Vivaldi: Les Orphelines de Venise Les Cris de Paris & Geoffroy Jourdain

• 1I. Kyrie eleison04:14
• 2II. Christe Eleison02:23
• 3III. Kyrie eleison02:30
• 4I. Gloria in excelsis Deo02:11
• 5II. Et in terra pax04:33
• 6III. Laudamus te02:12
• 7IV. Gratias agimus tibi - V. Propter magnam gloriam tuam01:11
• 8VI. Domine Deus03:33
• 9VII. Domine Fili unigenite02:03
• 10VIII. Domine Deus, agnus Dei03:30
• 11IX. Qui tollis peccata mundi00:56
• 12X. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris02:14
• 13XI. Quoniam Tu solus Sanctus00:42
• 14XII. Cum Sancto Spiritu02:53
• 15Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro in D Minor, RV 16903:22
• 16I. Credo in unum Deum02:04
• 17II. Et incarnatus est01:27
• 18III. Crucifixus02:48
• 19IV. Et resurrexit02:53
• 20I. Adagio - Allegro02:23
• 21II. Adagio - Allegro ma non troppo01:52
• 22I. Magnificat anima mea Dominum00:53
• 23II. Et exultavit spiritus meus02:06
• 24III. Et misericordia eius02:54
• 25IV. Fecit Potentiam- Deposuit potentes01:18
• 26V. Esurientes implevit bonis01:23
• 27VI. Suscepit Israel00:49
• 28VII. Sicut Locutus est01:36
• 29VIII. Gloria Patri - Sicut erat in principio01:56
• Total Runtime01:04:49

Info for Vivaldi: Les Orphelines de Venise

The Venetian ospedali – celebrated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the high standard of the concerts given by the orphan girls they had taken in – were originally care institutions for the poor, pilgrims, elderly people and foundlings. This last category was particularly numerous in a city where Carnival disrupted social relations virtually six months of the year – and the majority of such abandoned infants were female, for we know that in this period an illegitimate child was considered even more of a burden if it was a girl.

These establishments were initially funded by charity, and later, as their fame grew, by public concerts. By the early eighteenth century, they were on a footing of some opulence. The considerable nancial resources available to the ospedali enabled them to command the services of the most prestigious musicians and composers from throughout Italy over a period of two centuries. They employed their skills to teach these cloistered girls, who might perform at up to four church services open to the public each week. Numerous contemporary sources tell us of the busy musical activity in the ospedali, which made a particularly strong impression on foreign visitors.

For all the fascination these institutions have aroused, the repertory that was composed and regularly performed there is still relatively little diffused (with the exception of a few ‘hits’) and the questions of interpretation it raises are far from being elucidated. Foremost among these is the mysterious presence of lines for male voices in the chorus parts of numerous scores that originated in the ospedali.

This is the case, notably, in Antonio Vivaldi’s celebrated Gloria in D major RV589, so frequently given in concert and recorded so many times. It has been surmised that it was first performed when the composer took over the functions of maestro di coro, on Sunday 2 July 1713 in the Sala dei Filarmonici of the Ospedale della Pietà; the forty or so musicians (choir, soloists drawn from the choir, and orchestra) were all girls. Yet this work, which has since been heard all over the world, is scored for four-part chorus comprising sopranos, altos, tenors and basses.

Anna Reinhold, mezzo-soprano
Les Cris de Paris
Geoffroy Jourdain, direction

Geoffroy Jourdain
While he was studying musicology at the Sorbonne University and doing researches in the Italian musical collections of several European librarys, Geoffroy Jourdain got involved very soon in conducting vocal ensembles and founded Les Cris de Paris. The ensemble became quickly renowned for the audacity of its artistic project and for its commitment to defend contemporary creation.

Geoffroy Jourdain is interested in finding ways to create innovative musical performances, by working with stage directors, actors, choreographers and plastic artists. With the stage director Benjamin Lazar, he creates many shapes of lyrical shows and musical theatre.

He is invited by the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris in order to conduct lyrical works (Orphée et Eurydice and Iphigénie en Tauride by Gluck, L’Orfeo by Monteverdi), and also by ensembles like the Capella Amsterdam, the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra Choir or the orchestra Les Siècles entrusted by François-Xavier Roth (Israel in Egypt by Handel)…

Geoffroy Jourdain commissioned and created works by Beat Furrer, Mauro Lanza, Marco Stroppa, Francesco Filidei, Oscar Strasnoy (including the opera Cachafaz), Ivan Fedele, and is also passionate about 17h and 18th centuries repertoire and about ethnomusicology. His curiosity about varied repertoires and the originality of its approach led him to perform at the Opéra Comique, the IRCAM, the Cité de la Musique, the Présence festival of Radio France or at the Venice Biennale, to be invited in residence at the Fondation Royaumont, at the Opéra de Reims, to be a major artist of the Beaune festival and of the Chaise-Dieu festival.

With Olivier Michel, managing director of Les Cris de Paris, he is co-director of La Pop, a barge that performs musical theatre in Paris, since March 2015.

Les Cris de Paris
Founded and imagined by Geoffroy Jourdain, Les Cris de Paris performs mainly the vocal and instrumental repertoire from the beginning of the 16th century to nowadays.

Their artistic approach reflects the richness and diversity of the paths of the artists who participate to their productions. They can be three as well as eighty, with among them composers, arrangers, actors, stage directors, instrumentalists, dancers, ensembles or choirs directors, plastic artists, sound designers, pedagogues…

Curious and passionate, they commit with audacity to rediscovering unknown works or to explore the voice potentiality in the contemporary creation.

Their musical projects may take the shape of concerts, performances, but also stage productions that involve many artistic disciplines (theatre, dance, reading…).

Most of the creations that punctuate the cultural seasons of Les Cris de Paris combine contemporary music with ancient music, modern music with baroque and romantic music…

Booklet for Vivaldi: Les Orphelines de Venise