The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was founded in 1991 by Christophe Rousset. By choosing the name, the conductor attested to his passionate interest in an 18th century music repertoire which he has fortunately begun to re-introduce to the public. Rousset, however, has in no way neglected composers of the previous century.

The repertoire ranges from Monteverdi (L'Incoronazione di Poppea) to Handel (Scipione, Riccardo Primo, Rinaldo, Admeto, Giulio Cesare, Serse, Tamerlano, Alcina), Lully (Persée, Roland), Cimarosa (Il Mercato di Malmantile, Il Matrimonio Segreto), Traetta (Antigona, Ippolito ed Aricia), Jommelli (Armida abbandonata), Martin y Soler (La Capricciosa Corretta) and even Mozart (Mitridate, Re di Ponto).

Les Talens Lyriques is the result of Christophe Rousset's passion for the opera and, as we said above, especially for the 18th century. As a harpsichord player, he maintained that an instrument should be treated in the same way as the voice. Furthermore, his theatrical approach is indissociable from the interpretation aspect as illustrated in his work with producers such as Jean-Marie Villégier, Philippe Lénaël, Jean-Claude Berutti, Pierre Audi, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Lindsay Kemp, Marco Arturo Marelli, Eric Vigner, Jérôme Deschamps, Marcial di Fonzo Bo and Francisco Negrin.

Portraits des Talens Lyriques
Along with the attention given to opera goes the work of exploration of other musical genres from the same period, such as the motet (Dumont, Daniélis), madrigals, cantatas (Clérambault, Brossard, Montéclair) and French court arias (Dumont, Lambert, de La Barre). In exploring this repertoire Christophe Rousset surrounds himself with singers and instrumentalists belonging to the "new baroque generation". A regular collaboration enables thorough work on style specific to each particular music, be it sacred or secular, of this period.

One of the aims of Christophe Rousset is to illustrate a portion of the French musical heritage, along the Paris-Naples axis, a highlight of 18th century European music.

Les Talens Lyriques has recorded for DECCA (Universal Music), Naïve and Ambroisie. In 1994, the ensemble has realised the original sound track of the film Farinelli il Castrato. In 2001, it won the Classical Music Victory.

Les Talens Lyriques are funded by the French Department of Culture and Communication.

The ensemble is member of the FEVIS (Federation for Vocal and Specialized Instrumental Ensembles).

 

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