Dominique Visse

DOMINIQUE VISSE

COUNTERTENOR u e i d a y a r r a L

c i r E

o t o h P

RSB artists Artists management / Agence artistique La Falconnière - A2 - F-69340 Francheville - France - Tel +33 6 747 617 97 - Fax +33 4 861 724 30 [email protected] - www.rsbartists.com BIOGRAPHY

In 2014-2015, the countertenor Dominique Visse reappears on stage in his well known roles Pythonisse in David et Jonathas in a production of the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, in which he also makes his debut as conductor. He is also announced for the Mémoires de M. D'Artagnan with La Fenice (Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Auxerre) and in a french-japanese creation Yumé at the Reims Opera and at the House of Culture in Japan. Performances with the ensemble Clément Janequin and Diabolus in Musica are also part of his projects. Last season he was present on opera stages all around the world : he sang Satirino, La Natura and Furia in Cavalli's La Calisto at Munich Staatsoper, has once again been Narciso in Agrippina on the stage of Barcelona Liceu. He was also invited in Poland by the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra. Dominique Visse began his singing career at the age of 11 as a chorister in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. At the same time he began studying the organ and fute at the Versailles Conservatory. Already passionate about Renaissance and Mediaeval music, in 1976 he met the grand pioneer of the countertenor voice, Alfred Deller, and became his pupil. He also worked with Nigel Rogers, René Jacobs and William Christie.

In 1978 Dominique Visse founded the Ensemble Clément Janequin with whom he has made a series of benchmark recordings of French polyphonic chansons of the 16 th Century. Te following year he became one of the founding members of Les Arts Florissants and edited much of the ensemble's repertoire in its early years.

Since then Dominique Visse has become one of the most popular lyric artists in the world of Baroque opera, working with René Jacobs, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, William Christie, Alan Curtis, Nicholas McGegan, Christophe Rousset, Ivor Bolton, Robert King, Harry Bicket and Emmanuelle Haïm in the opera houses of Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Lausanne, Tel-Aviv, Montpellier, Houston, Barcelona, Munich, Versailles, at the Monnaie in Brussels, at the Téâtre du Châtelet and the Téâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, Te Royal Opera House in London, on tour in Japan and North America, and at the Festivals of Glyndebourne, Aix en Provence, Innsbruck and Edinburgh.

RSB artists Artists management / Agence artistique La Falconnière - A2 - F-69340 Francheville - France - Tel +33 6 747 617 97 - Fax +33 4 861 724 30 [email protected] - www.rsbartists.com His most memorable appearances include productions of Cavalli's Calisto, Handel's Giulio Cesare (Opéra de Paris) and Agrippina (Berlin, Paris and Barcelona), Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Charpentier's David et Jonathas with Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie, in Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh Festival, Paris Opéra comique, the Téâtre de Caen and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Dominique Visse does not limit himself to Baroque and early repertoire. He has sung in Ofenbach's Les Brigands, directed by Jérôme Deschamps and has recorded the role of La Marquise in Poulenc's Le Gendarme incompris for Decca directed by Charles Dutoit. He sang the role of Oreste in Ofenbach's La Belle Hélène staged by Herbert Wernicke at the Festival of Aix en Provence and revived in Salzburg. He also frequently performs contemporary music and has participated in Luciano Berio’s opera Outis at La Scala in Milan and at the Téâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Perela, l’homme de Fumée by Pascal Dusapin at the Opéra national de Paris, La Frontière by Philippe Manoury at the Boufes du Nord in Paris, Kagel’s Mare Nostrum with Jean-Claude Malgoire and in a production with the Péniche Opéra and Benoit Mernier's La Dispute creation at La Monnaie Teatre of Brussels. As well as his work in opera, Dominique Visse continues to perform and record with his Ensemble Clément Janequin that celebrated its 30th birthday in 2008 and whose extensive Harmonia Mundi discography has won numerous prizes. He also sings with Café Zimmermann and the ensemble Electrocento, and gives recitals with lute, or piano & accordion, of music ranging from Machaut to Berio via Dowland, Schubert, Ofenbach, Massenet, Satie, Poulenc and Takemitsu. He has made more than an hundred recordings, principally for Harmonia Mundi, most recently the Ensemble Clément Janequin’s L’Écrit du Cri with music from the Renaissance to the present day. His recording Parole e querele d’amore with Agnès Mellon was recently released on the Zig-Zag label. In 2012 his Dowland recital, recording with the celebrated English viol consort Fretwork and the French lutenist Eric Bellocq, was released by Satirino records.

