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Saturday Evening, October 31, 2015, at 7:00
Pre-concert lecture by Benjamin Sosland at 6:00 in the
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Theodora
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, Musical Director and Conductor
Katherine Watson, Theodora
Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Irene
Philippe Jaroussky, Didymus
Kresimir Spicer, Septimius
Callum Thorpe, Valens
Sean Clayton, Messenger
HANDEL Theodora (1750)
This performance is approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes long, including
intermission. Please join the artists in the Alice Tully Hall lobby immediately
following the performance for a White Light Lounge.
This concert version of Theodora is based on the production of the Théâtre des
Champs-Élysées (Paris).
This performance is also part of the Great Performers Chamber Orchestras series.
(Program continued)
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
Adrienne Arsht Stage
WhiteLightFestival.org
Please make certain all your electronic devices
are switched off.
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BNY Mellon is Lead Supporter of Great Performers.
Upcoming White Light Festival Events:
Support for Great Performers is provided by
Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, The Florence Gould
Foundation, Audrey Love Charitable Foundation,
Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and
Friends of Lincoln Center.
Sunday Afternoon, November 1, at 5:00 in
Alice Tully Hall
Prayer
Christine Brewer, Soprano
Paul Jacobs, Organ
Works by HANDEL, BACH, PUCCINI, GOUNOD,
and WIDOR; works for solo organ
Public support is provided by the New York State
Council on the Arts.
Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is
provided by the Leon Levy Fund.
Endowment support is also provided by UBS.
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com
Saturday Afternoon, November 7, at 4:00 in the
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
White Light Conversation: Language and
Human Consciousness
John Schaefer, Moderator
With Joan La Barbara, Colum McCann, Steven
Pinker, and Gary Tomlinson
Performance extract of Gare St. Lazare Ireland’s
work in progress of How It Is by Samuel Beckett,
performed by Conor Lovett, with director Judy
Hegarty Lovett
Saturday Evening, November 14, at 7:30 in
Alice Tully Hall
Last Soliloquy
Paul Lewis, Piano
ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM
Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109
Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110
Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit
WhiteLightFestival.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info
Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about
program cancellations or to request a White Light
Festival brochure.
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listings.
Join the conversation: #LCWhiteLight
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the
performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave
before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of photographs
and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
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HANDEL Theodora (1750)
PART I
Ouverture
Recitative: ’Tis Diocletian’s natal day
Air: Go, my faithful soldier, go
Chorus: And draw a blessing down
Recitative: Vouchsafe, dread sir, a gracious ear
Air: Racks, gibbets, sword, and fire
Chorus: For ever thus stands fixed the doom
Recitative: Most cruel edict!
Air: The rapture’d soul defies the sword
Recitative: I know thy virtues
Air: Descend, kind pity, heav’nly guest
Recitative: Tho’ hard, my friends
Air: Fond, flatt’ring world, adieu!
Recitative: O bright example of all goodness!
Air: Bane of virtue
Chorus: Come, mighty father
Recitative: Fly, fly, my brethren
Air: As with rosy steps the morn
Chorus: All pow’r in heav’n above
Recitative: Mistaken wretches!
Air: Dread the fruits of Christian folly
Recitative: Deluded mortal!
Accompagnato: O worse than death indeed!
Air: Angels, ever bright and fair
Recitative: Unhappy, happy crew!
Air: Kind heav’n, if virtue be thy care
Recitative: O love, how great thy pow’r!
Chorus: Go, gen’rous, pious youth
Intermission
PART II
Recitative: Ye men of Antioch
Chorus: Queen of summer, queen of love
Air: Wide spread his name
Recitative: Return, Septimius
Chorus: Venus, laughing from the skies
Symphony
Recitative: O thou bright sun!
Air: With darkness deep as is my woe
Symphony
Recitative: But why art thou disquieted, my soul
Air: Oh, that I on wings could rise
Recitative: Long have I known
Air: Tho’ the honors that Flora and Venus receive
(Program continued)
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Recitative: O save her then
Air: Deeds of kindness to display
Recitative: The clouds begin to veil the hemisphere
Air: Defend her, heav’n
Recitative: Or lulled with grief
Air: Sweet rose and lily, flow’ry form
Recitative: O save me, heav’n
Air: The pilgrim’s home, the sick man’s health
Accompagnato: Forbid it, heav’n!
