Neglected since Charpentier's death, the oratorio genre finds in Clerambault a worthy successor to the master with his poignant version of the biblical story l'Histoire de la Femme adultere.... more

1694: the first French opera composed by a woman is premiered at the Academie royale de musique. The fateful destiny of the Greek lovers, driven to blindness and horror by the gods: Cephalus will... more

The term 'brunette' refers not only to a young woman with brown hair, but also to a musical form that was highly fashionable from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth. The genre... more

Tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen concludes his trilogy dedicated to hautes-contre with "Legros; Gluck's haute-contre". Joseph Legros (1739-1793) was a singer at the Paris Opéra; renowned for his... more

This is a baroque dream: a performance of the sacred drama David and Jonathas, a masterpiece by Charpentier and one of the miracles of French opera, in the Royal Chapel of Versailles! In 1688, the... more

Fresh from his triumphant onstage success in Paris, Berlin and Brussels singing leading roles in the operas of Rameau and Mozart, tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen presents his long-awaited first Mozart... more

Nearly a century before Gluck, another opera called Iphigenie en Tauride - same plot, same protagonists - had immense success on the opera stage. This 'first' Iphigenie has rather a curious history.... more