Since 1998, the Poème Harmonique has brought together, around its founder Vincent Dumestre, passionate musicians devoted to the interpretation of 17th and 18th century music. The ensemble's inventive and demanding programmes are a testament to its enlightened approach to baroque repertoires and to its in-depth work on vocal and instrumental textures.
His field of action? Well-known and little-known works from the daily life and ceremonies of Versailles (Lalande, Lully, Couperin, Clérambault, Charpentier...), Baroque Italy from Monteverdi and Pergolesi, or the England of Purcell. Inventive and demanding programmes that forge new links between the secular and the sacred, learned music and popular sources, but that also combine music with theatre, dance and the circus. In opera, the ensemble is recognised as a world benchmark for its interpretations of works by Lully, Cavalli and Monteverdi, and its collaboration with director Benjamin Lazar has produced shows that have been unanimously acclaimed by critics and audiences alike.
Le Poème Harmonique never ceases to surprise audiences by revealing forgotten treasures (in autumn 2024 L'Homme-Femme, an irresistible comedy of the genre by Galuppi, directed by Agnès Jaoui - Opéra de Dijon, Théâtre de Caen and Opéra royal de Versailles ), by offering a new approach to the greatest masterpieces (Il Nerone or L'Incoronazione di Poppea with the Académie de l'Opéra National de Paris), or by integrating processions and striking spatial effects into the concerts.
With some sixty performances given each year, Le Poème Harmonique is a familiar name at the world's greatest festivals and concert halls - Opéra-Comique, Opéra Royal of Versailles, Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Festivals of Ambronay, Beaune and Sablé, Teatro Real (Madrid), Wigmore Hall (London), NCPA (Beijing), Philharmonie of Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Bruges), BOZAR (Brussels), Oji Hall (Tokyo), Columbia University (New York), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Accademia Santa Cecilia (Rome), Philharmonie de Saint-Pierre (Paris), and the BBC Proms.... Le Poème Harmonique remains deeply committed to Normandy, its home region, the cradle of its many creations and the ideal setting for its educational and social initiatives and its work to integrate young professional musicians.
The ensemble's discography now boasts some fifty works that have won regular critical acclaim, as well as numerous public successes. Mon Amant de Saint-Jean, a singing tour from the Baroque to the Roaring Twenties with Stéphanie d'Oustrac, has just been released by Alpha Classics. After the world premiere of Cavalli's L'Egisto, already awarded a Choc by Classica and the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Château de Versailles Spectacles is publishing Lully's Armide in spring 2024.
