A COUR: AYRES DE COUR DES GRANDS MAITRES DE LA TRAGEDIE LYRIQUE at NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò

Mired in decadence and shrouded in subtlety, French court culture found no better expression than the intimate, sensual, and seductively nuanced Air de Cour. Yet, at the apex of the Ancien Régime, Bon-Goût tangles with Sprezzatura, as a Mazarin Italian import and Tuscan peasant's son becomes "Surintendant de la Musique du Roi." The monumental Tragédie Lyrique and the Comédie-Ballet of Jean Baptiste Lully, né Giovanni Battista Lulli, gradually eclipse the Air de Cour, as a glittering age hungry for spectacle swiftly hurdles towards its end.

Join us on a midwinter's evening, as the French-Florentine duo of mezzo-soprano Lila Hajosi and lutenist Giovanni Bellini share a program of exquisite jewels from the rise of the Roi Soleil in the elegant and intimate Ridotto of the townhouse of NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò.

About the Program

The French-Italian duo of Lila Hajosi and Giovanni Bellini make their New York début with an original program of exclusively French repertoire from the apex of the Ancien Régime. At mid-17th century, the Air de Cour flourishes. From its polyphonic origins at the end of the 15th century in the court of Charles IX, the sensual and intimate form attracts the enthusiasm of a French populace rebounding after thirty dark years of fratricidal war between Catholics and Protestants.

From the end of the Valois dynasty and the rise of the Bourbons through the reign of Louis XIV, the birth of a culture of pleasure and leisure at Versailles becomes synonymous with France's grandeur and radiance around the world, and the Air de Cour, monodic and accompanied by the baroque lute or the theorbo, becomes the anthem of court decadence.

The most specific musical trait of the Air de Cour is the agréments (ornaments) which are the very symbol of the French Bon-Goût, a variation in enhancement of the piece. Treatises regarding the agréments abound, proposing methods and classifications, sometimes in complete contradiction with each other. This art concerns both the instrumental and vocal music, each instrument having its own repertoire of specific agréments according to its technique, ranging from the simple to the virtuosic.

The core of the Air de Cour lies in this execution of Bon-Goût, demanding a tailored ornamentation regarding the affect (mood) of the piece, the right amount of agréments (not excessive because it would eclipse the music, not too meager because it would seem empty), all following the fashion of the time. The great Air de Cour composers like Guédron, Le Camus, Boësset or Lambert made the agréments a matter of prime importance. The next generation rebelled, preferring less ornamented interpretations, a more written and dense music that consequently cannot accommodate as much ornamentation.

This generation at the end of Louis XIII's reign and of the time of the Sun King was mainly represented by the omnipotent Jean-Baptiste Lully, superintendent of the Music of the King, Master of the Royal Academy and also stepson of Lambert who wrote many doubles (written virtuoso variations of an Air de Cour) in his music.
With the arrival of Mazarin's Italian favorites, the Air de Cour enthusiasm begins to ebb, replaced in the heart of the aristocracy by the Cantatas (longer form) and the monumental Tragédie Lyrique (French opera), two forms which grow out of Italian opera.

The arrival of abstemious Madame de Maintenon as the new maitresse-en-tître of Louis XIV, brought a new taste for austerity and spiritual works. However the great French opera composers such as Lully and Charpentier, along with their most famous librettists Molière, Quinault, Bensérade and Pierre Corneille, continued the Air de Cour tradition as a rebellion against the unrelenting Italian musical influence.

As if in response to Salon/Sanctuary's earlier Mazarin program, which boldly and virtuosically asserts that the Italian musical conquest of French composition was absolute and irreversible, this intimate duo program answers with coy delicacy "not so fast," serving up a distinctly French treat that speaks of discretion and diaphanous excess, private and far away from the pomp of operatic stages.

