William Christie (Conductor）
Les Arts Florissants
Les Arts Florissants
Profile
The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the most renowned and respected early music groups in Europe and around the world.Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
Les Arts Florissants have been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France in 17th -century French repertoire well as in European music of the 17th and 18th centuries more generally. This was repertoire which had, for the most part, been neglected (much of it unearthed from collections in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France) but which is now widely performed and admired.
Since the acclaimed production of Atys by Lully at the Opera Comique in Paris in 1987, it has been in the field of opera where Les Arts Florissants have found most success.
Notable productions include works by Rameau (Les indes galantes in 1990 and 1999, Hippolyte et Aricie in 1996,Les Boreades in 2003, Les Paladins in 2004), Charpentier (Medee in 1993 and 1994), Handel (Orlando in 1993, Acis and Galatea in 1996, Semele in 1996, Alcina in 1999, Hercules in 2004 and 2006), Purcell (King Arthur in 1995, Dido and Aeneas in 2006), Mozart (The magic Flute in 1994, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail at the Opera du Rhin in 1995) and Monteverdi (the much praised The Return of Ulysses at Aix-en-Provence in 2000, revived in 2002, The Coronation of Poppea in 2005, and L’Orfeo at the Teatro Real de Madrid in2008).
The ensemble has collaborated on productions with renowned stage directors such as Jean-Marie Villegier , Robert Carsen, Alfredo Arias , Pier Luigi Pizzi, Jorge Lavelli, Adrian Nobel, Andrei Serban, Graham Vick and Deborah Warner, as well as with choreographers Francine Lancelot,Beatrice Massin, Ana Yepes Shirley Wynne, Maguy Marin, Francois Raffinot, Jiri Kylian, Bianca Li and Jose Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, to name but a few.
Les Arts Florissants have an equally high profile in the concert hall and on disc, as illustrated by their many acclaimed concert performances of opera (Zoroastre and Les fetes d’Hebe by Rameau, Idomenee by Campra, Jephte by Monteclair, L’Orfeo by Rossi), as well as secular chamber works (Acteon ,Les Plasirs de Versailles and Orphee aux Enfers by Charpentier and Dido and Aeneas by Purcell), sacred music (the Grands Motets by Rameau, Mondonville and Desmarest, Handle oratorios such as Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Theodora), not to mention a large number of choral works.
Les Arts Florissants have also embarked upon contemporary repertoire, giving the premiere of Motets III - Hunc igitor terrorem by Betsy Jolas in 1999 to mark their twentieth anniversary.
The ensemble has an impressive discography:more than forty recordings for Harmonia Mundi, and some thirty on the Warner Classis/Erato label , the most recent of which being Theodora by Handel. As part of their collaboration with EMI/Virgin Classics (since 2003), Les Arts Florissants recently issued a recording of The Creation by Haydn.
Their DVD catalogue currently numbers seven titles, which will be augmented at the end of August by //Sat’Alessio by Stefano Landi, filmed at the Theatre de Cean.
For fifteen years, Les Arts Florissants have been artists in residence at the Theatre de Cean, and each year they present a concert season in the Basse-Normandie region. The ensemble also tours widely within France, and is a frequent ambassador for French culture abroad (it is regularly invited to the Brooklyn Centre in London and the Vinne Festival).
In coming seasons, William Christie will be regularly inviting guest conductors, close associates of Les Arts Florissants, to conduct the ensemble . Amongst these are Paul Agnew ,who conducted a concert of Vivaldi Vespers in January 2007, Ode and anthems by Handel in 2008 and who will again conduct Les Arts Florissants this season in a Purcell programme, and Jonathan Cohen, who conducted one of the performances of Zampa at the Opera Comique in 2007 and who will give a Haydn-Gluck-Mozart programme at the beginning of the 2009-2010 season.
Les Arts Florissants receive financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the City of Caen and the Region Basse-Normandie. Their sponsor is lmerys. Les Arts Florissantsare artist in residence at the Theatre de Cean.
