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 Please note that this reduced programme does not include descriptive notes for the pieces being performed. To buy a full programme for £2, please visit the Barbican foyers before the concert. Part of Barbican Presents 2014–15 Programme produced by Harriet Smith; printed by Mandatum Ink; advertising by Cabbell (tel. 020 3603 7930) Confectionery and merchandise including organic ice cream, quality chocolate, nuts and nibbles are available from the sales points in our foyers. Please turn off watch alarms, phones, pagers etc during the performance. Taking photographs, capturing images or using recording devices during a performance is strictly prohibited. The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre If anything limits your enjoyment please let us know during your visit. Additional feedback can be given online, as well as via feedback forms or the pods located around the foyers. 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. 2 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 4 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 5 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 6 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 8 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
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