Telemann’s Pimpinone & Ino

The Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) is universally recognized as a leader in the field of early music. Since its founding in 1980 by leading practitioners of historical performance in the United States and abroad, BEMF has promoted early music through a variety of diverse programs and activities, including an annual concert series that brings early music’s brightest stars to the Boston and New York concert stages, and the biennial weeklong Festival and Exhibition, recognized as “the world’s leading festival of early music” (The Times, London). Through its programs BEMF has earned its place as North America’s premier presenting organization for music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods and has secured Boston’s reputation as “America’s early music capital” (The Boston Globe).

For more information about Boston Early Music Festival, please visit their website.

Paul O’Dette has been described as “the clearest case of genius ever to touch his instrument” (Toronto Globe and Mail). He appears regularly at major festivals the world over performing lute recitals and in chamber music programs with leading early music colleagues. Mr. O’Dette has made more than 150 recordings, winning two Grammy Awards and receiving eight Grammy nominations and numerous international record awards. The Complete Lute Music of John Dowland (a 5-CD set for harmonia mundi usa) was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’Or de l’Année, and was named “Best Solo Lute Recording of Dowland” by BBC Radio 3. The Bachelar’s Delight: Lute Music of Daniel Bacheler was nominated for a Grammy as Best Solo Instrumental Recording in 2006. While best known for his recitals and recordings of virtuoso solo lute music, Paul O’Dette is also active as a conductor of Baroque opera. Together with Stephen Stubbs he won a Grammy as conductor in 2015 for Best Opera Recording, as well as an Echo Klassik Award, for their recording of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers with the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble. Their CDs of Conradi’s Ariadne, Lully’s Thésée, and Lully’s Psyché, with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra on the CPO label, were nominated for Grammys in 2005, 2007, and 2008; their 2015 BEMF CD of Steffani’s Niobe, Regina di Tebe on the Erato/Warner Classics label was also nominated for a Grammy, and received both an Echo Klassik and the coveted Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Their recording of Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants was nominated for a Grammy in 2019. In addition to his activities as a performer, Paul O’Dette is an avid researcher, having worked extensively on the performance of seventeenth-century Italian and English solo song, continuo practices, and lute repertoire. He has published numerous articles on issues of historical performance practice, and co-authored the John Dowland entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Paul O’Dette is Professor of Lute and Director of Early Music at the Eastman School of Music and Artistic Co-Director of the Boston Early Music Festival.

Stephen Stubbs, who won the Grammy Award as conductor for Best Opera Recording in 2015, spent a thirty-year career in Europe. He returned to his native Seattle in 2006 as one of the world’s most respected lutenists, conductors, and Baroque opera specialists. He now lives with his family in Agua Dulce, California. In 2007, Stephen established his new production company, Pacific MusicWorks (PMW), based in Seattle, reflecting his lifelong interest in both early music and contemporary performance. The company’s inaugural presentation was a production of South African artist William Kentridge’s acclaimed multimedia staging of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera The Return of Ulysses in a co-production with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. PMW’s performances of the Monteverdi Vespers were described in the press as “utterly thrilling” and “of a quality you are unlikely to encounter anywhere else in the world.” PMW is now a touring ensemble. Stephen Stubbs is also the Boston Early Music Festival’s Artistic CoDirector along with his long-time colleague Paul O’Dette. Stephen and Paul are also the musical directors of all BEMF operas, recordings of which were nominated for six Grammy awards, including one Grammy win in 2015. Also in 2015, BEMF recordings won two Echo Klassik awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année. In 2017, they received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In addition to his ongoing commitments to PMW and BEMF, other recent appearances have included Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Gluck’s Orfeo in Bilbao, Mozart’s Magic Flute and Così fan tutte for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Handel’s Agrippina and Semele for Opera Omaha, Cavalli’s Calisto and Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie for Juilliard, Mozart’s Il re pastore for the Merola program, and seven productions for Opera UCLA including Cavalli’s Giasone, Monteverdi’s Poppea, and Handel’s Amadigi. In recent years he has conducted Handel’s Messiah with the Seattle, Edmonton, Birmingham, Houston, and Nova Scotia Symphony orchestras. His extensive discography as conductor and solo lutenist includes well over 100 CDs, many of which have received international acclaim and awards.

