Passion – Back to Lully

Véronique Gens, a great internationally recognized soloist, wished to sign a return to the French baroque repertoire, a repertoire that is dear to her and in which she made her debut. A first concert at the Ambronay festival in 2018 allowed Véronique Gens and the ensemble Les Surprises to meet. It then seemed obvious to continue this
collaboration with a new program, through pages sometimes known but often unpublished.

We have chosen to place this opera from the point of view of a famous singer : Marie Le Rochois. Great star of the time discovered by Lully, she created all the great roles of this one (Armide, Galatée…) as well as the roles of her successors : Médée de Charpentier, Juno in Achille and Polixène de Collasse… In addition to having been the great soloist of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, she then founded a singing school in which she trained the soloists who created the roles of Campra, Rameau …
It also seemed very interesting to us to probe this particular period of Lully’s death, which then left the possibility for many composers to express themselves in opera and to prove their worth, since previously the great Superintendent had a privilege to the performance of dramatic works in Paris. This is how Charpentier had to wait until the end of his life to create and have his masterpiece Medea performed, but also Collasse (pupil of Lully) was able to emerge from
his anonymity.
This creation resulted in a recording in November 2020 at the Arsenal in Metz for a release on the Alpha Classics
label.