Obraztsova Anniversary Gala in Moscow,
performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat mater with
Philippe Jaroussky under Diego Fasolis and
I Barocchisti, and a tour with the Helsinki Baroque
Orchestra under Aapo Häkkinen.
performed Licida (Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade) and
Fernando (Vivaldi’s Motezuma).
In concert she has worked with prominent
conductors, including Herbert Blomstedt,
Reinhard Goebel, Ton Koopman, Fabio Luisi
and Andrea Marcon, among many others.
Her repertoire includes Mozart’s C minor
Mass, Verdi’s Requiem, Berlioz’s Les nuits
d’été and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and
she has also appeared in solo-aria evenings
with orchestras at international festivals, the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Berlin
Philharmonie. Orchestras with which she has
worked include the Amsterdam and Venice
Baroque orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Musica Antiqua Köln, Akademie
für Alte Musik, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.
Later this season Julia Lezhneva makes her debut
at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as
Zerlina in Don Giovanni.
Tom Ray
Franziska Gottwald’s recordings include
Vivaldi’s L’oracolo in Messenia, Handel’s
Samson under Nicolas McGegan,
Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Salieri‘s La passione
under Christoph Spering and the complete
Brahms duets with Letizia Scherrer and Ferenc
Bognár. She also appears on several volumes
of Koopman’s Bach cantata cycle and in Bach’s
Epiphany cantatas directed by Eric Milnes.
Franziska Gottwald
Franziska Gottwald Licisco
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Recent and future role debuts include Dafne
(Hasse’s Leucippo) at the Schwetzingen
Festival; Elpina (Vivaldi’s La fida ninfa) in
Amsterdam and Madrid; and Orfeo (Gluck’s
Orfeo ed Euridice) at the Staatstheater
Wiesbaden. She made her debut as Prince
Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) at Stuttgart’s
Staatstheater in 2010; as Sesto (La clemenza
di Tito) at Cologne Opera in 2011; and in the
title-role of Ariodante in Basle in 2012, the
same year that she sang Ruggiero (Alcina) in
Cologne. In Basle she has also appeared as
Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) and Alcina
(Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso). At the International
Göttingen Handel Festival she sang Erissena
(Poro) and Irene (Tamerlano). On DVD she has
Maximilian Fuhrig
German mezzo-soprano Franziska Gottwald
won First Prize at the Leipzig Bach Competition
in 2002.
Rupert Enticknap
Rupert Enticknap Anassandro
British countertenor Rupert Enticknap was a
chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, and
held choral scholarships at Wells Cathedral
and King’s College, London, where he gained
His roles include the title-role in Riccardo
Primo and Unulfo (Rodelinda) at the London
Handel Festival; Arasse (Hasse’s Siroe, re
di Persia) and Apollo (Vinci’s Il Medo) with
Ensemble Serse; Ottone (L’incoronazione di
Poppea) at the Innsbruck Festival; and Ascalax
(Telemann’s Orpheus) with Classical Opera. He
also appeared in the world premiere of Max
Richter’s Sum for ROH2 at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden.
He has sung Bach’s B minor Mass with
Ensemble Prisma Wien, the St Matthew Passion
in Exeter and Winchester Cathedrals, Handel’s
Solomon at Linz Brucknerhaus and Dido and
Aeneas at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with
Collegium Vocale Gent.
He has worked with renowned conductors,
including Jean-Christophe Spinosi, René
Jacobs, Christophe Rousset, Rubén Dubrovsky,
Alan Curtis, Laurence Cummings, Ian Page,
Erwin Ortner and Heinz Ferlesch.
Recent and future projects include a tour with
the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (alongside
Carolyn Sampson), Cavalli’s L’Ormindo at
the Globe Theatre, Handel’s Jephtha under
Ottavio Dantone, and Messiah in Spain. He
will also be performing various Baroque
programmes in Spain and France.
