Artist Profiles

Venice, Naples, and especially Rome, his stay in Italy (1706–1710) confirmed his passion for Italian opera, and Handel met with a success that earned him the nickname “Il Caro Sassone” (the dear Saxon). In Rome, he developed his musical language in contact with musicians employed by the great aristocratic families, such as Alessandro Scarlatti and especially Arcangelo Corelli. Corelli’s influence was essential: the Olympian harmonies and the nobility of Handel’s singing were born in the crucible of Corellian art. Even in the dramatic paroxysms of his operas, Handel retained an intrinsic bearing that set him apart from his Neapolitan colleagues. Handel established himsel in London in stages. In 1711, his opera Rinaldo, with Nicolini in the title role, was an extraordinary success. To this day, Rinaldo is among his most famous works, and the somber “Cara sposa,” in which Rinaldo mourns the fate of his beloved Almirena, kidnapped by the magician Armida, displays Handel’s incredible melodic

and dramatic instincts. The reception given to Rinaldo convinced him that the English public was ready to receive Italian innovations: Handel had found his life’s purpose and, from 1720 onward, worked obstinately to impose the opera seria in England, composing immense masterpieces— Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Ariodante, and many others. Gradually, however, the enthusiasm of the early years faded, as English music lovers grew tired of the clichés attached to Italian opera and resented the capricious attitude of the great singers. The composer’s art never wavered: Il Giustino (1737) GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL was produced in a period of Portrait attributed to Balthasar Denner extreme financial difficulty (1726–1728) but was praised for its effort to modernize musical language, the aria “Se parla nel mio cor” retaining Handel’s supreme musical refinement. Handel was finally forced to give up, but only to start again: with Messiah in 1741, the time of the English oratorio had arrived, and Handel brought this genre to unheard-of heights. n

Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky has established himself as one of the major singers in the international musical world as confirmed by the French Victoires de la Musique (“Revelation Artiste Lyrique” in 2004, “Artiste lyrique de l’année” in 2007 and 2010) and at the Echo Klassik Awards in Germany in 2008 in Munich (Singer of the Year), in 2009 in Dresden (with L’Arpeggiata), and again in 2016 in Berlin.

An impressive mastery of vocal technique allows performances full of nuance and vocal acrobatics. Philippe Jaroussky’s vast repertoire of the Baroque era ranges from the refinements of the Italian Seicento with Monteverdi, Sances, and Rossi, to the staggering brilliance of Handel and Vivaldi, the latter recently being one of his most performed composers. Philippe is also tirelessly at the forefront of musical research and made strong contributions to the discovery—or rediscovery—of composers such as Caldara, Porpora, Steffani, Telemann, and Johann Christian Bach.

Lately, he has also explored the very different repertoire of French melodies accompanied by pianist Jérôme Ducros. He has recently proposed his own vision of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été with performances at the

Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

Increasingly captivated by contemporary works, Jaroussky performed a song cycle composed by Marc-André Dalbavie from the sonnets of Louise Labé. He premiered Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound Remains, specifically written for his voice, at Nederlande Opera Ballet in Amsterdam in March 2016.

Philippe Jaroussky has had the pleasure of collaborating with some of the best Baroque ensembles. He has performed to high acclaim in the most prestigious festivals and concert halls around the world.

In 2002, he founded Ensemble Artaserse, which currently performs throughout Europe and across the globe.

In January 2017, Philippe inaugurated the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He was invited as its first artist in residence. The 2019–2020 season marked the twentieth anniversary of his career with a number of major events such as the inclusion of his statue at the Musée Grévin in Paris, the publication of the biographical book Seule compte la musique, and the release of the three-CD anthology Passion.

March 2021 saw Philippe Jaroussky’s début as a conductor at the head of his Artaserse ensemble with the production of Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Il primo omicidio. This program was performed at venues including the Salzburg Festival and Opéra de Montpellier, which will become the residence of Philippe and Artaserse for the next three seasons.

He has continued as a conductor in 2022, with numerous concerts in Paris, Lyon, Montpellier, Budapest, and at the Epau and Halle Festivals.

At the end of May and beginning of June 2022, in Paris and Montpellier, Philippe conducted his first opera from the pit, Handel’s Giulio Cesare, with a superlative cast of singers including Sabine Devieilhe, Gaëlle Arquez, Franco Fagioli, Carlo Vistoli, and Lucile Richardot.

During the 2022–2023 season, Philippe conducts the stage production of Sartorio’s Orfeo at Opéra de Montpellier. He performs the role of Ruggiero in a production of Handel’s Alcina alongside Cecilia Bartoli in Monte Carlo. In addition, Philippe is in recital across the Atlantic with guitarist Thibaut Garcia at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato and at Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and with Les Violons du Roy and MarieNicole Lemieux in Montreal and Quebec City. He joins Artaserse for concerts in Boston, San Diego, and Toronto, and performs with L’Arpeggiata and Christina Pluhar at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Philippe Jaroussky has been an exclusive artist with Erato/Warner Classics for many years and has received numerous awards for his outstanding discography.

In March 2017, a project dear to his heart came to fruition: the Academy Philippe Jaroussky. In its first five years, the Academy has supported young musicians suffering from cultural isolation, through original, extensive, and demanding teaching.

In 2019, Philippe Jaroussky was appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. n In 2002, after many collaborations in the most prestigious Baroque ensembles in France and Europe, several musicians decided to form Ensemble Artaserse. Those friends were Christine Plubeau (viola da gamba), Claire Antonini (theorbo), Yoko Nakamura (harpsichord and organ) and, of course, Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor). In October 2002, they gave a first and highly acclaimed concert in the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris of the Musiche a voce sola by the Italian composer Benedetto Ferrari. This music was immediately recorded and released by the French label Ambroisie, and received a number of very prestigious awards, including Diapasondecouverte by the magazine Diapason, 10 de Classica-Repertoire, and Timbre de diamant by the magazine Opera International.

Over the twenty years since, Artaserse has established a reputation as one of the most exciting period instrument ensembles. With an ability to adapt to numerous repertoires including music by Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel, the ensemble has been invited to perform in the most prestigious venues, series, and festivals in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and around the world with great success.

In recent seasons, Artaserse has collaborated with many great singers including countertenor Andreas Scholl, contraltos Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Nathalie Stutzmann, and sopranos Cecilia Bartoli and Emőke Baráth.

For the first time, in May and June of 2022, Ensemble Artaserse and Philippe Jaroussky were in the pit for the stage production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Opéra de Montpellier. They will be in residence at the Opéra de Montpellier in the following seasons.

In addition to Ferrari’s Musiche a voce sola, the ensemble’s discography includes two widely acclaimed albums for Virgin Classics, Virtuoso cantatas by Vivaldi and Beata Vergine with 17th-century Italian music devoted to the Virgin Mary (Timbre de Platine from Opera International). Artaserse has recorded several albums for Erato/Warner Classics: Pietà, which explores Vivaldi’s sacred music; The Handel Album, which combines famous arias with unpublished operas by the composer; Ombra mai fu, which opens the doors to the fascinating world of Cavalli’s operas; and La Vanità del Mondo, a CD that gathers true sacred jewels from the 17th and 18th centuries. For the recently released album Dualità, on which Emőke Baráth sings the great arias of Handel’s operas, Philippe Jaroussky makes his début as the conductor of a recording. n