Marie Théoleyre

Marie Théoleyre, sopranoRémy Brès-Feuillet, altoEnsemble La PalatineGuillaume Haldenwang, harpsichordNoémie Lenhof, viola da gambaManon Papasergio, harp & viola Claudio MonteverdiThe Coronation of Poppea (excerpts)Francesco CavalliLa Calisto (excerpts)Luigi RossiOrfeo (excerpts) With L'Orfeo in 1607, Claudio Monteverdi establishes himself as the genius who gives opera then gestating its letters of nobility and all its human dimension.

Nearly four decades later, L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1642) opens the doors of Venetian opera with all its excess and irresistible melodic seduction (the music written for Poppea and Nerone displays suffocating sensuality).

His disciple, Francesco Cavalli, increases this prodigious wealth further with incomparable art whose La Calisto (1651) remains the best-known example.

But the Serene Republic is not alone in reveling in these sumptuous sonorities: at the request of Cardinal Mazarin, the Roman Luigi Rossi creates an Orfeo in Paris in 1647 that places itself in this direct line and proves to be an authentic masterpiece.

Around the red thread formed by the duets between Poppea and Nerone, the superb voices of Marie Théoleyre and Rémy Brès-Feuillet unite to celebrate this splendid repertoire, carried by the virtuosos of the ensemble La Palatine guided by harpsichordist Guillaume Haldenwang.