Nature & torments
by Gabetta Consort and Franco Fagioli
Friday, July 30th, 9 pm – Valloire church
In baroque opera, the manifestations of terrestrial torments and Nature often mirror one another. As with a river caught in ice, a vessel buffeted by a storm, or again a forlorn nightingale with its love song, nothing short of divine intervention will save the hero’s tortured soul, freeing the poor wretch from his agony, or, at least, giving him the necessary strength to stand up to the ordeal.
“Nature & tourments”, a programme jointly designed by Andrés Gabetta and Franco Fagioli, borrows from the countertenor’s favourite repertoire some of the most beautiful airs from operas by Vinci, Handel… Two violin concertos by Vivaldi, the father of tone painting, will round up the programme, providing both a link and a pause between the airs.
Franco Fagioli and Andrés Gabetta will be accompanied by the Gabetta Consort in a reduced chamber music format (string quintet, harpsichord and theorbo), to foster suitable musical intimacy.
Franco Fagioli
Countertenor
© Julian Laidig
Franco Fagioli has a dazzling and powerful voice that covers three octaves ; his faultless singing technique and his artistry first earned him an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His debut recording, ‘Rossini’, his albums of Arias by Handel and Leonardo Vinci all won universal critical acclaim. His impressive discography features the title roles of operatic works by Handel, Gluck, Pergolesi, Leonardo Vinci and solo albums of Arias for Caffarelli and Porpora.
He appears at the most prestigious European opera houses, performing major Baroque and early 19th-century bel canto roles: he is Handel’s Nerone or Giulio Cesare, Rossini’s Sigismondo, or Cavalli’s Eliogabalo.
He has also achieved distinction as a concert artist, collaborating with such conductors as René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, or Christophe Rousset, to name but a few.
Andrés Gabetta
Violin & direction
© Gilles Monney
This French-Argentinian violinist first gets noticed by Christophe Coin and makes his debut in 2004 within the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, then in Basel. Very soon, he performs at major European music venues (Berliner Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien, Philharmonie de Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam…), together with worldwide famous soloists such as Cecilia Bartoli with whom he regularly collaborates.
The quality of his recordings has earned him numerous distinctions, among which several Diapasons d’Or and a Grammy Awards Nomination for his version of J.S Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.
Gabetta Consort
When founding the Gabetta Consort, Andrés Gabetta wished to (re)discover a diverse, unknown, at times unusual repertoire of French and Italian Baroque works, often enough walking the line between different musical styles. This flexible ensemble, from quintet to chamber symphony, owes its coherence to the complicity that binds the musicians who, for the most part, have played together for over ten years.
© Concerti a Teatro – photo : Jacopo Grassi
Programme
Opera arias by Handel, Porpora, Purcell and Vinci; concertos by Locatelli and Vivaldi.
Franco Fagioli, countertenor
Gabetta Consort
Awaiting cast
Andrés Gabetta, violin and direction