Recitative: Or say, what right have I
Duet: To thee, thou glorious son of worth
Recitative: ’Tis night, but night’s sweet blessing
Chorus: He saw the lovely youth
PART III
Air: Lord, to thee, each night and day
Recitative: But see the good, the virtuous Didymus!
Air: When sunk in anguish and despair
Chorus: Blest be the hand
Recitative: Undaunted in the court
Accompagnato: O my Irene, heav’n is kind
Duet: Whither, princess, do you fly
Recitative: She’s gone, disdaining liberty and life
Air: New scenes of joy come crowding on
Recitative: Is it a Christian virtue, then…Be that my doom
Air: From virtue springs each gen’rous deed
Recitative: ’Tis kind, my friends
Chorus: How strange their ends
Recitative: On me your frowns
Air: Ye ministers of justice
Recitative: And must such beauty suffer!
Air: Streams of pleasure ever flowing
Duet: Thither let our hearts aspire
Recitative: Ere this their doom is past
Chorus: O love divine, thou source of fame
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Snapshot
By Ruth Smith
Though unsuccessful in its day, Theodora is now recognized as a masterpiece of unique
beauty and intensity. Handel’s only dramatic oratorio set in post-biblical times is one of his
boldest; it is both spiritually and intellectually challenging, and deeply moving. In fourthcentury Antioch, the eastern capital of the ancient Roman empire, Princess Theodora is a
leader of the persecuted Christian community. When she refuses to offer a sacrifice to
the heathen gods, she is sentenced to serial rape in the public brothel. An officer in the
Roman army, Didymus, who has been converted to Christianity by Theodora’s example
and is in love with her, attempts to save her. When he is apprehended and tried for treachery, she offers to die for him. The oratorio ends with the martyrdom of both hero and heroine. With this bleak tragedy Handel, at the age of 65, achieves some of his most vigorous,
lyrical, aspirational, and transcendent music.
—Copyright © 2015 by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
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Synopsis
By Ruth Smith
PART I
Valens, governor of Antioch, decrees that
all must offer a sacrifice to the Roman goddesses in honor of the emperor’s birthday.
He orders his officer Septimius to ensure
compliance. The populace endorse the
decree, but a junior officer, Didymus, asks
that loyal citizens whose conscience prevents them from obeying be excused.
Valens responds with fierce threats of
reprisal, seconded by the populace. Alone
with Septimius, Didymus puts the case for
freedom of belief. Septimius, sympathetic
but loyal, wishes for a more tolerant world.
Among the persecuted Christians, Princess
Theodora leads her co-religionists in
renouncing the world. News arrives of
Valens’s decree. Irene rallies the terrified
community in affirming their faith.
Septimius comes to arrest them. Theodora
declares for Christianity, knowing the risk;
Septimius has to tell her that her punishment is not death but enforced prostitution
until she recants. Praying rather to die,
Theodora is led away. Irene breaks the
news to Didymus, who vows to rescue her,
and the Christians pray for him.
PART II
Valens sends Septimius to tell Theodora
that she will be subjected to serial rape
unless she joins in the pagan festival of
Venus and Flora before the day ends.
Theodora, in solitary confinement in the
city brothel, is near to despair, but regains
hope of a heavenly afterlife.
Didymus persuades Septimius to let him
into Theodora’s cell. Irene leads the threatened Christians in prayer for Theodora.
Didymus enters Theodora’s cell and offers
to change clothes with her and take her
place. Refusing such sacrifice, she asks
that instead he kill her, so preserving her
integrity. He persuades her to trust in God
and accept his plan.
The Christians hold a vigil for Theodora,
and recount the story of Christ’s resuscitation of the son of the widow of Nain: God’s
power can restore even the dead.
PART III
Theodora returns to the Christians. They
pray for Didymus. But Theodora is griefstricken at his endangering his life for her
own, until news comes that he has been
captured and Valens has changed her sentence from prostitution to immediate
death. Theodora joyfully goes to offer herself in Didymus’s place.
In Valens’s court Didymus defends his
actions. Theodora runs in, demanding that
judgment fall on her. They attempt to persuade Valens to let them die for each
other. Septimius urges the onlookers to
appeal for clemency, and they are
awestruck, but Valens condemns both
prisoners to death, which they welcome in
anticipation of a blissful shared immortality. Led by Irene, their fellow Christians
pray to be vouchsafed an equally transcendent faith.
—Copyright © 2015 by Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, Inc.
