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Le Poème Harmonique, a group of soloists who came together in 1998 under the direction of Vincent Dumestre, centres its artistic activity on music of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth century.
The group's vocal and instrumental interpretations are enriched by other disciplines, with actors and dancers joining its singers and musicians in programmes of chamber works – Le Ballet des Fées, Il Fasolo – and, since 2004, in large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar) and Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat), an original show combining Italian music with the circus arts (artists trained at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque). For operatic performances as Cadmus et Hermione by Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar), Le Poème Harmonique studies in depth the correspondences between 'period' aesthetics – use of candles for lighting, authentic gestures and, for Cadmus, painted canvases and machinery – and the aesthetics of modern stage productions. Interaction between artistic disciplines and real teamwork – working together as a company – are Le Poème Harmonique's hallmark in Baroque performance today.
The ensemble also gets back to the sources of early French and Italian music through exploration of its relationships with traditional or folk music. The recording Aux Marches du Palais, for example, is devoted to French songs of oral tradition.
Since it was founded, Le Poème Harmonique has made many concert tours in Europe and other parts of the world, including Latin America and the Far East, but the ensemble continues to devote twenty-five percent of its activity to the Haute-Normandie Region. The outstanding events of the past three seasons include the exceptional success of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Baroque Carnival, with about forty five performances of each, in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Cité de la Musique), Lyon (Théâtre des Célestins), Rouen (Opéra), Avignon (Opéra), Caen, Reims, Limoges, Metz (Arsenal), Nantes (Le Printemps des Arts), Brussels (Bozar), Utrecht (Festival), Prague (National Theatre), Budapest (Spring Festival), San Francisco (Calperf Festival) and so on. Other highlights of the same period include long term stays in Brussels (Bozar) and San Francisco (Cal Performances) and first appearances at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at the major festivals in Boston ( Boston Early Music Festival) and Granada (International Festival).
The most important production for 2008 and 2009 is the ensemble's first full-scale opera, Cadmus et Hermione, which is also the first tragédie lyrique by Lully to be presented on stage at the Opéra Comique in Paris since Atys. After its parisian premiere in January 2008, acclaimed as one of the most important productions given in the recent seasons, the production has been given in February 2008 in Rouen (Opéra), and was revived in March-April 2009 in Caen, Aix-en-Provence and Luxembourg. Another outstanding event, Le Poème Harmonique celebrates its tenth anniversary with a carte blanche given by the Automne en Normandie Festival, with ten performances and concerts everywhere in the region. Abroad, the ensemble made successful New York debuts in March 2008, starting a partnership with Columbia University, Miller Teatre, and undertook its first tour in China and Japan in April 2009, while continuating to tour Europe intensively.
Forthcoming engagements for 2010 to 2012 include a new opera production, Cavalli's L'Egisto, that will be premiered in Paris at the Opéra Comique; revivals of Cadmus et Hermione, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Baroque Carnival on major european stages; concert tours in Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
The ensemble's recordings for the Alpha label have met with rare public success (over 150,000 CDs and DVDs sold since 1998) and with great critical acclaim; it has received the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, Diapason d'Or (including Best DVD of 2006 for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme), recommendations from Opéra International, Classica, Le Monde de la Musique, Prelude Classical Award 2003, Antonio Vivaldi International Award (Cini Foundation, Venice) and the Caecilia Press Prize, to mention just a few. Its most recent release, the DVD of Cadmus et Hermione, was greeted with outstanding critical and public acclaim.
Le Poème Harmonique is subsidised by the French Ministry of Culture (DRAC Haute-Normandie), the Haute-Normandie Region. It works in collaboration with the Research Group of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, and with the Fondation Royaumont, and it is a member of the Federation of Specialised Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles, FEVIS.
The group's vocal and instrumental interpretations are enriched by other disciplines, with actors and dancers joining its singers and musicians in programmes of chamber works – Le Ballet des Fées, Il Fasolo – and, since 2004, in large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar) and Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat), an original show combining Italian music with the circus arts (artists trained at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque). For operatic performances as Cadmus et Hermione by Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar), Le Poème Harmonique studies in depth the correspondences between 'period' aesthetics – use of candles for lighting, authentic gestures and, for Cadmus, painted canvases and machinery – and the aesthetics of modern stage productions. Interaction between artistic disciplines and real teamwork – working together as a company – are Le Poème Harmonique's hallmark in Baroque performance today.
The ensemble also gets back to the sources of early French and Italian music through exploration of its relationships with traditional or folk music. The recording Aux Marches du Palais, for example, is devoted to French songs of oral tradition.
Since it was founded, Le Poème Harmonique has made many concert tours in Europe and other parts of the world, including Latin America and the Far East, but the ensemble continues to devote twenty-five percent of its activity to the Haute-Normandie Region. The outstanding events of the past three seasons include the exceptional success of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Baroque Carnival, with about forty five performances of each, in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Cité de la Musique), Lyon (Théâtre des Célestins), Rouen (Opéra), Avignon (Opéra), Caen, Reims, Limoges, Metz (Arsenal), Nantes (Le Printemps des Arts), Brussels (Bozar), Utrecht (Festival), Prague (National Theatre), Budapest (Spring Festival), San Francisco (Calperf Festival) and so on. Other highlights of the same period include long term stays in Brussels (Bozar) and San Francisco (Cal Performances) and first appearances at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at the major festivals in Boston ( Boston Early Music Festival) and Granada (International Festival).
