Giacomo Meyerbeer: Gli Amori di Teolinda (Live at Opera, Lausanne) Lenneke Ruiten, Davide Bandieri & Diego Fasolis

• Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 - 1864): Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes:
• 1 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: I. Introduzione (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 02:50
• 2 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: II. Cavatine (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 05:14
• 3 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: III. Recitativo (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 02:29
• 4 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: IV. Allegro moderato (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 08:40
• 5 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: V. Coro del Pastori (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 02:38
• 6 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: VI. Recitativo (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 02:36
• 7 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: VII. Andante con Variazioni (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 04:35
• 8 Gli amori di Teolinda, cantate pastorale pour voix, clarinette et choeur d'hommes: VIII. Allegro molto moderato (Live at Opera, Lausanne) 09:50
• Total Runtime 38:52

Info for Giacomo Meyerbeer: Gli Amori di Teolinda (Live at Opera, Lausanne)

Berliner by birth, from a wealthy family who gave him a complete education, piano prodigy, Giacomo Meyerbeer remained in the history of music thanks to his great French operas, premiered at the Paris Opera in the 1830s and 1860s, such as Robert le Diable, Les Huguenots, Le Prophète, L’Africaine, or at the Opéra Comique, such as L’étoile du Nord and Dinorah. Occasionally revived nowadays, these great lyrical frescoes in 5 acts met at the time with an audience receptive to the human passions that filled the lyrics, whilst imposing ballets and substantial scenography gave them a much-appreciated local touch, the whole based on famous pages of history. Meyerbeer was at the time performed more than Verdi or Wagner. Not so with Gli amori di Teolinda, a pastoral cantata, written on a text by Gaetano Rossi, a prolific Veronese librettist, on behalf of Rossini (Tancredi, Semiramide...), Donizetti (Linda di Chamounix...) and later Meyerbeer in his Italian period. Indeed, no great span of history runs through the story of Teolinda’s unfortunate passion for the shepherd Armidoro. Meyerbeer was 25 years old when Teolinda was premiered in Verona in 1816.

Five years earlier, the success of both his oratorio Gott und die Natur and lyrical premieres that were acclaimed in Munich and Stuttgart encouraged him to compose for the stage. However, he was aware that true lyrical culture could only be achieved through contact with Italy, where Rossini triumphed. Meyerbeer was to immerse himself in it, integrating its vocal and instrumental writing. Gli amori di Teolinda reveals this with the virtuosity of the solo clarinet, often concertante with Rossini, and the stunning coloratura required of the soprano. Clarinettist Heinrich Baermann and soprano Helene Harlas, childhood friends of Meyerbeer’s whom he met again in Verona, were the first interpreters of Teolinda. In this small bucolic drama, as far as the voice of the shepherd Armidoro is concerned, Teolinda only perceives the echo of a presence suggested by the clarinet, insensitive to her complaint, unable to give her the response she would like. The interventions of the shepherds’ choir, however entertaining they may be, do nothing to alleviate the pain of the lovesick Teolinda, finally won over by the virtuosity of the elusive clarinet, alias Armidoro, in a concertato of the purest, perfectly mastered Rossinian style.

One should also recall Mozart in Teolinda’s heartfelt complaints as well as in the use of the clarinet. In this easy-going 18th-century classicism script, still appreciated in 1815, with its pastoral moors, its shepherds and its slightly conventional plot, Meyerbeer already revealed what was to become his trademark: that of a composer skilled in handling different styles, a master of orchestration unrivalled by his peers and contemporaries whenever it came to giving his characters the humanity and credibility essential to the art of lyricism.

Lenneke Ruiten, soprano
Davide Bandieri, clarinet
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
Diego Fasolis, conductor

Lenneke Ruiten
studied the flute and singing at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague and the Bayerische Theaterakademie in Munich. In 2002 she received several awards at the International Vocal Competition in ’s-Hertogenbosch. Currently, she is one of the most sought-after sopranos and follows an acclaimed international career in both opera and concert performances. She has sung at the Opéra de Paris, at Teatro alla Scala, at La Monnaie, and in Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Vienna and Lausanne in some of Mozart’s roles, such as Konstanze, Pamina, Susanna, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna and Giunia (Lucio Silla); she has also sung Zerbinetta, Almirena, Sophie, Ophélie, Iphigenie and Angelica (Orlando), and the title-role in Lucia di Lammermoor.

She is a regular guest at the festivals of Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Mostly Mozart Festival, BBC Proms, Leipzig Bach Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Lucerne Festival, Holland Festival and the Drottningholm Festival. Her plans include Agathe (Der Freischütz) in Strasbourg, Rinaldo at the Ópera de Oviedo, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi and the title-role in Maria Stuarda at La Monnaie. At the Opéra de Lausanne: Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (2010), Almirena in Rinaldo (2011), and Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor (2017).

