Act 2025

March 21st marks the beginning of spring (at least for the inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere)! The warbling of mating birds, budding of rejuvenated trees, babbling of the river thawing under the first warm rays of sunshine… Immerse yourself in the reviving countryside with this collection featuring great artists and beloved composers. The awakening nature has constantly stimulated the composers’ creativity, from the medieval songs of reverdie celebrating the arrival of spring to the great Romantic works magnifying the deep connection between man and nature.

Love is the common thread running through this first recorded recital by soprano Vannina Santoni; it's also an opportunity to look back over her fifteen-year career, through her leading roles, alongside her favourite musicians. With the help of the Orchestre National de Lille and Quebecois conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, she places her sensual voice at the service of famous operatic arias featuring the amorous heroines of Gounod, Massenet, Puccini (‘O mio babbino caro’), Catalini (‘Ne andrò’ from La Wally) and Verdi (Desdemona’s poignant ‘Ave Maria’ from Otello). The programme also includes a rare but sublime aria from Franco Alfano’s Tolstoy-inspired opera Risurrezione (1904), as well as the magnificent ‘Saint-Sulpice’ duet from Massenet’s Manon, with tenor Julien Dran. Finally, Vannina Santoni pays homage to her Corsican roots with a new orchestration of the lullaby ‘O Ciucciarella’ that Corsican mothers have sung to their children for generations.

Ambleto is a fascinating curiosity in music history: a baroque libretto by Apostolo Zeno on the legend of Hamlet, not based on Shakespeare's tragedy but on its primary source, the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Gramaticus. This swashbuckling drama has been first set to music by Francesco Gasparini (Venice 1705) - whose version served as the basis for a pasticcio (London 1712) with arias by various composers including Handel - then by Domenico Scarlatti (Rome 1715) and Giuseppe Carcani (Venice 1743). The surviving arias from these lost operas are brought back to life by the Concert de l'Hostel Dieu and the charismatic soprano Roberta Mameli, who lends her supple voice to the titular Danish Prince and to the strong women around him, his courageous lover Veremonda (Shakespeare's Ophelia) and his tormented mother Gerilda (Gertrude).

Ambleto is a fascinating curiosity in music history: a baroque libretto by Apostolo Zeno on the legend of Hamlet, not based on Shakespeare's tragedy but on its primary source, the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Gramaticus. This swashbuckling drama has been first set to music by Francesco Gasparini (Venice 1705) - whose version served as the basis for a pasticcio (London 1712) with arias by various composers including Handel - then by Domenico Scarlatti (Rome 1715) and Giuseppe Carcani (Venice 1743). The surviving arias from these lost operas are brought back to life by the Concert de l'Hostel Dieu and the charismatic soprano Roberta Mameli, who lends her supple voice to the titular Danish Prince and to the strong women around him, his courageous lover Veremonda (Shakespeare's Ophelia) and his tormented mother Gerilda (Gertrude).

Love is the common thread running through this first recorded recital by soprano Vannina Santoni; it's also an opportunity to look back over her fifteen-year career, through her leading roles, alongside her favourite musicians. With the help of the Orchestre National de Lille and Quebecois conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, she places her sensual voice at the service of famous operatic arias featuring the amorous heroines of Gounod, Massenet, Puccini (‘O mio babbino caro’), Catalini (‘Ne andrò’ from La Wally) and Verdi (Desdemona’s poignant ‘Ave Maria’ from Otello). The programme also includes a rare but sublime aria from Franco Alfano’s Tolstoy-inspired opera Risurrezione (1904), as well as the magnificent ‘Saint-Sulpice’ duet from Massenet’s Manon, with tenor Julien Dran. Finally, Vannina Santoni pays homage to her Corsican roots with a new orchestration of the lullaby ‘O Ciucciarella’ that Corsican mothers have sung to their children for generations.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Que dire de Mozart qui n’ait déjà été cent mille fois ressassé dans cent mille biographies, dont beaucoup se copient d’ailleurs les unes les autres – colportant, par effet domino-téléphone-arabe, de plus en plus d’idioties… Alors, ajoutons une cent-mille-et-unième biographie au grand concert des bêtises !Mozart a tout fait avant les autres : trois jours avant son quatrième anniversaire il apprenait par cœur son premier morceau au piano. Avant six ans il jouait pour le prince de Bavière. Avant dix ans il avait déjà tourné pendant quatre ans à travers l’Europe à donner des concerts devant les têtes couronnées. Avant dix-huit ans il avait écrit trente symphonies. Avant trente ans il entrait, de son vivant, dans la mythologie musicale de la planète. Et avant trente-six ans il était mort.

In this superb programme structured around major pieces composed in the last ten years of Mozart’s life, Anna Prohaska and Riccardo Minasi sweep away the image of the well-mannered figure that tradition has tended to impose. They paint a bracingly complex portrait of the Salzburger after his move to Vienna, subtly blending the maestro’s historical expertise with the vigour and freshness of Resonanz, here in electrifying form.

May 20th is the birthday of Slovenian apiculture pioneer Anton Janša and has been chosen by the United Nations as the World Bee Day. The aim of the day is to highlight the fundamental role played in our ecosystem by these fascinating insects (and pollinators in general). Butterflies, fleas, grasshoppers, ladybirds… add the most beautiful musical specimens to your collection!

18th-century Venice is the ultimate setting for splendor—architectural, pictorial, theatrical, musical, and vocal. Venetian opera shines across Europe, combining dramatic intensity with the beauty of vocal lines. Just as Canaletto and Guardi capture every facet of La Serenissima in their panoramic paintings, composers seek to explore the full spectrum of human emotions through opera.Returning to the recording scene, Sophie Junker invites us to discover these composers alongside Martyna Pastuszka, leading the {oh!} Orkiestra. Her brilliant and agile soprano flourishes in arias of fury and vengeance (Vivaldi and Lotti) as well as in the heartrending laments of an Iphigenia (Porta) or an Ariadne (Marcello). Meanwhile, Martyna Pastuszka’s violin leads one of the magnificent concertos from La Stravaganza (“The Extraordinary”)—a fitting subtitle for this program!

18th-century Venice is the ultimate setting for splendor—architectural, pictorial, theatrical, musical, and vocal. Venetian opera shines across Europe, combining dramatic intensity with the beauty of vocal lines. Just as Canaletto and Guardi capture every facet of La Serenissima in their panoramic paintings, composers seek to explore the full spectrum of human emotions through opera.Returning to the recording scene, Sophie Junker invites us to discover these composers alongside Martyna Pastuszka, leading the {oh!} Orkiestra. Her brilliant and agile soprano flourishes in arias of fury and vengeance (Vivaldi and Lotti) as well as in the heartrending laments of an Iphigenia (Porta) or an Ariadne (Marcello). Meanwhile, Martyna Pastuszka’s violin leads one of the magnificent concertos from La Stravaganza (“The Extraordinary”)—a fitting subtitle for this program!