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Note on the Program
By Ruth Smith
Theodora, HWV 68 (1750)
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Born February 23, 1685, in Halle, Germany
Died April 14, 1759, in London
Among Handel’s 17 English oratorios,
Theodora is unique. The story is not from
the Bible (it is set in fourth-century Roman
imperial Syria), there are no heroic triumphs,
and at the end there is no rejoicing. It was
too radical and complex for Handel’s own
audience: Despite a fine cast, Theodora was
a box-office disaster. But it gained admiration from his musical friends and patrons,
and nowadays Theodora is prized as a landmark of dramatic oratorio, both deeply challenging and utterly accessible.
The unique subject matter is probably due
to Handel’s librettist, Thomas Morell, author
of Judas Maccabeus and Alexander Balus
and soon to be the librettist of Jephtha.
Morell was an esteemed classicist, an amateur poet who loved and absorbed the
riches of English literature, and a friend of
writers and artists. Unlike many priests of
his time, Morell was genuinely committed
to preaching Christianity. Like many priests
of his time, he admired the purity and sincerity of the early church, and the Christian
community of Theodora reflects that admiration and purity, exactly captured by
Handel in the Christians’ hymns.
Theodora’s story was first told by St.
Ambrose in the fourth century. Morell took
many incidents in Ambrose’s narrative into
the oratorio, even small details, such as
Theodora running to the courtroom to interrupt Didymus’s trial. Theodora featured too
in the principal accounts of Christian martyrs
available to Morell: the Acta Sanctorum
(Catholic) and John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
(Protestant). Morell also knew Pierre
Corneille’s unsuccessful play about Theodora (1646), but his immediate source was
WhiteLightFestival.org
The Martyrdom of Theodora and Didymus
(1687, reprinted 1744), an admired novella
by Robert Boyle, a pioneering English scientist and defender of Christian doctrine.
At a conservative estimate, there are over
50 verbal echoes of Boyle’s story in the
libretto, but Morell’s alterations were thorough-going and complicating. Following
Boyle’s avowedly feminist agenda, Morell
greatly developed the character of Irene,
from a weak cipher to the lynchpin of the
Christian community. Didymus is no longer
just a local Syrian converted to Christianity
by Theodora, but a high-achieving Roman
soldier on active duty. Most transformingly,
Septimius, in Boyle’s account just a
bystander when the martyrs walk to their
execution, is made into a pivotal character of
the drama, giving rise to some of Handel’s
most beautiful writing for the tenor voice.
Morell concluded his libretto with a passage that Handel left unset, in which
Septimius describes to the remaining
Christians the blissful confidence with
which Theodora and Didymus endured
execution and how, inspired by their example, he and many other Roman bystanders
converted to Christianity. In ignoring this
ending and moving straight from the martyrs’ serene anticipation of heaven to the
hushed prayer of their fellow Christians still
in hiding—a chorus that ends the oratorio
in G minor—Handel left unanswered the
many questions about loyalty, duty, patriotism, self-sacrifice, toleration, materialism,
and justice raised in this most thoughtprovoking of his works.
The text is studded with quotations from the
New Testament, and Christian doctrine is
preached directly, for example in Irene’s
“Bane of Virtue.” Is the listener supposed to
follow the oratorio’s version of Christianity,
rejecting and condemning prosperity? Elite
Londoners would have been confused by
hearing this suggestion from Handel, who
only the previous year in Solomon had cele-
10-31 Les Arts.qxp_GP 10/21/15 1:18 PM Page 8
brated successful commercialism, encouraging them to rejoice that “gold now is
common on our shore.” Most startlingly,
Christianity is not incontrovertible truth. We
hear the voice of the Enlightenment in
Didymus’s appeal: “Ought we not to leave/
The free-born mind of man still ever free,/
Since vain is the attempt to force belief.”
This proposition would have been disconcerting to Handel’s audiences, who were living in a nation-state where full rights of citizenship were available only to members of
the Church of England.
Theodora has uncanny modernity, posing
questions that are highly topical for us, too.
Is material comfort opposed to goodness;
should we limit consumption? Where does
duty lie? Is it right to withdraw from the
world if one disapproves of it? How much
freedom can be given to minority beliefs,
freedom to disobey the law? Can soldiers
legitimately disobey orders on grounds of
conscience? Should an oath of allegiance
give way to friendship? If there is an
answer to these complexities within the
oratorio, it would seem to lie in the word
with which Theodora praises Didymus:
“the generous youth.”
