Les Violons du Roy presents

Handel, choeurs et feux d’artifices royaux

Bernard Labadie serves up Handel’s most overtly royal compositions in a program featuring La Chapelle de Québec and a roster of sublime soloists who will whisk you away to the British court to experience the pageantry of the royal fireworks and the coronation of a new king.

Artists
Les Violons du Roy
Bernard Labadie, conductor
Magali Simard-Galdès, soprano

Magali Simard-Galdès is a young Canadian soprano renowned for her shimmering tone, her refined musicality and her magnetic stage presence.

She made an acclaimed German debut in November 2020 at Oper Köln in the role of Agnès in Written on Skin (Benjamin). The production was streamed online due to covid-19 restrictions and a studio recording with the Gürzenich Orchester under François-Xavier Roth was released in 2022.

On the orchestral stage, she has performed with the Houston Symphony, the National Arts Center Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Arion Orchestre Baroque, L’Harmonie des saisons, I Musici de Montréal, l’Atelier lyrique de Tourcoing, l’Opéra Grand Avignon, le Festival Classica et le Festival de Lanaudière.

Magali has graduated from Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and Montreal Conservatory of Music. She has received First-prize at both the Récital-concours international de mélodie française du Festival Classica and Canadian Music Competition.

Tim Mead, countertenor

Counter-tenor Tim Mead is praised for his “alluring” and “consistently excellent” interpretations (New York Times). With his “rich, mellifluous sound” (Guardian), he is recognised as one of the finest across the generations of counter-tenors.

Neal Davies, bass-baritone

Neal Davies studied at King’s College, London and the Royal Academy of Music, and won the Lieder Prize at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He has appeared with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, BBC Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, Cleveland and Philharmonia orchestras under Christoph von Dohnányi, Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Frans Brüggen, English Concert with Harry Bicket, Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh, Hallé Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder, Concerto Koeln under Ivor Bolton, Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Adam Fischer, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with Edward Gardner, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin with David Zinman, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis, and the London Symphony and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras under Daniel Harding. He has been a regular guest of the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms.  

On the concert stage for 22/23, Neal will sing Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington and Fabio Biondi, Vaughan William’s Dona nobis pacem with MDR Radio Orchestra and Howard Arman in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, join the Bergen Philharmonic and Mark Elder for Christ on the Mount of Olives, sing Handel’s Ode For The Birthday Of Queen Anne with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy, and make a Scottish tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Dunedin Consort.

With La Chapelle de Québec, chamber choir

Created in 1985 by founding conductor and music director Bernard Labadie, La Chapelle de Québec is one of North America’s premiere voice ensembles. The group is made up exclusively of professional singers who are hand picked from all over Canada. This unique chamber choir specializes in the choral/orchestral repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. The choir performs regularly with its other half, chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy, and as a guest choir with some of the finest orchestras in North America. Its interpretations of the oratorios, requiems, masses, and cantatas of Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn, as well as Fauré and Duruflé, are frequently hailed in the Canadian and international press.

G.F. HANDEL
Zadok the Priest, HWV 258 (Coronation Anthem n° 1)
Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351
My Heart Is Inditing, HWV 261 (Coronation Anthem n° 4)
Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened, HWV 259 (Coronation Anthem n° 2)
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, HWV 74
The King Shall Rejoice, HWV 260 (Coronation Anthem n° 3)

Maison symphonique
Friday, May 12, 2023 at 7:30pm

To purchase your tickets visit: www.placedesarts.com