From Dijon to Malta, Vienna to Montreal, early music engages in dialogue with painting, braves the cold and revives forgotten operas. Monteverdi meets Yan Pei-Ming, Handel at Resonanzen, Abos in Valletta: an overview of a baroque scene in motion. 
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In Malta, Pelopida, an opera by Girolamo Abos brought back to light
The event had been eagerly awaited: the rediscovery of Pelopida, an opera long forgotten by the Maltese composer Girolamo Abos, at the Teatru Manoel, as part of the Valletta Baroque Festival. Inspired by the life of the Theban general Pelopidas, the work traces his rise from exile to the status of revolutionary hero, set against a backdrop of political unrest in ancient Greece. The production was shaped by a staging by Brett Nicholas Brown and the musical direction of Giulio Prandi, at the head of the Ariana Art Ensemble.
With Valentino Buzza, Filippo Mineccia, Josè Maria Lo Monaco, Lucija Varsic, Carlotta Colombo, Vittoriana De Amicis and Giulio Prandi.
In Dijon, Monteverdi in dialogue with the painter Yan Pei-Ming
At the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, Traversées Nomades (Étienne Meyer, Capucine Keller, Judith Pacquier and Laurent Stewart) invited audiences to a programme specially devised to bring early music — notably Monteverdi — into dialogue with contemporary creation, centred on a triptych by the Chinese painter Yan Pei-Ming.
Entitled Nom d’un chien ! Un jour parfait, this vast group of canvases connects, within the artist’s very creative process, the monumental painted figures with the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy housed in the museum. The event formed part of an off-site programme organised by the Opéra de Dijon.
In Vienna, Bruno de Sá and Dorothée Oberlinger at the Resonanzen Festival
Bruno de Sá, Dorothée Oberlinger and her Ensemble 1700 presented an original evening combining concert and dinner at the Wiener Konzerthaus, as part of the Resonanzen Festival, under the theme The Bearded Lady and Other Travestis.
The programme featured music by Scarlatti, Bononcini, Corelli, Barsanti, Marcello and Handel.
With Bruno de Sá, Dorothée Oberlinger and the Ensemble 1700.
In Montreal, the Studio de musique ancienne braved the cold
The invitation could not have been more fitting: early music warms even the coldest nights… At Montreal’s Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, the city’s Studio de musique ancienne (SMAM) presented a programme entitled Love, devotion and unicorns, in which three great symbolic figures intertwine. Love, from its incarnation as Venus to the wisdom of Saint Anne, via the passion of Mary Magdalene; devotion, through the compositions of cloistered nuns who, as mystical brides of Christ, raised their music to the heavens; and the Unicorns, a tribute to the pioneers whose genius defied their age.
With Élodie Bouchard, Leah Weitzner, Maddie Studt, Madeleine Owen et Tristan Best.
In Strasbourg, Philippe Jaroussky and Artaserse at Saint-Guillaume Church
Philippe Jaroussky and his ensemble Artaserse were the guests of the “Passions croisées” evenings at Strasbourg’s Saint-Guillaume Church, with the programme from the singer’s latest recording, Gelosia!. In a hall that sold out within a few hours of the box office opening, the singer explored the many faces of jealousy through music by Scarlatti, Galuppi, Durante, Porpora and Vivaldi.
With the ensemble Artaserse and Philippe Jaroussky.
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