Notes /

Love, in all its mysteries, has countless faces and shades. The martyrdom of some, the joy and hope of many, that wound that bows the head knows neither reason nor supplication. The sacrifice made for love must be total. What, then, happens when those who love are women of unimpeachable virtue? — They burn, they burn until they become offerings, surrendering their humanity in the struggle against the untamable. The ardent saints of hagiography did not merely occupy the altar; they ascended to its summit after being tormented by human passions and taking a love to its extreme—a flame that does not burn at the dawn of the bridal bed, but in the gilded, ivory-white prayers of candlelight. Ardientes is an oratorio, a Baroque narrative that reconstructs the tortuous journey of three female paragons of virtue transformed into archetypes. The snow-white newlywed leads the way for the fiery adolescent as they confront the captivating, many-faced devil of shadow. All under the luminous gaze of the Doctor of the Church who records the deeds of women profaned and martyred by love. The musical journey unfolds through the stages from earth to paradise. Íliber Ensemble, resident ensemble of the MUSAG Festival, together with sopranos Juliette Allen and Sophie Negoïta, contralto Anthea Pichanick and bass-baritone Alexandre Baldo, bring this work to life through excerpts from oratorios and operas by Handel, Caldara, Conti and other composers of the European Baroque. Together, they reveal how these legendary women burned with a sacred flame from the depths of their earthly existence, and how ardently they were desired.

Program /

Ardientes

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​Prologue

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Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Hor che'l Ciel e la Terra

Alessandro Stradella (1643-1682)

San Giovanni Battista

    Sinfonia

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Act I: Profane

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Giovanni Battista Bassani (ca. 1650-1716)

La morte delusa

    Air “O dell’Erebo cieco ed orrendo”

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Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710)

Sant’Agnese

    Air “Non imperano i regnanti"

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Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1756)

Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno HWV 46a

    Air “Una schiera di piaceri”

    Duo “Il voler del fior degli anni”

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Act II: Martyrs/Conversas

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Georg Friedrich Händel

Hercules HWV 60

    Act III: Sinfonia

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Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1682-1732)

David

    Air “Al fianco anzi vorrei crudeli”

Il martirio di San Lorenzo

    Air “O tu scopri a me i tesori”

La colpa originale

    Aria col tiorbo obb "La Speranza m'ingannò"

Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (ca. 1690-1758)

Tisbe

    Air "Apri i lumi moribondi”

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Alessandro Stradella

San Giovanni Battista

    Duo “Freni l'orgoglio”

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Act III: Redeemers

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Camilla de Rossi (fl. 1670-1710)

Sant’Alessio

    Introduttione

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Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Il dolore di Maria Vergine

    Air “Ecco suona la tromba ferale”

Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)

Gioseffo ch’interpreta i sogni

    Air “Il favellar dell’ombre, chi l’intende?”

Georg Friedrich Händel

Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno HWV 46a

    Air “Tu del ciel ministro eletto”

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Epilogue

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Francesco Bartolomeo Conti

Il martirio di San Lorenzo

    Chorus "Chi al bel giglio de la Fede"

Biographies /

Juliette Allen

Belgian-British soprano Juliette Allen studied opera at the Royal Conservatory of Liège and the École Normale de Musique de Paris before joining David Stern’s Opera Fuoco in 2017. A finalist at the 2022 Les Symphonies d’Automne International Singing Competition, she has developed a versatile career spanning opera, contemporary music, concert and recital. She first gained recognition in Lucia Ronchetti’s Le avventure di Pinocchio, performing the title role with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in France and at the Roma Europa Festival. Early highlights included Telemann’s Richard Löwenherz, Cherubini’s Médée and Varney’s Les mousquetaires au couvent. She subsequently created roles in Aurélien Dumont’s Qui a Peur du Loup? / Macbeth, collaborating with Ars Nova and IRCAM, and appeared as Toybe in The Golden Bride with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Her repertoire ranges from Mozart, Rossini and Cimarosa to Kurt Weill and contemporary composers. In 2022 she created the role of The Student in Sivan Eldar and Cordelia Lynn’s award-winning opera Like Flesh, later performing it in Montpellier, Nancy and Basel. She created Violet in Tom Coult’s Violet and has appeared in works by Aurélien Dumont, Fernando Fiszbein and Labelle. Recent engagements include Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, Grétry’s Lucile et les pages perdues and the world premiere of Fiszbein’s L’homme qui aimait les chiens. Upcoming projects include Alyssa Regent’s Mors osculi, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Lucile et LIA in Liège and a Tuscan tour of Le avventure di Pinocchio. She has collaborated with conductors including David Stern, Hervé Niquet and Maxime Pascal, and directors such as Mariame Clément, Jacques Osinski and Matthieu Roy.

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Sophie Negoïta

Swiss-Romanian soprano Sophie Negoïta is renowned for her amber-toned voice and distinctive musical personality. She graduated from HEMU Lausanne and obtained a Master’s degree cum laude in Barbara Bonney’s class at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. In summer 2026, she returns to the Salzburg Festival for a concert with The Van Swietens, with whom she recorded her first solo CD for IBS Classical (Boccherini’s Stabat Mater). It was at this festival that she created the role of Esra in the world premiere of Mischa Tangian’s Ping Pong in 2023. She has also portrayed Baucis in Haydn’s Philemon und Baucis, singing and manipulating the puppets, under the direction of Raphaël Merlin with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève. Her operatic repertoire includes Pamina (Mozart's Die Zauberflöte) and Mrs Coyle (Britten's Owen Wingrave) at OperMozarteum; Barbarina (Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro), Clara (Benatzky's L’Auberge du Cheval Blanc, Arte Concert) and Sophie (Britten's The Little Sweep) at the Opéra de Lausanne; Rosa (Rosa e Bianca, an opera based on works by Donizetti) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève; as well as leading roles in Blow's Venus and Adonis, and in Purcell's King Arthur, Indian Queen, and Dido and Aeneas. In concert, she performs major works including Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Poulenc’s Gloria and Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4. She also gives Lied recitals with her duo partner Jansen Ryser at international festivals. Her close collaboration with harpsichordist and conductor Darío Tamayo takes them across Europe and soon to the United States, with several recordings currently in preparation.

