Guillemette Laurens

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Guillemette Laurens (born November 6, 1957 in Fontainebleau ) is a French opera singer ( mezzo-soprano ) and specialist in early music .

biography

Guillemette's parents were also musicians, and she received her first singing lessons from her father. She later studied singing, piano and chamber music at the Toulouse Conservatory , and made her debut in 1976 at the age of 18 as Mother Goose in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress . In 1977 she began a regular collaboration with the Atelier Lyrique du Rhin, where she appeared in various operas by modern French composers.

In 1979, Guillemette Laurens was one of the founding members of the Les Arts Florissants ensemble, led by William Christie , with whom she worked closely throughout the 1980s. This resulted in numerous recordings on which the Laurens, with their stylish and highly expressive singing, played important and z. T. delivered groundbreaking interpretations, especially in the French, early Italian and English repertoire of the 17th century ( Lully , Lambert , Charpentier , Monteverdi , Rossi , Purcell ).

Since 1980 she has sung on leading stages in Europe and the USA, in Colombia, Israel, South Africa and Japan. She interpreted roles in: Die Nase by Dmitri Shostakovich , Dido and Aeneas by Purcell (Dido), Atys by Lully (Cybèle), I puritani by Bellini at the side of June Anderson , La clemenza di Tito and Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart , L'Orfeo and L'incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea and Nerone) by Monteverdi, the B minor Mass (BWV 232) by JS Bach , L'enfance du Christ by Berlioz . Guillemette Laurens also appeared in: La voix écarlate by Jacques Castérède , The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten , Der Jasager by Kurt Weill and Pierrot Lunaire by Schönberg .

Under Jean-Claude Malgoire she sang Cornelia in Handel's Giulio Cesare in the Palais Garnier, and at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence Diana in Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide with John Eliot Gardiner , and also during Bach concerts in South London Bank.

In 1998, Guillemette Laurens played the role of Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria at the Kunsten Festival des Arts in Brussels . This production was performed with the Hand Spring Puppet Company under William Kentridge and under the direction of Philippe Pierlot in Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam and Zurich. In August 1999, Guillemette Laurens also sang the role of Idonia in La catena d'Adone by Domenico Mazzocchi under Konrad Junghänel at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music . She also sang in Francesco Cavalli's Serse, Storgè in Handel's Jephta , and Medoro in Vivaldi's Orlando furioso .

She has also worked with various other ensembles and conductors, such as Philippe Herreweghe and the Chapelle Royale, Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra , Vincent Dumestre and Le Poème Harmonique, Hugo Reyne and La Simphonie du Marais, Gustav Leonhardt and La Petite Bande , Skip Sempé and Capriccio stravagante, Martin Gester and Le Parlement de Musique, Jérôme Correas and Les Paladins, Il Giardino Armonico , Sequentia and others

Teaching activities

From 1984 to 1991 and from 1994 to 1998 she taught baroque singing, and from 2011 to 2014 lyrical singing at the Conservatory of Toulouse. From 2011 to 2014 she led a singing class at the Conservatory of Toulon (Provence Méditerranée), and since 2011 at the Conservatoire Hector Berlioz in Paris. In addition, she also gives master classes, including a. in Paris and Daroca (Spain).

Award

In 2002, Guillemette Laurens was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her career and artistic representation of French culture abroad .

Discography (selection)

With Les Arts Florissants

  • 1980: Marc-Antoine Charpentier : Caecilia, Virgo et Martyr H. 397
  • 1980: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Filius Prodigus H. 399
  • 1981: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Pastorale sur la Naissance de NS Jésus-Christ H. 483
  • 1981: Claudio Monteverdi : Altri Canti
  • 1982: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum ( In Nativitatem DNJC Canticum ) H. 414
  • 1982: Luigi Rossi : Oratorios ( Il pecator pentito , O Cecità del misero mortale )
  • 1982: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Les Arts Florissants H. 487
  • 1982: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Antienne “O” de l'Avent
  • 1983: Claudio Monteverdi: Il ballo delle ingrate (Venus) and La Sestina
  • 1984: Michel Lambert : Airs de cour (1689)
  • 1986: Henry Purcell : Dido and Aeneas (Dido)
  • 1987: Jean-Baptiste Lully : Atys (Cybèle), with Agnès Mellon and Guy de Mey (Harmonia mundi France).

With the Chapelle Royale

Other

  • 1989: Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea (as Nerone), with the Concerto Vocale, René Jacobs a. a. (Harmonia mundi France).
  • 1990: Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B minor BWV 232, with La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhard a. a. (Harmonia mundi).
  • 1991: Georg Friedrich Händel : La Resurrezione , with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman.
  • 1993: Lettera amorosa (Monteverdi, Sigismondo d'India , Giulio Caccini , Luigi Rossi and others), with Luca Pianca (lute) (Teldec Classics 1993 & Apex / Warner Classics 2003)).
  • 1998: Le musiche di Bellerophonte Castaldi , with Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre (Alpha).
  • 1999: Domenico Belli: Il nuovo stile , with Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre (Alpha).
  • 2004: Gentil mia donna - Petrarca e la musica ( Guillaume Dufay , Tromboncino , Francisco de la Torre, Mudarra , Claudin de Sermisy , Caccini, Giovanni Gabrieli and others), with Fuoco e cenere, Jay Bernfeld (Arion 2004).
  • 2005: Jean-Baptiste Lully: Isis , with La Simphonie du Marais, Hugo Reyne.

Roles at the Paris Opéra

  • Lully: Atys (Cybèle)
  • Lully: Isis (Junon)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens : Large Singer Lexicon 4th Edition, Volume 4, p. 2631, KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2004
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Guillemette Laurens (Mezzo-soprano). Biography on bach-cantatas.com, accessed November 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ Guillemette Laurens, contralto. Biography on the website of your agency Ariën Artists (French, partly also English)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Guillemette Laurens, mezzo-soprano. Curriculum vitae on the website of the Ensemble Les Passions (French), accessed on December 1, 2017.
  5. ↑ According to sources other than Baba in the opera of the same name. See: Guillemette Laurens (mezzo-soprano). Biography on bach-cantatas.com, accessed November 27, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Laurens, Guillemette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French opera singer (mezzo-soprano) and specialist in early music
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Fontainebleau