Parma, Versailles, Maguelone, Regensburg, Lyon, Berkeley

A previously unheard oratorio by Francesco Corselli at Parma’s Farnese Festival

The 2026 Farnese Festival in Parma opened with the first modern performance of Santa Clotilde, an oratorio by Francesco Corselli composed shortly before the composer left for the court in Madrid, where he would spend more than thirty years as maestro di cappella. The work recounts the conversion to Christianity of Clovis, King of the Franks, under the influence of his wife Clotilde, a future saint and a figure dear to the Bourbon dynasty. The oratorio was performed in the spectacular setting of the Teatro Farnese, within the monumental Pilotta complex, by Europa Galante under the direction of Fabio Biondi.

With Lucia Cortese, Giuseppina Bridelli, Vivica Genaux, Luca Tittoto, Città di Parma, Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi.

Another success for Gasparini’s L’Avare at the Royal Opera of Versailles

Ahead of a final performance at the Festival de Beaune next July, Vincent Dumestre and his ensemble Le Poème Harmonique gave three performances of Gasparini’s L’Avare (“The Miser”), after Molière, at the Royal Opera of Versailles. Made up of three singing roles and a fourth, silent character, with a light orchestral line-up, this Avare is an intermezzo that enjoyed great success during a tour of some twenty dates across France in 2026. Gasparini’s music sets a libretto by Antonio Salvi, which succeeds in the remarkable feat of remaining faithful to the spirit of Molière’s comedy.

With Eva Zaïcik, Victor Sicard, Serge Goubioud, Stefano Amori, Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre.

I Gemelli open the Festival de Maguelone

The ensemble I Gemelli, with tenor Emiliano González Toro, opened the Festival de musique ancienne à Maguelone with Canto al sole, a musical journey through seventeenth-century Italy. From the shores of Naples to the Adriatic Sea, via Latium and Lombardy, Mathilde Étienne devised a programme exploring an Italy in motion, where forms are constantly reinvented along the roads and through encounters.

With I Gemelli, Emiliano González Toro and Mathilde Étienne.

Ensemble Irini at the Regensburg festival

At the Dominican Church of St Blasius in Regensburg, Lila Hajosi and Ensemble Irini, which specialises in sacred early music from East and West, presented their programme Printemps sacré (“Sacred Spring”). The concert set sacred works by Heinrich Isaac alongside excerpts from Georgian Orthodox liturgy. Heinrich Isaac, a too often forgotten genius of the Franco-Flemish school, a rival of Josquin des Prés and the last heir to Dufay and Binchois, experienced the ravages of war, the fall of the Medici and long exile before his long-awaited return to Florence at the end of his life.

With the Ensemble Irini and Lila Hajosi.

Vivaldi Sauvage at the Chapelle de la Trinité in Lyon

The Chapelle de la Trinité in Lyon never tires of celebrating The Four Seasons! After Karl Aage Rasmussen and Max Richter last season, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu, conducted by Franck-Emmanuel Comte, returned to Vivaldi’s famous masterpiece with an in-house creation highlighting the work’s inexhaustible modernity and ecological relevance. The four sonnets from the original 1725 edition provide the material for an immersive creation for Baroque orchestra and soundtrack, in which the score on period instruments comes face to face with the soundscapes of today. These soundscapes were composed using audio-naturalist works by Hildegard Westerkamp, Jean C. Roché, Marc Namblard, Wendy Carlos and Jana Winderen.

With Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu and Franck-Emmanuel Comte.

Nicholas McGegan and the St John Passion at the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition

Opening the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble and Cantata Collective, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, performed the 1725 version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion. Founded in 1990 and produced by the San Francisco Early Music Society, the festival will offer 21 main-stage concerts throughout the summer, including two in Palo Alto and San Francisco, as well as special events, an exhibition and community workshops. One of the festival’s distinctive features is that main-stage tickets are offered on a “pay what you can” basis.

With Haitham Haidar, Jonathan Woody, John Orduña, Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, Cantata Collective and Nicholas McGegan.