In making generosity the key virtue in a
multi-faith, multi-national, materialist
world, Morell and Handel were writing in
the most respected theater genre of their
day. The heroes and heroines of “sentimental” drama outdo each in other in courageous choices, imperiling their own safety
for the sake of their loved ones or a higher
cause. In Theodora the three Christian characters repeatedly face dilemmas—in
Theodora’s case appalling—which drive
the action and bring out their natures.
Septimius, torn by duty and sympathy,
faces choices nearer to common experience, and his reactions form a bridge to
the feelings of the audience. Compassion
for others, the essential element of sentimental literature, pervades Theodora,
most notably the role of Septimius.
Handel always excels in depicting heroines
under duress. But the unrelenting cruelty
in the libretto of Theodora would not lead
one to expect the astonishing warmth that
radiates from the score. Handel took up
the libretto’s challenges in a remarkable
way. Theodora is about the power of
visionary faith aspiring to a better life. In
this it is unlike both Handel’s Old
Testament oratorios, whose characters
aim for concrete results more often than
spiritual states, and most of his opera
arias, where music usually evokes present
emotions rather than a wished-for state of
being. Theodora’s music is so abundantly
lyrical because repeatedly it evokes not the
state that the characters are in, but the
state that they hope for. Theodora contains
some of Handel’s most tender, most aspirational and most intense music. It is an
overwhelming experience.
Ruth Smith is a leading authority on Handel’s
oratorios. She is the author of Handel’s
Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought
(Cambridge University Press).
—Copyright © 2015 by Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, Inc.
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Illumination
Sacrifice
by Frederick Manning
Love suffereth all things,
And we,
Out of the travail and pain of our striving,
Bring unto Thee the perfect prayer:
For the lips of no man utter love,
Suffering even for love’s sake.
For us no splendid apparel of pageantry—
Burnished breast-plates, scarlet banners, and trumpets
Sounding exultantly.
But the mean things of the earth Thou has chosen,
Decked them with suffering;
Made them beautiful with the passion for rightness,
Strong with the pride of love.
Yea, though our praise of Thee slayeth us,
Yet love shall exalt us beside Thee triumphant,
Dying that these live;
And the earth again be beautiful with orchards,
Yellow with wheatfields;
And the lips of others praise Thee, though our lips
Be stopped with earth, and songless.
Yet we shall have brought Thee their praises
Brought unto Thee the perfect prayer:
For the lips of no man utter love,
Suffering even for love’s sake.
For poetry comments and suggestions, please write
to [email protected].
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2011 © DENIS ROUVRE
Meet the Artists
William Christie
William Christie is the musical director and
founder of Les Arts Florissants. A harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and
teacher, his pioneering work has led to a
renewed appreciation of Baroque music,
notably of 17th- and 18th-century French
repertoire, which he has introduced to
audiences across the globe. Mr. Christie
studied at Harvard and Yale Universities
and has lived in France since 1971. The
turning point in his career came in 1979,
when he founded Les Arts Florissants. As
director of this ensemble, he brings new
interpretations of largely neglected or forgotten repertoire to fruition.
Mr. Christie’s busy operatic career has
been marked by numerous collaborations
with renowned theater and opera directors, including Jean-Marie Villégier, Robert
Carsen, and Alfredo Arias. He is greatly in
demand at festivals including Glyndebourne and at opera houses such as the
Metropolitan Opera and Opéra National de
Lyon. Recent productions include
Rameau’s Platée in 2014, and Campra’s
Les fêtes vénitiennes in 2015 at Paris’s
Opéra Comique. In addition to his extensive discography with Harmonia Mundi,
Warner Classics/Erato, and Virgin Classics,
Mr. Christie’s most recent recordings were
released by Les Éditions Arts Florissants:
Belshazzar, Le Jardin de Monsieur
Rameau—featuring the finalists in Le
Jardin des Voix 2013—and Music for
Queen Caroline, a program of religious
works by Handel.
Mr. Christie has also brought to the limelight several generations of singers
and instrumentalists. He is the artist in
residence at The Juilliard School, where he
gives master classes twice a year accompanied by the musicians of Les Arts
Florissants. Wishing to develop further his
work as a teacher, in 2002 Mr. Christie
created a biennial academy for young
singers called Le Jardin des Voix, whose
laureates rapidly embark on brilliant international careers.
Mr. Christie is a Grand Officier in the Ordre
de la Légion d’Honneur, the Ordre des Arts
et des Lettres, and the Ordre National du
Mérite. He was elected to France’s
Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2008, and is
an honorary member of the Royal
Academy of Music in London.
