Cast

Tenor, Jeremy Ovenden
Music direction, Christophe Rousset
Les Talens Lyriques

Programme

Pierre Gaveaux (1761 - 1825)
Léonore, ou L’Amour conjugal (1798)
Ouverture
Récit : « Dieux quelle obscurité »
Romance de Florestan « Faut-il au printemps de mon âge » (Acte II)

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Die Jahreszeiten (1801)
Recitativ : « Die Mittagssonne brennet jetzt »
Kavatine : « Dem Druck erlieget die Natur » (Lukas)
Recitativ : « Gefesselt steht der breite See »
Arie : « Hier steht der Wend’rer nun » (Lukas)

Die Schöpfung (1798)
Arie : « Mit Würd und Hoheit angetan » (Uriel)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Symphonie n° 3 in E flat major, opus 55

Intro

18th century rationalism cultivated a singular admiration for what was natural and simple. In Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten and Die Schöpfung, this ‘noble simplicity’ is expressed in clearly structured verses and well- balanced melody lines. This same Century of Enlightenment culminated unexpectedly in the French Revolution in 1789. Beethoven thought very highly of the still new revolutionary ideas which, in theory at least, set the fresh wind of democracy and freedom blowing through Europe. He expressed his initial admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte in his Third Symphony, which he even dedicated to the Emperor in 1803. This work was an unprecedented outburst of energy, emotion and power. The urge for freedom and rebellion against dictatorial arbitrariness was one of the main themes in the story of Leonore, which both Beethoven and Gaveaux set to music.

Coproduction Festival van Vlaanderen Brussel, Bozar Music et De Munt / La Monnaie