Europa Galante
Europa Galante was founded in 1990 by its
musical director Fabio Biondi who wanted to
form an Italian period-instrument ensemble to
perform both Baroque and Classical repertoire. The ensemble’s repertoire includes the operas
of Handel, such as Agrippina and Imeneo, as
well as Vivaldi, including Bazajet, Ercole sul
Termodonte and L’oracolo in Messenia, and
many pre-18th-century instrumental works. The
group is also widely known for its performances
of the works of Alessandro Scarlatti, including the
oratorios Maddalena and La Santissima Trinità,
the serenatas Clori and Dorino e Amore, and the
operas Massimo Puppieno, Il trionfo dell’onore,
La principessa fedele and Carlo re d’Allemagna.
About the performers
a first-class degree in music. Studying as the
David Laing Scholar with Russell Smythe at
the Royal College of Music, he was awarded
a distinction in his Masters Degree. He was
winner of the Opera and Lieder prizes at the
2013 Stella Maris Competition and winner
of a special prize at the Pietro Antonio Cesti
International Singing Competition for Baroque
Opera.
Europa Galante collaborates regularly with
the Fondazione Santa Cecilia in Rome to
rediscover and revive 18th-century Italian
operas such as Caldara’s La passione di Gesù
Cristo, Leo’s Sant’Elena al Calvario, or Gesù
sotto il peso della croce by Majo. In Rome in
the 2012/13 season the ensemble presented
La foresta incantata by Geminiani together
with an animated film by Fabio Biondi and the
director Davide Livermore.
The ensemble has
performed in many of the world’s major concert
halls and theatres including La Scala, Milan, the
Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Tokyo’s Suntory
Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Royal
Albert Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Lincoln Center
in New York and the Sydney Opera House.
The ensemble has toured throughout Australia,
Japan, Europe, Canada, Israel, the USA and
South America.
Barbican Classical Music Podcasts
7
Stream or download our Barbican Classical Music Podcasts
for exclusive interviews with the world’s greatest classical
stars. Recent artists include Fabio Biondi, Sir Harrison
Birtwistle, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mariss Jansons, Harry
Christophers, Maxim Vengerov, Joyce DiDonato and
many more.
Available on iTunes, Soundcloud and the Barbican website
Ever since the release of its first record dedicated
to Vivaldi concertos, the ensemble has received
worldwide recognition, gaining an impressive
list of awards. After working with the French
record company Opus 111, Europa Galante
collaborated exclusively with Virgin Classics, a
partnership which lasted 15 years.The ensemble
has been nominated twice for a Grammy. Its most
recent release (on Erato) – the work performed
this evening – has received widespread critical
acclaim, including the award of a Diapason
d’Or.
After Chiara’s Diary (concertos composed
by different composers for Chiara, an exceptional
violinist at Venice’s La Pietà orphanage and
Vivaldi’s most talented pupil), Europa Galante’s
next recording projects include Vivaldi concertos
from the Brno library and a live recording of
Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
This season, Europa Galante tours Europe, Asia,
South America and the USA, presenting L’oracolo
in Messenia, Veracini’s Adriano in Siria and
Handel’s Imeneo.
Next season the ensemble will present Rossini’s La
Cenerentola at the Rieti Festival, Maria Stuarda in
Valencia and I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Warsaw.
Europa Galante
Director/Violin
Fabio Biondi
Double Bass
Nicola Barbieri
Intermusica Artists’
Management Ltd
Violin 1
Fabio Ravasi
Barbara Altobello
Isabella Bison
Harpsichord
Paola Poncet
Managing Director
Stephen Lumsden
Theorbo
Giangiacomo Pinardi
Director,
Head of Tours & Projects
Peter Ansell
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Violin 2
Andrea Rognoni
Luca Giardini
Rossella Borsoni
Oboe
Emiliano Rodolfi
Aviad Gershoni
Viola
Pablo de Pedro
Barbara Palma
Horn
Anneke Scott
Jorge Rentería
Cello
Antonio Fantinuoli
Perikli Pite
Bassoon
Maurizio Barigione
Senior Manager,
Tours & Projects
Vicky Shilling
Co-ordinator,
Tours & Projects
Kirsten Mackay