Leonardo García Alarcón, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Biography Leonardo García Alarcón, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de Chambre de Namur
Marie Lys
First prize winner of the Competition for Baroque Opera Cesti 2018 and of the Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini 2017, Marie Lys has collaborated with conductors such as Diego Fasolis, Alessandro De Marchi, Fabio Biondi, Christophe Rousset, Leonardo García Alarcón, Ottavio Dantone, Emmanuelle Haïm, Maxim Emelyanychev, Laurence Cummings, Guillaume Tourniaire, Laurence Equilbey, Jonathan Nott, Dmitry Sinkovsky and Dorothée Oberlinger.
More recently, Marie has enjoyed considerable success with Handel, performing Ariodante (Ginevra) and Lotario (Adelaide) both under Laurence Cummings for the Göttingen International Handel Festival, Orlando (Dorinda) under Dani Espasa in a new Rafael R. Villalobos production for the Festival Castell Peralada, Solomon (First Harlot, The Queen of Sheeba) with Peter Dijkstra/The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Utrecht and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Bellezza) alongside Fabio Biondi in Granada.
Moreover, she appeared as Dalinda (Ariodante) at the London Handel Festival, Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) at the Bury Court Opera, and Galatea (Acis and Galatea) at Opéra de Massy.
She enjoys a close association with the Opera of her hometown Lausanne where she took the stage as Morgana (Handel, Alcina) with Diego Fasolis/Stefano Poda, Sophie (Massenet, Werther) in a Laurent Campellone/Vincent Boussard production, Lisa (Bellini, La Sonnambula), Adele (J. Strauss, Die Fledermaus) and L’Amour (Gluck, Orphée et Eurydice).
Marie Lys was awarded the Audience Prizes at both the Concours de chant de Toulouse (2019) and London Handel Singing Competition (2016). She won the First Prize at the Göttinger Reihe Historischer Musik Competition with the Abchordis Ensemble (2015) she co-founded in 2011. Their two recordings, “Stabat Mater” and “Dies Irae”, were published by Sony DHM.
For Naïve, she has recorded Vivaldi’s long-lost opera Argippo under Fabio Biondi/Europa Galante, leading to the release of a CD and followed by a tour through Europe. Again with Maestro Biondi, she appeared in the title role in Donizetti’s opera buffa Betly for the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw.
The 2022/2023 season sees Marie performing Massenet’s Werther (Sophie) at Opéra de Tours, Bernstein’s Candide (Cunégonde) at Opéra de Lausanne, Vivaldi’s Tamerlano (Irene) on an Italian tour with Ottavio Dantone and Messiah under the baton of Franco Fagioli in Versailles and Barcelona.
With Christophe Rousset and his Talens Lyriques, Marie presents Lully’s Thésée at Theater an der Wien, Bruxelles Bozar and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
She sings Vivaldi’s Gloria under Fabio Biondi and the Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Il Giustino (Leocasta) by the same composer alongside Andrea Marcon/La Cetra in Basel, Amsterdam and Hamburg.
Marie reunites with Leonardo García Alarcón/Cappella Mediterranea for a recital at Radio France in Paris and for Philippe d’Orléans’s Jérusalem délivrée, ou la Suite d’Armide (Herminie) they will present among other cities in Versailles.
With her ensemble Abchordis she presents a new programme of unpublished baroque opera arias written for Anna Maria Strada, of which a recording will be published soon.
Most recently, Marie stepped in at short notice to replace Cecilia Bartoli for the title role in Handel’s Alcina at the Florence Teatro del Maggio Musicale alongside Gianluca Capuano and Damiano Michieletto.
Véronique Gens
born in Orléans, first studied English and then singing at the Paris Conservatoire. Her repertoire includes roles such as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Agathe (Der Freischütz), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), La Contessa di Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Mrs Alice Ford (Falstaff), Hanna Glawari (Die lustige Witwe), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites) and the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride. She has sung at opera houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Vienna, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Tokyo as well as at the Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festivals. She made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera in 2005 as Giunone in the premiere of La Calisto and has since sung La Contessa di Almaviva, Donna Elvira and Mrs Alice Ford, among others.
Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon
In just a few short years, Argentine conductor, harpsichordist and composer Leonardo García Alarcón has become a leading figure in the world’s top music and opera institutions, from the Opéra de Paris to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and Geneva’s Grand Théâtre.
As a conductor and harpsichordist, he is regularly invited to perform in festivals and concert halls all over the world. In November 2018, he conducted a production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo directed by Sasha Waltz at the Berlin Staatsoper. He is a regular guest of Les Violons du Roy in Canada, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. After triumphantly directing Les Indes Galantes at the Opéra Bastille, he was named best conductor in Forum Opéra’s 2019 awards.
He divides his time between France, Belgium, his native South America and Switzerland. Transmitting knowledge is one of his top priorities, and he has taught Maestro al Cembalo at Geneva’s Haute école de musique since 2002.
In 2020, Leonardo García Alarcón became director of La Cité Bleue, a 300-seat concert hall in Geneva that is currently being renovated. It is due to open in 2024, but its programming already launched in 2023 with an initial season off-site.
Cappella Mediterranea
Founded in 2005 by Argentine conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, Cappella Mediterranea has swiftly become the leading Baroque ensemble in the world. Driven by the insatiable curiosity of its conductor, the ensemble constantly seeks to broaden its horizons with a wide range of repertoire.
“There is a phenomenal energy to Leonardo García Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea, a movement that holds you captive until the end.”
“In the pit, Cappella Mediterranea displays a magnetic sensuality. In this sumptuous setting, strings croon and woodwinds intertwine.“