Nov2014 - Not to be altered without permission. We update our biographies regularly. Please contact RSB Artists before reproducing this biography.

Il Paride (Giunone, Ecuba, Lupino) avec l'Arpeggiata – Innsbrück – août 2012 Opéra magazine – octobre 2012 – François Lehel « […] Enfn, on a plaisir à retrouver, en belle voix, un Dominique Visse qui n'a rien perdu de sa verve en scène et de son aptitude exceptionnelle au travesti, pour des Giunone et Ecuba irrésistibles, et le forgeron Lupino, aussi haut en couleurs. » David et Jonathas (la Pythonisse) avec les Arts Florissants – Festival d'Aix-en-Provence – juillet 2012 Opéra magazine – septembre 2012 – Cyril Mazin « […] Egal à lui-même, le contre-ténor français Dominique Visse campe une Pythonisse plus troublante que jamais […] » ResMusica – 16/07/2012 – Charpentier chez Ikéa à Srebrenicaix en Provence – Maxime Kaprielian « […] Le plateau, du moins pour les premiers rôles, ne déçoit pas non plus. […]. Quant à Dominique Visse, il reste toujours égal à lui-même […] » Concert Les Cantates Comiques avec le Café Zimmermann – Festival de Dardilly – mai 2012 Le Progrès – 15/05/2012 – Le festival de Dardilly ouvre sur un grand éclat de rire – Antonio Mafra « […] Pionnier de la redécouverte du répertoire baroque, complice de René Jacobs, fondateur de l’ensemble Clément Janequin, l’inusable contre-ténor [Dominique Visse] à la voix de sorcière a interprété les cantates « comiques » de Courbois et de Grandval au sein d’un programme entièrement dédié à la musique française (Corrette, Marin Marais...) où la musique savante met son talent au service du rire. […] » Concert A corps et à cris avec l'Ensemble Clément Janequin – Péniche Opéra (Paris) – avril 2012 On-Mag – 03/04/2012 – Yvette Canal « L’Ensemble Clément Janequin, c’est cinq voix masculines (une basse, remarquable d’ailleurs (Renaud Delaigue), un baryton (François Fauché), deux ténors (Vincent Bouchot et Hugues Primard) et le célèbre contre-ténor Dominique Visse + une pianiste, Véronique Briel et une organiste joueuse d’épinette, Elisabeth Geiger. Le spectacle n’appartient à aucune catégorie habituelle de concert, puisqu’il mêle aussi bien musique ancienne que contemporaine avec de la variété, de la parodie ou de la chanson détournée, ainsi que des projections visuelles d’interviews, tout cela sur le cri. […] Au total, ce concert-spectacle, qui reprend des morceaux de spectacles précédemment chantés par ce même ensemble a gagné en diversité et fait passer une excellente soirée, sans jamais en baisser le niveau. Le public s’est régalé. »

RSB artists Artists management / Agence artistique La Falconnière - A2 - F-69340 Francheville - France - Tel +33 6 747 617 97 - Fax +33 4 861 724 30 [email protected] - www.rsbartists.com RSB artists Artists management / Agence artistique La Falconnière - A2 - F-69340 Francheville - France - Tel +33 6 747 617 97 - Fax +33 4 861 724 30 [email protected] - www.rsbartists.com