Olivier Bergeron: A Year in Charpentier’s Company

At 29, Olivier Bergeron has found in Charpentier an almost ideal artistic home: that of the basse-taille, poised between the clarity of a baritone, the suppleness of declamation, and the demands of the French language. After taking part in January in Les Victoires de Louis XIV with Le Concert Spirituel under the direction of Hervé Niquet (recorded for Château de Versailles Spectacles), he will return to the composer this summer with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. A laureate of the 12th edition of Le Jardin des Voix, he will perform Discord in Charpentier’s Les arts florissants, then Apollo and Titye in La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, on a North American tour stopping in Toronto and Lanaudière (Canada), and Tanglewood and Caramoor (USA). Trained between the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, the École normale de musique de Paris, and the Atelier lyrique of Opera Fuoco, and having also attended the Atelier lyrique of the Verbier Festival, the Quebec baritone is establishing himself as one of the most promising voices of his generation. Winner of the Choquette-Symcox Prize in 2018, supported by the Fondation JM Canada, the Fondation Royaumont, and the Art Song Foundation of Canada, he pursues a career spanning Europe and North America. Deeply invested in early music and the French repertoire, he nevertheless continues to explore Mozart, bel canto, and art song, and will take on the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute in Montreal this autumn.

Regarding Charpentier: Discord in Les arts florissants, Apollo and Titye in La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers… These roles were all created by a single performer, Pierre Beaupuis. Have you taken an interest in his story?

Olivier Bergeron: It’s funny that you mention him. When I received the scores, I noticed that Beaupuis’s name was written above the basse-taille line. In my opinion, Charpentier’s most beautiful music is found in those lines.

A basse-taille, you say?

O. B.: Indeed. The vocal category we call “baritone” did not yet exist. When one looks closely at the music Charpentier composed for Beaupuis and Germain Carlier, the two basses-tailles in the service of the Duchess of Guise, one often notices optional higher notes. Everything suggests that Beaupuis was more of a baritone than a bass, as we would say today. For me, it is very interesting to find someone who lived 400 years ago, in a completely different era, and who shared vocal characteristics similar to my own.

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