Davide Bandieri
Principal clarinettist of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Davide Bandieri was taught by Dario Goracci at the Istituto Superiore di studi musicali Pietro Mascagni in Livorno from which he graduated in 1997. He completed his education with Fabrizio Meloni and Karl Heinz Steffens, then on the Mythos course at the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini with Alessandro Carbonare.

In 2002, he won first prize at the triennial chamber music competition at the International Piano Academy ‘Incontri col Maestro’ in Imola. From 2004 to 2011, he played solo E-flat clarinet with the Orquesta Sinfônica de Madrid. Since 2012, he has been first solo clarinet with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and first clarinet with the Camerata Strumentale orchestra in Prato (Tuscany). He has worked with numerous orchestras and prestigious conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Harding, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kent Nagano, Gianluigi Gelmetti and Bruno Bartoletti. He is also very active in the creation of contemporary music.

The Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (OCL)
founded in 1942 by violinist Victor Desarzens, has continued to spread its wings to become one of today’s most sought-after chamber orchestras in Europe. The OCL’s latest tour de force was the appointment in 2015 of US citizen Joshua Weilerstein, one of the most promising young directors of the new generation, as its artistic director. The OCL is a classical orchestra (an orchestra with about forty instrumentalists) influenced by the Mannheim school, covering a vast repertoire ranging from early Baroque to contemporary music.

From its beginnings, the OCL was invited abroad, participating at the the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence from the second edition on. The concert tours first in Germany and then in the United States were a resounding success, as were its more recent performances at the Theatre of Champs Elysées in Paris and the BBC Proms in London. Among the OCL’s recent guest appearances, it is worth mentioning the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the Rostropovich Festival in Moscow, the Istanbul Festival, the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Berliner Philharmonie. In 2018-2019, the OCL performed for the first time with the pianist Chick Corea at Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona and played at the Rostropovich Festival Baku, Azerbaijan.

The OCL’s concerts showcase the work of great soloists of the past and of rising stars, including pianists from Clara Haskil, Alfred Cortot, Walter Gieseking and Edwin Fischer to Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu, Martha Argerich and Nikolai Lugansky; violinists from Arthur Grumiaux to Frank Peter Zimmermann; cellists from Paul Tortelier to Truls Mørk; and flutists from Jean-Pierre Rampal to Emmanuel Pahud. The biggest names have contributed to its renown, and continue to do so, which is testimony of the trust they place in the OCL. The OCL has a history of attracting the most compelling conductors of the time, and has benefited from a wide variety of influences under the baton of the likes of Günter Wand to Christoph Eschenbach; Paul Hindemith to Ton Koopman; or Jeffrey Tate to Bertrand de Billy (the current principal Guest Conductor). The OCL has an impressive discography perfectly in phase with the OCL’s historical identity. The OCL’s recordings constantly mirror its spirit of openness, starting with a recording of all of Haydn’s operas conducted by Antal Dorati from 1970 to 1980 to the Beethoven concertos played by Christian Zacharias (released on DVD by Bel Air Media in 2013), including new recordings by Alpha of the piano pieces by Schönberg and Webern (with Heinz Holliger) and of Spohr (with Paul Meyer). The first recording conducted by Joshua Weilerstein is dedicated to Stravinsky (released by MDG in Spring 2016). The OCL is housed in the Salle Métropole, which is ideally located in the heart of Lausanne. ...

Diego Fasolis
began his career in the 1980s as a concert organist. Appointed chief conductor of the vocal and instrumental groups at the Italian language branch of Swiss radio and television, he also conducted the ensemble I Barocchisti, an orchestra dedicated to the baroque repertoire played on period instruments, which he founded with Adriana Fasolis-Brambilla, a name familiar to audiences in Lausanne. Regularly invited to the Salzburg Festival, he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Musikverein in Vienna, with the Concentus Musicus in Vienna and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir. More recently, for La Scala he created an orchestra playing period instruments with which he then conducted The Triumph of Time and Truth. In 2017, he also conducted Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo. His recent and future plans include La finta giardiniera at La Scala, L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Staatsoper Berlin, Agnese (Ferdinando Paër) and Così fan tutte at the Teatro Regio in Turin, and Dorilla in Tempe at La Fenice. At the Opéra de Lausanne: Faramondo (2009), Rinaldo (2011), Farnace (2011), L’Artaserse (2012), Dorilla in Tempe (2014), Die Zauberflöte (2015), Ariodante (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), and Orphée et Eurydice (2019).

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