TF1/LCIInterview with Damien Guillon and Emmanuelle de Negri at the Chaise Dieu Festival, for its opening on 18 August 2017. View communication
With
Emmanuelle de Negri, Maddalena
Maïlys de Villoutreys, Marta
Benedetta Mazzucato, Amor Terrestro
Damien Guillon, Amor Celeste & musical director
Reinoud van Mechelen, Cristo
Riccardo Novaro, Fariseo
Le Banquet Céleste
Caldara was born on the Venetian lagoon towards 1670. He composed Catalonia’s very first opera, Il più bel nome (1708), which he performed in Barcelona upon request from his future employer King Charles VI – near to whom he settled down in Vienna in 1716. Caldara was a loquacious composer with three thousands works to his name. He died in Vienna in 1736, in the same Kärtnerstrasse as Vivaldi…and with the same level of precariousness. Johann Mattheson used to write that in the same way as Handel and the Red Priest, Caldara boasted “great knowledge of human feelings and emotions”. Far from being superficial, his inherent musical style demonstrated a high level of Baroque rhetoric and artifice. Caldara was always able to suspend his graceful pieces in time…[…] The genre was born immediately after the Counter-Reformation and illustrated by the Romans Carissimi and Landi. It was initially sung in Latin and performed as part of pious society gatherings. The Maddalena is however an oratorio volgare, meaning it is recited in Italian […]. In the Maddalena, the six protagonists share the Land and Sky. The characters include Marthe, Madeleine and a Pharisee, Jesus, Earthly Love and Celestial Love. They share thirty-three harmonies and ensembles, alternating between recitatives and arias.
Vincent Borel
Press
France MusiqueThe countertenor Damien Guillon conducted Le Banquet Céleste and many singers (Emmanuelle de Negri, Mailys de Villoutreys, Reinoud van Mechelen, etc.) in Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo by Antonio Caldara, broadcast live from the Abbatiale Saint Robert at the Chaise-Dieu festival on 18 August 2017 – Producer: Jérémie Rousseau : Podcast of the entire evening
France InfoD. Guillon : “Between what we play, the music we interpret and where we play it – all this resonates very closely with music as a whole.” Listen to the interview podcast
“An oratorio set between land and sky (…), everything was done to glorify the little-known works of the Venetian composer Caldara. (…) A new reference version of this authentic masterpiece, for sure.”
GramophoneLionel Salter : “This is an issue to be recommended with all possible enthusiasm: it will almost certainly be my Recording of the Year.”
Scherzo MagazineEdouardo Torrico : “La lectura de Guillon es encomiable en todos los aspectos.”
BBC Music MagazineKate Bolton-Porciatti : “The recording is intimate and detailed.(…) The six soloists are sensitively cast”.
BaroquiadeSJean-Stéphane Sourd Durand : “The names Damien Guillon and Le Banquet Céleste are synonyms of brilliant performances. Their appearances are so very expressive and interpretive – they are both unique and reflect the Ensemble’s excellence.”