The most important production for 2008 and 2009 is the ensemble's first full-scale opera, Cadmus et Hermione, which is also the first tragédie lyrique by Lully to be presented on stage at the Opéra Comique in Paris since Atys. After its parisian premiere in January 2008, acclaimed as one of the most important productions given in the recent seasons, the production has been given in February 2008 in Rouen (Opéra), and was revived in March-April 2009 in Caen, Aix-en-Provence and Luxembourg. Another outstanding event, Le Poème Harmonique celebrates its tenth anniversary with a carte blanche given by the Automne en Normandie Festival, with ten performances and concerts everywhere in the region. Abroad, the ensemble made successful New York debuts in March 2008, starting a partnership with Columbia University, Miller Teatre, and undertook its first tour in China and Japan in April 2009, while continuating to tour Europe intensively.
Forthcoming engagements for 2010 to 2012 include a new opera production, Cavalli's L'Egisto, that will be premiered in Paris at the Opéra Comique; revivals of Cadmus et Hermione, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Baroque Carnival on major european stages; concert tours in Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
The ensemble's recordings for the Alpha label have met with rare public success (over 150,000 CDs and DVDs sold since 1998) and with great critical acclaim; it has received the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, Diapason d'Or (including Best DVD of 2006 for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme), recommendations from Opéra International, Classica, Le Monde de la Musique, Prelude Classical Award 2003, Antonio Vivaldi International Award (Cini Foundation, Venice) and the Caecilia Press Prize, to mention just a few. Its most recent release, the DVD of Cadmus et Hermione, was greeted with outstanding critical and public acclaim.
Le Poème Harmonique is subsidised by the French Ministry of Culture (DRAC Haute-Normandie), the Haute-Normandie Region. It works in collaboration with the Research Group of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, and with the Fondation Royaumont, and it is a member of the Federation of Specialised Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles, FEVIS.
Le Poème Harmonique, a group of soloists who came together in 1998 under the direction of Vincent Dumestre, centres its artistic activity on music of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth century.
The group's vocal and instrumental interpretations are enriched by other disciplines, with actors and dancers joining its singers and musicians in programmes of chamber works – Le Ballet des Fées, Il Fasolo – and, since 2004, in large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar) and Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat), an original show combining Italian music with the circus arts (artists trained at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque). For operatic performances as Cadmus et Hermione by Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar), Le Poème Harmonique studies in depth the correspondences between 'period' aesthetics – use of candles for lighting, authentic gestures and, for Cadmus, painted canvases and machinery – and the aesthetics of modern stage productions. Interaction between artistic disciplines and real teamwork – working together as a company – are Le Poème Harmonique's hallmark in Baroque performance today.
The ensemble also gets back to the sources of early French and Italian music through exploration of its relationships with traditional or folk music. The recording Aux Marches du Palais, for example, is devoted to French songs of oral tradition.
The ensemble's recordings for the Alpha label have been met with rare public success (over 150,000 CDs and DVDs sold since 1998) and with great critical acclaim. Le Poème Harmonique is subsidised by the French Ministry of Culture (DRAC Haute-Normandie), the Haute-Normandie Region. It works in collaboration with the Research Group of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, and with the Fondation Royaumont, and it is a member of the Federation of Specialised Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles, FEVIS.
The group's vocal and instrumental interpretations are enriched by other disciplines, with actors and dancers joining its singers and musicians in programmes of chamber works – Le Ballet des Fées, Il Fasolo – and, since 2004, in large-scale stage productions, such as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar) and Baroque Carnival (directed by Cécile Roussat), an original show combining Italian music with the circus arts (artists trained at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque). For operatic performances as Cadmus et Hermione by Lully (stage director Benjamin Lazar), Le Poème Harmonique studies in depth the correspondences between 'period' aesthetics – use of candles for lighting, authentic gestures and, for Cadmus, painted canvases and machinery – and the aesthetics of modern stage productions. Interaction between artistic disciplines and real teamwork – working together as a company – are Le Poème Harmonique's hallmark in Baroque performance today.
The ensemble also gets back to the sources of early French and Italian music through exploration of its relationships with traditional or folk music. The recording Aux Marches du Palais, for example, is devoted to French songs of oral tradition.
The ensemble's recordings for the Alpha label have been met with rare public success (over 150,000 CDs and DVDs sold since 1998) and with great critical acclaim. Le Poème Harmonique is subsidised by the French Ministry of Culture (DRAC Haute-Normandie), the Haute-Normandie Region. It works in collaboration with the Research Group of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, and with the Fondation Royaumont, and it is a member of the Federation of Specialised Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles, FEVIS.
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