Katherine
Watson
Soprano Katherine Watson has sung extensively with William Christie and Les Arts
Florissants since winning a place on
Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix. Having established herself as one of the leading sopranos of the younger generation, Ms. Watson
was awarded a young artist award by the
Classical Opera Company in 2011 and the
Glyndebourne John Christie Award in 2012.
Ms. Watson has worked with conductors
including Paul Agnew, Harry Bicket, Harry
Christophers, Emmanuelle Haïm, Nicholas
Kraemer, and Christophe Rousset.
Ms. Watson made her debut at Glyndebourne as Fairy and Nymph in The FairyQueen and returned as Diana in Hippolyte
et Aricie. Other operatic roles have
included Italienne/Phantome in Médée,
Virtù/Damigella in L’incoronazione di
Poppea, Cassandra in Didone, Phani in Les
Incas du Pérou, Iphis in Jephtha, and Diana
in Actéon. Under the baton of Haïm, Ms.
Watson has sung Cleopatra’s arias from
Giulio Cesare, a program of Rameau arias,
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and a Monteverdi gala at the Festspielhaus
Baden-Baden. As a recitalist, she has performed Mozart and Schubert songs at the
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, songs by
Alma Mahler in Hungary, and Schumann,
Strauss, Poulenc, and Messiaen songs in
recitals in the UK. Recent concerts include
Bach’s Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! and
Handel arias with Bicket and the English
Concert. Other recent engagements
include Apollo e Dafne with the ensemble
Arcangelo at Zankel Hall, and Messiah in
Seville with the Hallé Orchestra at
Bridgewater Hall and with Polyphony at St.
John’s Smith Square. Ms. Watson also
appears in Cantata pastorale per la nascita
di Nostro Signore with Roger Norrington,
concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony
Orchestra, and Dardanus with Ensemble
Pygmalion at Opéra National de Bordeaux.
Ms. Watson’s recordings include Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio with Stephen Layton
and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Monteverdi madrigals with
Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo (Hyperion),
as well as DVD recordings of Cassandra in
La Didone (Opus Arte), and Virtù/Damigella
in L’incoronazione di Poppea (EMI).
Stéphanie
d’Oustrac
Mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d’Oustrac was a
student of the Conservatoire National
Supérieur de Lyon when William Christie
offered her the roles of Médée in Thésée
and Psyché in Les Métamorphoses de
Psyché. Ms. d’Oustrac has performed
Baroque repertoire with such conductors
as Jean-Claude Malgoire, Gabriel Garrido,
and Hervé Niquet, and in the Classical
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repertoire she has sung the title roles of
Médée and Armide, and Carmen at Opéra
de Lille in 2010. Her versatility is reflected
in the roles she takes on, ranging from
young women such as Zerline, Argie, and
Psyché, tragedians like Médée, Armide,
and Carmen, and trouser roles like
Nicklausse, Sesto, and Cherubino. More
recently, she interpreted the roles of
Concepcion in L’heure espagnole at the
Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mélisande in
Pelléas et Mélisande at the Angers-Nantes
Opéra, Orphée in Orphée et Eurydice and
L’enfance du Christ at La Monnaie, and
Carmen at the Glyndebourne Festival.
Ms. d’Oustrac has worked with directors
Laurent Pelly, Robert Carsen, Jérôme
Deschamps, Jean-Marie Villégier, and
conductors Marc Minkowski, John Eliot
Gardiner, Myung-Whun Chung, and
Christopher Hogwood, among others. She
performs regularly with the ensemble
Amarillis, and has appeared in recital since
1994 with pianist Pascal Jourdan. In 2014 a
CD of their collaboration, L’Invitation au
Voyage: Mélodies Françaises, was
released by Ambrony. Ms. d’Oustrac has
received awards that include the Prize
Pierre Bernac (1999), Radios Francophones
(2000), Victoires de la Musique (2002), and
Gramophone Editor’s Choice for a release
on Haydn with Aline Zilberach (2010).
Upcoming projects feature the title roles
of L’Aiglon at the Opéra de Marseille,
Charpentier’s Médée at the Opernhaus
Zurich, and Carmen at the Aix-en-Provence
Festival. Ms. d’Oustrac will also perform
the roles of Irene in Theodora at Théâtre
des Champs-Élysées and in an international tour, Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict
at La Monnaie and at the Glyndebourne
Festival, as well as Concepcion in L’heure
espagnole, and the Cat and the Squirrel in
L’enfant et les sortilèges at La Scala.
