The repertoire of Les Talens Lyriques includes works by Monteverdi (L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, L’Orfeo), Cavalli (La Didone, La Calisto), Landi (La Morte d’Orfeo), Handel (Scipione, Riccardo Primo, Rinaldo, Admeto, Giulio Cesare, Serse, Arianna in Creta, Tamerlano,Ariodante, Semele, Alcina, Agrippina, Saül), Lully (Persée, Roland, Bellérophon, Phaéton, Amadis, Armide, Alceste, Isis), Desmarest (Didon, Vénus et Adonis), Mondonville (Les Fêtes de Paphos), Cimarosa (Il Mercato di Malmantile, Il Matrimonio segreto), Traetta (Antigona, Ippolito ed Aricia), Jommelli (Armida abbandonata), Martin y Soler (La Capricciosa corretta, Il Tutore burlato), Mozart(Mitridate, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte), Salieri (La Grotta di Trofonio, Les Danaïdes, Les Horaces, Tarare, Armida), Rameau (Zoroastre, Castor et Pollux, Les Indes galantes, Platée, Pygmalion), Gluck (Bauci e Filemone, Alceste, Orphée et Eurydice), Beethoven, Cherubini(Médée), García (Il Califfo di Bagdad), Berlioz, Massenet, Gounod (Faust), Saint-Saëns, and others.
The re-creation of these works goes hand in hand with close collaboration with stage directors and choreographers such as Pierre Audi, Jean-Marie Villégier, David McVicar, Eric Vigner, Ludovic Lagarde, Mariame Clément, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Macha Makeïeff, Laura Scozzi, Natalie van Parys, Marcial di Fonzo Bo, Claus Guth, Robert Carsen, David Hermann, Christof Loy, Jetske Mijnssen, Alban Richard, David Lescot and Phia Ménard.
As well as opera, Les Talens Lyriques explore other musical genres: madrigal, cantata, air de cour, symphonies, and the vast corpus of sacred music (masses, motets, oratorios, Leçons de Ténèbres, and so on). In formations varying from a handful of musicians to more than sixty, representing every generation, they give performances all over the world.
The Ensemble’s rich discography comprises some sixty references on various labels (Erato, Fnac Music, Auvidis, Decca, Naïve, Ambroisie, Virgin Classics, Ediciones Singulares (Palazzetto Bru Zane), Outhere and Aparté). Les Talens Lyriques recorded the famous soundtrack for Gérard Corbiau’s film Farinelli (1994), which sold over a million copies. Released in September 2019, Gounod’s Faust (PBZ) has received numerous awards: Gramophone Choice, Presto Musical editor’s choice, Diapason d’or, Choc Classica 2019… Stefano Landi’s La Morte d’Orfeo, recorded at the Dutch National Opera, was released by Naxos in June 2020.
In 2020-2021, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques will be pleased to release recordings of masterpieces such as Mozart’s Betulia liberata (Aparté), Armand-Louis Couperin’s pièces de clavecin(Aparté), and Salieri’s Armida (Aparté).
Childhood memories come flooding back: as a reader who, admittedly, « went to bed early for a long time», I sometimes abandoned the children’s Library in favour of Tales and Legends (from Brittany, Japan, Provence and mythology). The perfect medium to replace the stories an adult would tell us before bedtime, but above all to develop the imagination, the perfect prelude to dreams with the wildest scenarios. I also marvelled at the colourful mythologies of Hesiod’s Theogony, the Iliad and Ovid’s Metamorphoses when I was studying Ancient Greek and Latin. I never imagined that one day in my life I would be able to bring to life these stories of gods and goddesses, halfgod heroes, sacrifices and oracles, magical transformations. This material, as enchanting as it is evocative, is the inexhaustible source of opera librettos from the Baroque period. Wasn’t it the perfect pretext for a grand spectacle that, for audiences of the time, was the equal of Hollywood blockbusters? We are addressing an audience that is perfectly familiar with all these myths and stories, real or totally imaginary, and we are reenacting them on stage, embodied by the best singers, reinterpreted by brilliant authors such as Quinault or Metastasio, with sets by the greatest painters and incredible machineries. The magic of myths and stories is constantly renewed.
For me, born into the world of the legends of Provence, who discovered the wonderful world of opera in Aix-en-Provence in the ’70s, the richest Pandora’s box in the world, to find myself today at the helm of these more or less magical stories, which rub shoulders with divinities and heroes, exceeds all my wildest fantasies.
The forthcoming season of Les Talens Lyriques will open with the Iliad, with the sacrifice of Iphigeneia in Aulis at Bayreuth’s Margravial Opera House, with Achilles singing soprano… What magic has Porpora concocted? Händel’s Orlando revives the historical figure of « Roland de Roncevaux », who became a myth thanks to the penmanship of Ariosto, who in his Roland furieux depicts the paladin as a great lover to the point of losing his sanity. Somewhere between myth and history, Orlando is one of Händel’s great operas that I had not previously tackled with Les Talens Lyriques. This new production will be staged at the Châtelet theatre, with plans to tour in France and abroad in the future.
Julius Caesar, whose Gallic War I was able to translate for school, is brought back to life by Händel on the Capitoline stage (what an auspicious coincidence…) as he confronts Cleopatra, one of the greatest mythical figures of all time ! Young Mozart’s Mitridate will regain strength and vigour in one of Europe’s most mythical temples: La Scala in Milan, an opportunity for Les Talens Lyriques to return to one of the emblematic works of our rich discography (made mythical by the presence of Natalie Dessay, Cecilia Bartoli, Sandrine Piau and the very young Juan Diego Florez). The abduction of Proserpina and the misfortunes of Orpheus, the metamorphosis of Daphne into a laurel, are other stages in our journey through Ovid’s most fascinating stories. Bringing the Passion of Christ back to life through the music of Bach is, for me, of a similar nature. It is, of course, a story that has marked humanity to the point of bringing it vividly to life within us, and all the more so during the Easter period… We’ll be performing at the Easter Festival in AixenProvence, Paris, Grenoble, Metz and Lucerne.
Telling tales and legends to adults doesn’t mean excluding the very young. Indeed, les Talens Lyriques will continue their involvement in artistic education in middle and high schools in the Greater Paris Region. Seeing the reactions of these young people when they follow us during rehearsals in the temples of opera is so gratifying and stimulating for our team and the teaching staff: real glimmers of hope for everyone.
Are you ready to be enchanted by the myths and stories retold by Porpora, Bach, Händel and Lully? Take a closer look at the many projects that are already igniting the spark of my childlike imagination.
Since 2011 Les Talens Lyriques have been associate artists, in residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation in Paris. Les Talens Lyriques are founding members of FEVIS (Federation of Specialised Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles) and of PROFEDIM (Professional Union of Music Producers, Festivals, Ensembles, and Independent Distributors).
