Boston Early Music Festival presents the final event
of its 2020-2021 Series – a FREE Virtual Performance
featuring Ensemble Correspondances and Mezzo-
Soprano Lucile Richardot in a program of 17th-
Century English Song
ARTISTS: Ensemble Correspondances
Sébastien Daucé, director
Lucile Richardot, mezzo-soprano
WHEN: Premieres Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 8pm EDT
Recorded at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris
Broadcast on BEMF’s YouTube Channel: youtube.com/bostonearly/
Available until Saturday, May 8, 2021 at 11:59pm EDT
PROGRAM: Perpetual Night: 17th-century Ayres and Songs
Robert Johnson: Care-charming sleep
John Coprario: Go, happy man
William Lawes: Whiles I this standing lake
Martin Peerson: O precious time
Lawes: Music, the master of thy art is dead
Nicholas Lanier: No more shall meads
Matthew Locke: Pavan from Suite No. 2 in C major
John Banister: Give me my lute
Robert Ramsey: Howl not, you ghosts and furies
Lawes: Britanocles the great and good appears
Locke: Ayre & Courante from Suite No. 1, Consort for 4 parts
William Webb: Powerful Morpheus, let thy charms
John Hilton: Rise, princely shepherd
Banister: Amintas, that true hearted swain
John Blow: Poor Celadon, he sighs in vain (Loving above himself)
Henry Purcell: When Orpheus sang
John Jackson: Phillis, oh! turn that face
Blow: Epilogue: Sing, sing, Ye Muses
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances are renowned for recordings and
performances that merge passion and elegance. For this virtual event, they are joined by the
hauntingly expressive voice of Lucile Richardot in a showcase of English songs from the
politically turbulent 17th century. Indulge in a fascinating exploration of England’s musical
evolution, as continental influences and social upheaval shaped the period between Dowland
and Purcell.
In their journey between these two pillars, the ensemble discovers an incredible musical world in which political and religious instability have created space for experimentation and novelty. The presence of French artists and the return of Charles II from exile colored English musical taste with the sounds of Grand Siècle France—the very sounds Ensemble Correspondances is best known for communicating. We witness the appearance of the first English recitatives and the birth of the masque, as the stage is cleared for the advent of English opera.
This program is presented in partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum, New York.
ASSOCIATED EVENTS
On Saturday, April 24, 2021, at 9:30pm EDT, we will convene a Post-Concert Q&A Session
with BEMF Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, and soprano Ellen Hargis; this Q&A Session will be moderated by BEMF Executive Director Kathy Fay, live on Zoom and YouTube.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Founded in Lyon in 2009, Ensemble Correspondances brings together under the direction of the harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé a group of singers and instrumentalists, all of whom are specialists in the music of the Grand Siècle. In a few short years of existence, Correspondances has become a benchmark ensemble in the 17th-century French repertory, performing music whose sonorities can still directly touch today’s listeners. The ensemble’s twin commitments to breathing new life into already well-known composers and restoring the image of figures less familiar today but celebrated and frequently performed in their own time has already yielded fifteen critically acclaimed recordings. Correspondances is in residence at the Théâtre de Caen. It is associate ensemble at the Opéra and Chapelle of the Château de Versailles, at the Louvre Museum and at the Théâtre de l’Aquarium at the Cartoucherie de Vincennes.
The organist and harpsichordist Sébastien Daucé is lit up with the urge to revive an abundant yet little-known repertory, the sacred and secular music of 17th-century France. Initially in demand as a continuo player and vocal répétiteur, he formed the Correspondances ensemble in Lyon in 2009, assembling around him singers and instrumentalists with a passion for the French sacred repertory of the Grand Siècle. With this ensemble, which he directs from the harpsichord or the organ, he now travels throughout France and around the world. Alongside his activities as a performing musician, Sébastien Daucé works with the leading scholars of 17th-century music, publishing regular articles and taking part in important performance practice projects. Passionately interested in questions of musical style, he edits the music that makes up the ensemble’s repertory, going so far as to recompose complete pieces when necessary. He has taught at the Pôle Supérieur de Paris since 2012. In 2018 he was guest artistic director of the London Festival of Baroque Music.
Mezzo-Soprano Lucile Richardot started singing at age 11 in a children’s choir in the East of France. She graduated in 2008 from the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, and then in 2011 from the Regional Conservatory of Paris in Early Music. Ms. Richardot specializes in early music as well as in contemporary repertoire both on the opera stage and in concert,
performing with Les Solistes XXI, Il Seminario musicale, Ensemble Correspondances,
Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, and Pulcinella. Since 2012 she has worked with Les Arts
Florissants, performing the complete madrigals of both Monteverdi and Gesualdo. In 2017, she toured Europe and the US with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra led by John Eliot Gardiner for celebrated performances of Monteverdi’s opera trilogy. She is also a highly sought-after oratorio artist, performing with orchestras such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Tafelmusik, and Les Violons du Roy. She is looking forward to her 2022 debut with Philippe Jaroussky’s Artaserse as Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and her 2023 Boston Early Music Festival operatic debut in the title role of Desmarest’s Circé.
ABOUT THE BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
Recognized as the preeminent early music presenter and Baroque opera producer in North
America, the Boston Early Music Festival has been credited with securing Boston’s
reputation as “America’s early music capital” (The Boston Globe). Founded in 1981, BEMF
offers diverse programs and activities, including one GRAMMY Award–winning and five
GRAMMY Award–nominated opera recordings, an annual concert series that brings early
music’s brightest stars to the Boston and New York concert stages, and a biennial weeklong
Festival and Exhibition recognized as the “world’s leading festival of early music” (The Times,
London). The 21st Boston Early Music Festival – themed Music of Solace & Joy – will take place online from June 6–13, 2021. BEMF’s Artistic Leadership includes Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Opera Director Gilbert Blin, Orchestra Director Robert Mealy, and Dance Director Melinda Sullivan.
The Boston Early Music Festival is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Constellation Charitable Foundation, and WCRB Classical Radio Boston, as well as a number of generous foundations and individuals from around the world.