SIMON FOWLER
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Philippe
Jaroussky
Born in 1978, Philippe Jaroussky has established himself as one of the most admired
countertenors of his generation. He has
explored a vast Baroque repertoire, from
the refinement of 17th-century Italian
works with Monteverdi, Sances, and
Rossi, to the staggering brilliance of
Handel and Vivaldi arias. Mr. Jaroussky has
worked with renowned period-instrument
orchestras such as L’Arpeggiata, Ensemble
Matheus, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Le
Concert d’Astrée, and Europa Galante, and
with conductors including Christina Pluhar,
Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Marc Minkowski,
Jérémie Rhorer, Emmanuelle Haïm, and
Fabio Biondi. With pianist Jerôme Ducros,
he looked beyond the Baroque to finde-siècle French song, as well as contemporary music such as Sonnets de
Louise Labé, composed for him by MarcAndré Dalbavie.
Mr. Jaroussky has been praised for performances in concert halls that include the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du
Châtelet, Opéra de Lyon, and Opéra de
Montpellier in France; London’s Barbican
and Southbank Centres; Palais des Beaux
Arts in Brussels; Konzerthaus in Vienna;
Berlin Philharmonie; Madrid’s Teatro Real;
and Carnegie Hall. He is signed exclusively
to Erato and has received numerous
awards for his recordings with the label,
including a Midem Classical Award in 2009
for his tribute to Carestini (with Le Concert
d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm) and 2014
International Classical Music Awards for
best Baroque Vocal Album and Best Opera
Album, for his Stabat Mater with Julia
Lezhneva and I Barocchisti. Mr. Jaroussky
is also the recipient of several French
Victoires de la Musique awards and an
Echo Klassik Award in 2008.
Kresimir Spicer
Born in Croatia, tenor Kresimir Spicer’s international breakthrough took place at the Aixen-Provence Festival in 2000 with his performance of Ulisse in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno
d’Ulisse in patria under William Christie. The
success of this production resulted in a tour
to Lausanne, Bordeaux, Paris, London, New
York, and Vienna, as well as an acclaimed
DVD recording. With René Jacobs he
appeared as Ulisse in Berlin, in Geneva with
Attilio Cremonesi, and at the Frankfurt
Opera under Paolo Carigniani.
Mr. Spicer regularly appears in major opera
houses, concert halls, and festivals.
Highlights include Festival de Beaune with
Christie in Handel’s Alcina, Aeneas in
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the BadenBaden Festival with Thomas Hengelbrock,
and Alessandro in Mozart’s Il re pastore at
the Salzburg Festival. He debuted at the
Zurich Opera with Marc Minkowski in
Handel’s Il trionfo del Temeo e del
Disinganno and in Salieri’s La grotta di
Trofonio. In Zagreb he sang the title role in
Monteverdi’s Orfeo under Hervé Niquet
and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, and in
Strasbourg the title role in Oedipus rex
and Le Pecheur in Le rossignol. At the
2014 Baden-Baden Festival, Mr. Spicer
appeared with Berliner Philharmoniker
under Simon Rattle as Ballet Master in
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and, as substitute for Rolando Villazon, as Alessandro in
a concert version of Mozart’s Il re pastore
at the Verbier Festival.
Equally at home on the concert platform,
Mr. Spicer has performed at the Leipzig
Gewandhaus under Herbert Blomstedt, at
Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw with
Christian Zacharias, and with Yuri Terminakov, Myung-Whun Chung, and Kent Nagano.
10-31 Les Arts.qxp_GP 10/21/15 1:18 PM Page 13
Callum Thorpe
Bass-baritone Callum Thorpe began his
musical training as a chorister at Coventry
Cathedral, England, before pursuing a scientific career, obtaining a doctorate in
immunology from Imperial College London.
He subsequently returned to music and
studied opera at the Royal Academy of
Music with Mark Wildman. Graduating with
distinction in 2009, Mr. Thorpe received the
Harry Fisher Memorial Prize, and in the
same year received the Glyndebourne on
Tour Donald A. Anderson Award.
Notable operatic engagements include
Masetto in Don Giovanni for Glyndebourne
on Tour. In a flourishing collaboration with
Les Arts Florissants, Mr. Thorpe has performed The Fairy-Queen on tour in Paris,
Caen, and New York with William Christie;
The Indian Queen with Paul Agnew; and
Phobétor in Atys, among many others.