About the Artists

Up and coming French mezzo-soprano Lila Hajosi has appeared on prestigious stages such as the Liceu in Barcelona, Aix en Provence Opera, Philharmonie de Paris, Teatro Ristori in Verona and under the direction of conductors such as Marc Korovitch, Jordi Savall and Jacques Chalmeau. Since 2018, she has been an artist in residence in the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium under the direction of José Van dam and Sophie Koch, after also being accepted into the Royal Academy of Copenhagen and the Biel Studio Opera. A versatile musician, she performs in repertoire from the medieval with Ensemble Irini, which she also directs, to the baroque, which she performs with Capella Reial de Catalunya, Ricercare Antico, l'Arpeggiata and l'Achéron, to operatic repertoire, oratorios, and as an actress.
Upcoming projects include performances at Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Opéra Linz, Musikverein Graz, Martigny, Berlin Philharmonie, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, München, for a Monteverdi program with l'Arpeggiata, conducted by Christina Pluhar and alongside Rolando Vilazon. Hajosi began her vocal training in 2012 in Aix en Provence's Conservatoire, then continued her studies in Marseille with Magali Damonte. Since 2016 she has studied with Malcolm Walker, and participated in master classes and lessons with Sara Mingardo, Teodor Currentzis, Jordi Savall, Laurence Dale, Brigitte Balleys, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, and Regina Werner-Dietrich. In 2017 she graduated with a Premier Prix d'Art Lyrique in the Conservatoire of Marseille and was chosen for the Academy of the Fundació CIMA directed by Jordi Savall who then invited her to sing in the Capella Reial de Catalunya. She also was honored with the Prix Jeune Espoir Dussurget (founder of the Festival d'Aix en Provence). This performance marks her New York and United States début.

Lila Hajosi recorded for Alia Vox, Brillant Classics, and l'empreinte digitale (Maria Nostra 1st disc of her ensemble Irini received in 2019 a « Choc » award from Classica magazine).

Florentine lutenist Giovanni Bellini began his musical training with classical guitar at a very young age and then turned to early plucked strings instruments, specifically Lute, Theorbo and Baroque Guitar. In 2017 he was awarded a Master degree in Lute with honors under the direction of Andrea Damiani, at the Conservatorio "S. Cecilia"di Roma. He graduated with honors from the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Instrumentos de cuerda pulsada under the guidance of Xavier Díaz-Latorre.

Bellini has attended masterclasses with Paul O'Dette, Hopkinson Smith and Joachim Held. He has given many concerts in Europe, both as a soloist and as a member of numerous ensembles, including Le Concert des Nations, Concerto Romano,Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra, la Cappella Musicale di S.Petronio, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Virtuosi Italiani, Orchestra "Talenti Vulcanici", Dramatodia, Ensemble da Camera della Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica, Auser Musici, and Modo Antiquo.

He has taken part in national and international festivals like the Wigmore Hall of London, the Bachakademie Stuttgart season, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, La Stagione del Gran Teatre del Liceu di Barcellona, Händel-Festspielead Halle, Trigonale, Grandezze e Meraviglie, Wunderkammer, Concerti della Cappella Paolinaal Quirinale, Aldeburgh Music, Soave Sia il Vento, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,Festival Opera Barga, Festival Leo Brouwer-La Habana, il Festival di Urbino Musica Antica, and I Concerti dell'Accademia Bizantina.

He collaborates regularly with Jordi Savall, Richard Egarr, Giuliano Carmignola, Sara Mingardo, Roberta Invernizzi, Alessandro Quarta, Gemma Bertagnolli, Emilio Moreno. His recordings include releases on the Arcana, Glossa, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Tactus, Amadeus, Naïve and Brilliant Classics labels.

WHAT

À Cour: Ayres de Cour des Grands Maîtres de la Tragédie Lyrique

WHO

Lila Hajosi, mezzo-soprano & Giovanni Bellini, lute

WHEN

Saturday, January 18th
6pm

WHERE

NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
24 West 12th Street
New York, NY 10011

TICKETS

Go to http://www.salonsanctuary.org
Or call 1 888 718 4253

TICKET PRICES

$25/$35

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