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Anthea Pichanick

French contralto Anthea Pichanick has established herself as one of the distinctive voices of her generation, acclaimed for a rare timbre combining exceptional depth, warmth and velvet with remarkable flexibility, refinement and expressive intensity. She burst onto the international scene in 2015, winning First Prize and the Special Prize at the Antonio Cesti International Baroque Opera Competition in Innsbruck. The victory led to a recital at Vienna’s Konzerthaus with L’Astrée and opened the way to major engagements throughout Europe. In 2016, she made a highly acclaimed appearance at the Festival de Beaune as Asteria in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano with Les Accents and Thibault Noally, beginning a fruitful collaboration with both. Her career encompasses opera, oratorio, recital and chamber music. Her repertoire ranges from Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Purcell, Pergolesi, Bach, Handel and Mozart to Rossini, Durón and contemporary works. Operatic highlights include Menandro in Durón’s Coronis, Divine Justice in Falvetti’s Il Diluvio Universale, Zulma in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri and Eustazio in Handel’s Rinaldo at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelone) and Halle aux Grains (Toulouse). She has performed major concert works including Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, collaborating with ensembles such as Le Concert Spirituel, Les Musiciens du Louvre and Capella Mediterranea. Her discography includes Handel’s Messiah, Motets napolitains, Scarlatti's Il martirio di Santa Teodosia, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Durón’s Coronis. Her new album with Dara, London Fog, will be released in October 2026. She is also founder of Les Rencontres de Rignac festival.

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Alexandre Baldo

Awarded the title of Talent Adami Classique and winner of the Audience Prize at the International Pier Antonio Cesti Competition in Austria, bass-baritone Alexandre Baldo is establishing himself on major international stages. A finalist in the 2024 Sumi Jo International Singing Competition, he is distinguished by his rich, generous timbre and commanding stage presence, in a repertoire ranging from early Baroque to the great Romantic oratorios. He has performed at venues including the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Vienna Musikverein, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. His roles include Plutone in Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo, Abimélech in Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola. He has collaborated with conductors including Federico Maria Sardelli, Martin Haselböck, Thibault Noally, Hervé Niquet and Philippe Jaroussky, and with ensembles such as Les Ambassadeurs and Le Concert Spirituel. Alongside his solo career, he develops projects with his period-instrument ensemble Mozaïque, whose debut album, dedicated to Antonio Caldara’s bass arias and released on Pan Classics, received unanimous international critical acclaim, including 5 Diapasons and five stars from Classica. During the 2026/2027 season, he will make his debuts at the Theater an der Wien, Opéra de Toulon and Opéra de Rennes. In May 2027, the label Aparté is scheduled to release the world-premiere recording of Caldara’s David umiliato with Mozaïque.

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Darío Tamayo

Darío Tamayo has established himself as one of the most prominent emerging figures of the new generation of Spanish conductors specialising in early music. Born in Granada, he studied Piano in his hometown before moving to Barcelona, where he completed his higher studies in Harpsichord with Luca Guglielmi at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He completed his training at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, where he obtained a Master’s degree in Baroque Ensemble Conducting (Maestro al cembalo) under Leonardo García Alarcón, graduating with the highest marks, receiving the jury’s commendation and the Groux-Extermann Prize.

As a conductor, he has led ensembles including the Berlin Sinfonietta, London Classical Soloists, Moravian Philharmonic, Barcelona Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone and Orquesta Filarmonía Granada. In 2013, he founded Íliber Ensemble, which he has directed ever since and with which he has developed a significant artistic career, receiving the 2026 FestClásica Award. In 2022, he was assistant conductor of the Orchestra Frau Musika in Vicenza under the direction of Andrea Marcon. Since 2024, he has been Artistic Director of the Festival de Música Sacra de Granada (MUSAG). As a harpsichordist, he has collaborated with leading international performers and ensembles, including Thomas Dunford, Leonardo García Alarcón, Lea Desandre, Julie Fuchs, Sandrine Piau, Laurence Kilsby, Aarón Zapico, Carlos Mena, Ensemble Jupiter, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, IEMA-Ensemble Modern, Cantoría, Orquestra Barroca de Barcelona and the Akademie Versailles of Prague’s Collegium Marianum. Since 2020, he has been a member of Continuum XXI, a Spanish-German ensemble devoted to the performance of contemporary music on historical instruments.

He has performed at major venues and festivals across Europe and China, including the Opéra de Paris, Daning Theatre (Shanghai), Festspielhaus Hellerau (Dresden), L’Auditori and Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona), the Granada Festival, Palau de la Música de València, Santander Festival, Teatros del Canal (Madrid) and Quincena Musical de San Sebastián. He has also recorded for Arte, France Musique, RTVE, China Central Television and Finland’s national broadcaster Yle, as well as for labels including IBS Classical and NEOS Music. His artistic activity is complemented by ongoing research and outreach, including publications, lectures and masterclasses at institutions such as the University of La Rioja, the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya. Since 2021, he has worked as a répétiteur and conductor in several editions of the Baroque Academy of the Granada Festival.