Recent engagements include Antinoo in Il
ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Jupiter in Platée
(Early Opera Company), the world premiere
of Shell Shock (La Monnaie), Plutone in
L’Orfeo (Royal Opera House–Covent
Garden), and Gibarian in the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Solaris in Paris, Lille,
and Lausanne.
In concert Mr. Thorpe has sung much of the
major oratorio repertoire and regularly performs throughout the UK and internationally. Performance highlights include debuts
at Tel Aviv Opera House, performing
Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Jerusalem
Symphony Orchestra under Laurence
Cummings, and Handel’s Esther and Acis
and Galatea at the London Handel Festival.
Engagements in 2015–16 include the role
of Valens in a fully staged production of
Handel’s Theodora at the Théâtre des
WhiteLightFestival.org
Champs-Élysées, and concert performances of Theodora with Les Arts Florissants in
New York and at the Royal Concertgebouw.
He will debut as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte,
Banquo in Macbeth, and Old Hebrew in
Samson et Dalila for Theater Basel.
Sean Clayton
Tenor Sean Clayton trained at the
Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK with
Julian Pike and continued his studies at
London’s Royal College of Music with Neil
Mackie. In 2009 he was invited to be part
of Le Jardin des Voix, the young artists program of Les Arts Florissants directed by
William Christie, and he has since sung
several roles with the ensemble. He has
also sung for numerous choral projects,
including music of Scarlatti and Charpentier. Since 2011 he has been a part of Les
Arts Florissants’ Monteverdi madrigal project directed by Paul Agnew, performing
the eight books all over Europe.
Recent and current engagements include
Démocrite in Campra’s Les fêtes vénitiennes (Opéra Comique, Paris), Berger in
Rameau’s La naissance d’Osiris (Théâtre
de Caen), Berger in Charpentier’s Acteon,
Summer in Purcell’s The Fairy-Queen
(Glyndebourne Opera), Secrecy in The
Fairy-Queen (Aix-en-Provence Festival),
Blindman in a stage creation of Rossini’s
Petite messe solonnelle (Nico and the
Navigators, Berlin), and Shepherd in Orfeo
and Sailor in Dido and Aeneas (English
Touring Opera). Equally at home on
opera and concert stages, Mr. Clayton
has performed all over the world, including
at Opéra Garnier and Opéra Comique
in Paris, Opéra National de Bordeaux, the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Mariinsky
Theatre in St. Petersburg, Royal Albert
10-31 Les Arts.qxp_GP 10/21/15 1:18 PM Page 14
Hall for the BBC Proms, and London’s
Barbican Centre.
and The Juilliard School has allowed a fruitful artistic exchange between the U.S. and
France since 2007.
Les Arts Florissants
The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les
Arts Florissants was founded in 1979 by
harpsichordist and conductor William
Christie. Named for a short opera by MarcAntoine Charpentier, the ensemble specializes in Baroque music on period instruments and has played a pioneering role in
the revival of long neglected French
Baroque repertoire.
Les Arts Florissants receives financial support from the French Ministry of Culture
and Communication. Since January 2015,
the ensemble has been artists in residence
at the Philharmonie de Paris. After a 25year partnership, this is the final year that
Les Arts Florissants will be supported by
the City of Caen and the Région BasseNormandie.
Directed by Mr. Christie, Les Arts
Florissants has enjoyed great success on
the opera stage, with notable productions
that include works by Rameau, Handel,
Lully and Charpentier, and Monteverdi. The
ensemble enjoys an equally high profile in
the concert hall, giving around 100 concerts and opera performances in France
each season. In addition to performances
of Theodora at Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Théâtre des
Champs-Élysées, the current season
includes Lully and Molière’s Monsieur de
Pourceaugnac, a reprise of Campra’s Les
fêtes vénitiennes at Théâtre du Capitole in
Toulouse and the Brooklyn Academy of
Music, Bach’s B-minor Mass, Mozart’s Il re
pastore headed by Rolando Villazon, and a
program of Bach cantatas.
White Light Festival
Les Arts Florissants has produced nearly
100 recordings for Harmonia Mundi,
Warner Classics/Erato, and Virgin Classics.
Its own recording label, Les Éditions Arts
Florissants, has released five discs to date.