Gilbert Blin graduated from the Paris Sorbonne with a Master’s degree focusing on Rameau’s operas, an interest that he has broadened to encompass French opera and its relation to Baroque theater, his fields of research as historian, stage director, and set and costume designer. He was awarded a Doctorate from Leiden University for a thesis dedicated to his approach to Historically Informed Staging. His début productions include Massenet’s Werther and Delibes’s Lakmé for Paris Opéra-Comique, and Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable for Prague State Opera. Since his production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice for the Drottningholm Theatre in Sweden in 1998, Dr. Blin has established himself as a sought-after opera director for the early repertoire: he directed Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso for the Prague State Opera, designed and staged Vivaldi’s Rosmira fedele, Handel’s Teseo and Alessandro Scarlatti’s Il Tigrane for Opéra de Nice, and directed Lully’s Thésée and Lully’s Psyché for the Boston Early Music Festival. As Stage Director in Residence at BEMF beginning in 2008, Gilbert Blin staged a trilogy of English operas: Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea. In 2011, after the staging of Steffani’s Niobe, Regina di Tebe, he presented Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers and La Couronne de Fleurs. In 2013, with his production of Handel’s Almira, Gilbert Blin was appointed Opera Director of the Boston Early Music Festival. Following his acclaimed staging and set designs of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea for the 2009 Boston Festival, Dr. Blin staged Monteverdi’s Orfeo for the BEMF Chamber Opera Series in 2012 and the composer’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in 2015. Other productions for BEMF include Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise, Steffani’s Orlando generoso, and Francesca Caccini’s Alcina. In 2016, Gilbert Blin created Versailles: Portrait of a Royal Domain, and in 2022, he staged Lully’s Idylle sur la Paix and Charpentier’s La Fête de Rueil. His recent productions include Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda for Bratislava, Desmarest’s Circé and Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley for Boston, and Rameau’s Dardanus for Stockholm.

Director, choreographer, and dancer Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière founded Les Jardins Chorégraphiques in Montreal in 2007. A multidisciplinary artist trained in dance, music, and commedia dell’arte, she is recognized for the originality of her work. She has directed and choreographed over forty operas, both in Canada and internationally. She regularly collaborates with the Festival Montréal Baroque and the Vancouver Early Music Festival, while also leading stage projects at the Festival Prangins Baroque in Switzerland. Since 2007, she has worked as a dancer, choreographer, and co-director alongside Gilbert Blin at the Boston Early Music Festival and at the Nice opera. In 2019, she won an Opus Award for her direction of Blow’s Venus and Adonis and was nominated in 2023 for her creation De la Pavane au Swing with Les Boréades de Montréal. A dynamic educator, she currently leads the opera workshops at Cégep de SaintLaurent and the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.

Soprano Amanda Forsythe sang Eurydice on Boston Early Music Festival’s 2015 Grammy-winning recording of Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, and earned widespread acclaim for her albums of Handel arias with Apollo’s Fire on the Avie label and Gluck’s Orfeo with Philippe Jaroussky on the Erato label. With BEMF, she has performed operas by Campra, Steffani, Pergolesi, Handel, Charpentier, Desmarest, and Monteverdi, many of which are available on recording. Other opera engagements have included roles for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro; and the major houses of Geneva, Munich, Seattle, Rome, Berlin, and Philadelphia. In recent seasons, Amanda Forsythe’s major concert engagements have included performances with the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the Orchestra Sinfonica Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, The Academy of Ancient Music, The St. Louis Symphony, Music of the Baroque, and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

Danielle Reutter-Harrah has performed with Boston Early Music Festival, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Opera, California Bach Society, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, and Early Music Vancouver, among others. Her favorite past performances include Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Melanto) and Orfeo (La Musica/Messaggiera), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Dido/Belinda), Bach’s Magnificat (soprano/alto soloist) and St. Matthew Passion (alto soloist), and Handel’s Messiah (soprano/alto soloist). Danielle performs frequently with local Seattle ensembles including Pacific MusicWorks, Whidbey Island Music Festival, and the Byrd Ensemble. Danielle received her BM from the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music and her MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and teaches voice and piano privately. She lives in Seattle with her family.

Christian Immler studied with Rudolf Piernay and won the International Boulanger Competition in Paris. His operatic experience ranges from Monteverdi’s Seneca, Mozart’s Commendatore and Speaker, Beethoven’s Rocco, and Wagner’s Fasolt to Strauss’s Musiklehrer. In concert, he has performed Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Minnesota Philharmonic, Kindertotenlieder with the Hungarian National Philharmonic, Mendelsohn’s Elijah with the OAE, Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie with Orchestre National de France, and Glanert’s Prager Sinfonie with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. He has worked with such conductors as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert Blomstedt, René Jacobs, Semyon Bychkov, Marc Minkowski, Masaaki Suzuki, Raphaël Pichon, Daniel Harding, Kent Nagano, Leonardo García Alarcón, Laurence Equilbey, James Conlon, Philippe Herreweghe, and William Christie. A keen recitalist, he has been invited by the Wigmore Hall, the Frick Collection, and the Paris Philharmonie with pianists such as Helmut Deutsch. His more than sixty recordings have been awarded prizes such as a Grammy nomination. Christian holds a doctorate in musicology, loves teaching, and is much in demand for worldwide masterclasses.