Music Director and Founder: William Christie
Deputy Music Director, Assistant Conductor: Paul Agnew
Assistant Conductor: Jonathan Cohen
The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the world’s most renowned groups performing baroque music on historic instruments. The ensemble was established in 1979 by French-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie and named in honour of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera Les Arts florissants. The orchestra’s principal achievement has been the revival of interest of French audiences in French and European music of the 17th-18th centuries which had long been consigned to oblivion. Many priceless manuscripts were discovered by the musicians in the National Library of France, and today this repertoire is broadly presented in concert halls and at opera houses.
The ensemble’s first project was a production of Lully’s opera Atys in 1987 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. In May 2011 the production was revived to great acclaim. Since that time, the musicians have focussed their attention on productions of operas. Their repertoire includes operas by Rameau (Les Indes galantes, Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Boréades and Les Paladins), Lully (Armide), Charpentier (Médée, David et Jonathas and Les Arts florissants, performed for heads of the G7 countries in 1982), Purcell (King Arthur, Dido and Aeneas and The Faerie Queene), Mozart (Die Zauberflöte and Die Entführung aus dem Serail), operas and oratorios by Handel (Orlando, Acis and Galatea, Semele, Alcina, Serse, Hercule and L’Allegro, il Moderato ed il Penseroso), Monteverdi’s lyrical opera trilogy and operas by less well-known composers such as Landi (Il Sant’Alessio), Cesti (Il Tito) and Hérold (Zampa).
For its productions the ensemble invites acclaimed stage directors to take part, among them Jean-Marie Villégier, Robert Carsen, Alfredo Arias, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Jorge Lavelli, Adrian Noble, Andrei Șerban, Luc Bondy, Graham Vick, Deborah Warner, Jérôme Deschamps, Macha Makeïeff and Andreas Homoki as well as the choreographers Francine Lancelot, Béatrice Massin, Ana Yepes, Shirley Wynne, Maguy Marin, François Raffinot, Jiří Kylián, Bianca Li, Trisha Brown, Robyn Orlin, Sasha Waltz, José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu.
In addition to operas, the ensemble regularly appears on the concert platform, performing concert versions of operas and oratorios (Rameau’s Zoroastre, Anacréon and Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Charpentier’s Actéon and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, Campra’s Idoménée, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Montéclair’s Jephté, Rossi’s L’Orfeo, Handel’s Giulio Cesare featuring Cecilia Bartoli and Purcell’s The Indian Queen) and running chamber concerts of religious and secular music (motets by Lully and Charpentier, madrigals by Monteverdi and Gesualdo, court arias by Lambert and hymns by Purcell. They also organise performances involving large casts (a concert of music by Gluck, Haydn and Mozart, grands motets by Rameau, Mondonville and Campra, oratorios by Haydn), and appear in oratorios by Handel (The Messiah, Israel in Egypt, Theodora, Susanna, Jephtha and Belshazzar).
The ensemble’s extensive discography features over a hundred discs recorded on the Harmonia Mundi, Warner/Erato and Virgin Classics labels. Recent discs include Lamentazione (the ensemble’s first recording under Paul Agnew) and Duetti a collection of duets performed by countertenors Philippe Jaroussky and Max Emanuel Cencic under William Christie. Recent DVD releases include recordings of the operas La Didone by Cavalli (Opus Arte) and David et Jonathas by Charpentier (Bel Air Classiques). In 2013 Les Arts Florissants founded its own recording studio, Les Éditions Arts Florissants. This label has already released a recording of Handel’s oratorio Belshazzar, the disc Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau (performed by the academy of young singers Le Jardin des Voix) and the disc Mantoue (highlights from books 4, 5 and 6 from The Full Collection of Madrigals by Monteverdi).
For twenty years the musicians of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants have been regular guest performers at the theatre in Caen and perform on an annual basis in numerous towns and cities throughout Lower Normandy. Moreover, they are actively involved in attracting new audiences both locally and nationally. The ensemble has toured to towns throughout France (Bordeaux, Paris, Lyon, Marseilles, Toulouse, Versailles, Grenoble, Vannes and Belfort). The orchestra appears at festivals in Lessay, Bonnay, Ambronay and Aix-en-Provence in addition to performing internationally, particularly at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the New York Lincoln Center, London’s Barbican Centre, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Brussels’ Bozar, Barcelona and festivals in Vienna, Salzburg and Edinburgh.
In recent years, Les Arts Florissants has run several cultural and educational projects. In 2007 it ran the programme Arts Flo Juniors, allowing students from various conservatoires to take part in an orchestra and chorus concert, from initial rehearsals to the final performance. 2002 saw the foundation of the young singers’ summer academy Le Jardin des Voix which is held once every two years at the theatre in Caen and thanks to which many talents have been discovered. Since 2007 the ensemble has collaborated with the Julliard School, helping develop cultural relations between Europe and the USA. Moreover, the musicians run short education programmes for adults and young amateur musicians in Lower Normandy and arrange special courses in music schools of the Paris suburbs.
The 2013–2014 concert season is dedicated to the music of Rameau. Engagements for the season include performing the programme Music for Queen Caroline featuring works by Handel (conducted by William Christie), a Jardin des Voix academy tour with the programme Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau (conducted by William Christie), a revival of the ballet Doux Mensonges at the Palais Garnier in Paris (conducted by Paul Agnew), the programme Airs sérieux et à boire (conducted by William Christie) and all of Monteverdi’s madrigals under the baton of Paul Agnew (books 6 and 7).
Also this season the musicians will be taking part in a production of Rameau’s Platée in Paris, Vienna and New York (conducted by William Christie and Paul Agnew, production by Robert Carsen), a production entitled Rameau, maître à danser in Caen (directed by Sophie Daneman, choreographed by Françoise Denieau and conducted by William Christie), the programme Airs et danses de Rameau (conducted by Jonathan Cohen), the programme of religious music by Henry Purcell Hear My Prayer (conducted by Paul Agnew) and the programme Grands Motets by Rameau and Mondonville (conducted by William Christie).
The ensemble Les Arts Florissants receives funding from France’s Ministry of Culture and Mass Media and the Caen City and Lower Normandy Council. The orchestra’s musicians are regular guest performers at the theatre in Caen.
Les Arts Florissants’ general sponsors are the companies IMERYS – a world leader in the production of mineral materials for industry – and ALSTOM – a world leader in the production and distribution of electricity and the construction of railway infrastructure.
For further details about the ensemble please go to the websites www.arts-florissants.com, www.artsflomedia.com, facebook.com/lesartsflorissants and @lesartsflo on Twitter.
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