Les Arts Florissants has also launched several education programs for young musicians, including Le Jardin des Voix, which
has brought a substantial number of new
singers into the limelight. The Arts Flo
Juniors program, launched in 2008,
enables conservatory students to join the
orchestra and chorus for the duration of a
production. In addition, the partnership
between Mr. Christie, Les Arts Florissants,
I could compare my music to white light,
which contains all colors. Only a prism can
divide the colors and make them appear;
this prism could be the spirit of the listener. —Arvo Pärt. Celebrating its sixth
anniversary, the White Light Festival is
Lincoln Center’s annual exploration of music
and art’s power to reveal the many dimensions of our interior lives. International in
scope, the multidisciplinary Festival offers a
broad spectrum of the world’s leading
instrumentalists, vocalists, ensembles,
choreographers, dance companies, and
directors complemented by conversations
with artists and scholars and post-performance White Light Lounges.
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln
Center’s Great Performers offers classical
and contemporary music performances
from the world’s outstanding symphony
orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles,
and recitalists. Since its initiation in 1965,
the series has expanded to include significant emerging artists and premieres of
groundbreaking productions, with offerings
from October through June in Lincoln
Center’s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall,
and other performance spaces around New
York City. Along with lieder recitals, Sunday
morning coffee concerts, and films, Great
Performers offers a rich spectrum of programming throughout the season.
10-31 Les Arts.qxp_GP 10/21/15 1:18 PM Page 15
Lincoln Center for the Performing
Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
(LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader
in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center
campus. A presenter of more than 3,000
free and ticketed events, performances,
tours, and educational activities annually,
LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals including American Songbook, Great
Performers, Lincoln Center Festival,
Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer
Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival,
and the White Light Festival, as well as the
Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln
Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As
manager of the Lincoln Center campus,
LCPA provides support and services for the
Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a
$1.2 billion campus renovation, completed
in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Julia Lin, Associate Producer
Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor
Madeleine Oldfield, House Seat Coordinator
Kathy Wang, House Program Intern
For the White Light Festival
Matt Frey, Lighting Design
Josh Benghiat, Lighting Design Associate
Megan Young, Supertitles
Tatiana Stola, Company Manager
For Theodora
Sophie Decaudavenne, Language Coach
François Bazola, Chorus Master
Florian Carré, Musical Assistant and Chef de Chant
Marie Van Rhijn, Répétiteur
Roberta Tagarelli, Répétiteur
WhiteLightFestival.org
DENIS ROUVRE
10-31 Les Arts.qxp_GP 10/21/15 1:18 PM Page 16
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, Musical Director and Founder
Paul Agnew, Associate Musical Director and Associate Conductor
Jacqui Howard, Artistic Director
Choir
Soprano
Solange Añorga
Maud Gnidzaz
Cécile Granger
Brigitte Pelote
Juliette Perret
Virginie Thomas
Sheena Wolstencroft
Leila Zlassi
Mezzo-soprano
Alice Gregorio
Violaine Lucas
Countertenor
Théophile Alexandre
Nicolas Domingues
Bruno Le Levreur
Tenor
Thibaut Lenaerts
Jean-Yves Ravoux
Bruno Renhold
Michael-Loughlin Smith
Bass
Anicet Castel
Laurent Collobert
Yannis Francois
Julien Neyer
Simon Dubois
John Alvaro Vallés
Jérémie Delvert
Bass
Jonathan Cable*
Joseph Carver
Trumpet
Jean-François Madeuf
Gilles Rapin
Flute
Serge Saitta
Olivier Riehl
Percussion
Marie-Ange Petit
Orchestra
Violin I
Florence Malgoire,
Solo Violin
Myriam Gevers
Sophie GeversDemoures
Catherine Girard
Liv Heym
Emmanuel Resche
Christophe Robert
Violin II
Sue-Ying Koang,
Section Leader
Bernadette Charbonnier
Martha Moore
Patrick Oliva
Michèle Sauvé
Satomi Watanabe
Viola
Simon Heyerick,
Section Leader
Dierdre Dowling
Lucia Peralta
Kayo Saito
Cello
David Simpson,
Section Leader*
Elena Andreyev
Ulrike Brütt
Paul Carlioz
Damien Launay
Alix Verzier
Oboe
Pier Luigi Fabretti,
Section Leader
Machiko Ueno
Bassoon
Philippe Miqueu
Niels Coppalle
Archlute
Thomas Dunford*
Harpsichord/Organ
Béatrice Martin*
* Basso Continuo