Mozart - Così fan tutte - Les Talens Lyriques - Théâtre du Châtelet
22 February 2024, 22:00It was wonderful to be back at the magnificent Théâtre du Châtelet in February 2024, having performed a complete Schubert symphony cycle here around this time last year. I returned, once again with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, to give ten staged performances of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte (1790). It is quite amazing to watch Christophe directing, juggling his roles as conductor and fortepianist. His concentration is unbelievable, and his accuracy on the keyboard is second to none; his genius is perhaps comparable to that of Mozart himself, who knows!
The opera featured the singers Agneta Eichenholz (Fiordiligi), Claudia Mahnke (Dorabella), Rainer Trost (Ferrando), Russell Braun (Guglielmo), Georg Nigl (Don Alfonso), and Patricia Petibon (Despina), with stage direction and set design by Dmitri Tcherniakov.
This month-long opera production (24 January–23 February 2024) was long enough for me to start feeling almost like a Parisian; I enjoyed staying in a small but well-equipped studio apartment in the Marais, on Rue de Braque, in-between Le Centre Pompidou and the Musée des Archives nationales. As someone who travels a lot, it was an enormous luxury to stay just a fifteen-minute walk away from the Théâtre du Châtelet. I was also only a short walk from many other famous sights, and the iconic Cathédrale Notre-Dame—the gradual removal of the scaffolding is currently revealing parts of the restoration.
I spent the majority of my free time in the first three weeks of the project working to finish my book (completing the first edit, designing the front cover, proofreading, writing an article for the Historic Brass Society and so on), and I spent a good amount of time discovering this vibrant area, cooking (excellent ingredients are available here), swimming at a nearby pool, and exploring the nearby horology and jewellery-making supply shops (the latter was a lucky coincidence). My wife joined me for the last week in Paris, and we explored Le Marais and beyond. We even visited Disneyland Paris—I hadn’t been to ‘Euro Disney’ for thirty years!
It was great to receive my copy of Les Talens Lyriques’ new CD ‘In the Shadows’, featuring the virtuoso tenor soloist Michael Spyres, which is due for general release in March. It was wonderful to be reminded of those recording sessions in 2022—I even played the keyed trumpet in some of the sessions. Our CD of Louise Bertin's Fausto also came out during this opera production run, and the limited edition CD-come-book I was given looks incredible!
The opera featured the singers Agneta Eichenholz (Fiordiligi), Claudia Mahnke (Dorabella), Rainer Trost (Ferrando), Russell Braun (Guglielmo), Georg Nigl (Don Alfonso), and Patricia Petibon (Despina), with stage direction and set design by Dmitri Tcherniakov.
This month-long opera production (24 January–23 February 2024) was long enough for me to start feeling almost like a Parisian; I enjoyed staying in a small but well-equipped studio apartment in the Marais, on Rue de Braque, in-between Le Centre Pompidou and the Musée des Archives nationales. As someone who travels a lot, it was an enormous luxury to stay just a fifteen-minute walk away from the Théâtre du Châtelet. I was also only a short walk from many other famous sights, and the iconic Cathédrale Notre-Dame—the gradual removal of the scaffolding is currently revealing parts of the restoration.
I spent the majority of my free time in the first three weeks of the project working to finish my book (completing the first edit, designing the front cover, proofreading, writing an article for the Historic Brass Society and so on), and I spent a good amount of time discovering this vibrant area, cooking (excellent ingredients are available here), swimming at a nearby pool, and exploring the nearby horology and jewellery-making supply shops (the latter was a lucky coincidence). My wife joined me for the last week in Paris, and we explored Le Marais and beyond. We even visited Disneyland Paris—I hadn’t been to ‘Euro Disney’ for thirty years!
It was great to receive my copy of Les Talens Lyriques’ new CD ‘In the Shadows’, featuring the virtuoso tenor soloist Michael Spyres, which is due for general release in March. It was wonderful to be reminded of those recording sessions in 2022—I even played the keyed trumpet in some of the sessions. Our CD of Louise Bertin's Fausto also came out during this opera production run, and the limited edition CD-come-book I was given looks incredible!
I look forward to rejoining Les Talens Lyriques for a Handel oratorio in Oslo next month, and we will be revisiting this Mozart opera in April in Vienna—the city where Così fan tutte was first performed.
Russell Gilmour
writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.
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Bach
Baroque
Baroque Style
BBC Proms
Beethoven
Berlioz
Biber
Brandenburg
Brandenburg Baroque Soloists
Brass Instrument Making
Broadcast
Chronicles
Classical
Concert
Cornetto
Education Outreach
English Slide Trumpet
Engraving
Festival
France
Germany
Gorczycki
Guts and Glory
Göttingen Handel Festival
Handel
Haydn
Historic Royal Palaces
Horn
Instrument
Instrument Making
Interview
Isle of Man
Keyed Trumpet
Kuhnau
Le Concert Lorrain
Lecture
Leipzig
Les Talens Lyriques
London
Masterclass
Modern Trumpet
Monteverdi
Mozart
Museum
Music
Natural Trumpet
Natural Trumpet Courses
OAE
OAEducation
Opera
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Oxford
Period Costume
Photography
Poland
Purcell
Radio Broadcast
Recording
Renaisannce
Review
Royal Academy of Music
Royal Society of Musicians
Schelle
Schütz
Shakespeare
Solomon's Knot
Spain
Spiritato!
St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Switzerland
Taverner Consort
Teaching
Telemann
The English Concert
The Netherlands
The Section
Tour
Touring
Toyota Classics Tour 2018
Travel
Trumpet
Trumpet and Organ
Venice
Ventless
Vivaldi
Vox Luminis
Wedding
Wigmore Hall
Workshop
Wrocław Baroque Orchestra
York
Zelenka
Zugtrompete
‘Just’ Natural Trumpet