Akademie Versailles 2025 | Vocal Class
LECTURERS
Chantal Santon Jeffery
Chantal Santon Jeffery is acclaimed as one of the most accomplished French sopranos of the present day.
As comfortable in the miniature of a consort song as in the lyric romantic repertoire, she has embodied numerous roles in the opera.
She has been invited to sing with such prestigious orchestras as Le Concert Spirituel, Les Talens Lyriques, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, I Barocchisti, Les Ambassadeurs, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Les Siècles, Opera Fuoco, the Brussels Philharmonic, Pygmalion, the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Benoît Dratwicki
The music historian and theoretician specializing in French opera of the 18th century, Benoît Dratwicki has been the artistic director of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles since 2006.
Benoît Dratwicki, who originally studied the cello and bassoon at the Metz Conservatory and later musicology at the Sorbonne in Paris, has authored a number of critically acclaimed monographs. He has also prepared the modern editions of various Baroque scores and contributed to the implementation of modern premieres, recordings and performances of dramatic works of French Baroque music.
He is a sought-after author of musicological texts and regularly invited as guest at colloquia, conferences and as member of jury at international competitions.
PROGRAMME
Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau
arias from operas (Atys, Armide, Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Indes galantes, Castor et Pollux, Dardanus, etc...)
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Jean-Baptiste Stuck, Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, François Colin de Blamont
excerpts from various cantatas with orchestra
The specific repertoire will be selected in consultation with the lecturers.
CONTENT
- individual lessons focusing on vocal technique, interpretation and ornamentation
- individual lessons focusing on declamation, rhetoric and pronunciation of the French language
- interpretation of a selected aria with a Baroque orchestra accompaniment
- intensive programme (individual lessons and rehearsals with orchestra; possibility of listening in both vocal and orchestral classes)
- performance with a Baroque orchestra accompaniment at the final concert
Chantal Santon Jeffery is acclaimed as one of the most accomplished French sopranos of the present day.
As comfortable in the miniature of a consort song as in the lyric romantic repertoire, she has embodied numerous roles in the opera, from Mozart (Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, the Countess Almaviva, Sandrina) to the contemporary repertoire (a unanimous press praised her Lolo Ferrari in the opera of the same name) including Britten (the Governess in Lille Opera’s The Turn of the Screw), Campra (Herminie in Tancrède), Gassman (Stonatrilla in L’opera seria), Purcell (King Arthur, Dido and Aeneas), Bizet (Frasquita in Carmen at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées), Hervé (Mélusine in Les chevaliers de la table ronde), Boismortier (Altisidore in Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse), Haydn (the title role of Armida), Rameau (La Gloire in Le temple de la Gloire in Berkeley).
She has been invited to sing with such prestigious orchestras as Le Concert Spirituel, Les Talens Lyriques, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, I Barocchisti, Les Ambassadeurs, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Les Siècles, Opera Fuoco, the Brussels Philharmonic, Pygmalion, the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has recently performed in prestigious venues in Europe, America, and in Asia.
Among her many recordings (more than 50) are Baroque, Classical, and Romantic French operas and oratorios (often supported by the Fondation Bru and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles) but also works by Mozart, Martinez, Stradella, Da Gagliano, Purcell, J. Ch. Bach etc.
Recent releases: “Brillez, astres nouveaux!”, a recital of French Baroque opera arias with the Orfeo Orchestra, under the baton of György Vashegyi; Maître Peronilla by Offenbach (in the role of Alvarès) with the Orchestre National de France, conducted by Markus Poschner; Jephté by Montéclair (in the role of Iphise) and Dardanus by Rameau (in the role of Venus), again with the Orfeo Orchestra.
The music historian and theoretician specializing in French opera of the 18<sup>th</sup> century, <strong>Benoît Dratwicki </strong>has been the artistic director of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles since 2006. The state-funded institution focuses on the rediscovery of French Baroque music and its reintroduction on French and international stages. Benoît Dratwicki, who originally studied the cello and bassoon at the Metz Conservatory and later musicology at the Sorbonne in Paris, has authored a number of critically acclaimed monographs. These include the first-ever biography of the director of Parisian opera Antoine Dauvergne or a monograph on François Colin de Blamont. He has also prepared the modern editions of various Baroque scores and contributed to the implementation of modern premieres, recordings and performances of dramatic works of French Baroque music.
He is a sought-after author of sleeve notes for prestigious labels, including, for example a collection of French operas recorded by Concert Spirituel for Glossa. For CMBV he has prepared transcriptions and modern editions of vocal music preserved in the local archives (e.g. Campra, Lully, and Rameau). Between 1996 and 2008 he maintained a collaboration with the L’Astrée ensemble which he co-founded and for whom he arranged a great number of period compositions. He has further produced arrangements and transcriptions on the basis of commissions from other ensembles, including Messe pontificale by Théodore Dubois for the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and Piccini’s Atys for Le Cercle de l’Harmonie. Since 2006 he has been active at the Centre of French Romantic Music, Palazzetto Bru-Zane in Venice. His special responsibility as a cultural counsellor at the institution is to supervise the productions of operatic repertoire.
He is regularly invited as guest at colloquia, conferences and as member of jury at international competitions. For many years he has dedicated himself to the production and performances of significant works of music history and musical theatre. He has contributed to some of the most important international co-productions whose aim has been to introduce the international public to some of the lesser known regions of the French period repertoire by the means of concert performance, operatic productions, as well CD and DVD recordings.
NOTE
The masterclasses are aimed at students of music conservatories and universities, professionals and pedagogues.
The classes are taught through English.
The pitch is 415 Hz (A’).
An accompanist will be available in Chantal Santon Jeffery's class.
Registration in online and free of charge.
Each applicant must supply the following with their application form*:
An audio or video recording of two Baroque compositions (movements) in contrasting tempos:
- One piece (movement) by a French composer
- One piece of one’s own choice (not necessarily by a French author)
Professional-quality recording is not requisite for the purpose of the application. Please upload recordings in one of the following formats with the on-line application form: wav, mp3, mp4, mov, or avi.
* Active participants of any previous edition of the Akademie Versailles (2022–2024) are not obliged to attach the recording.
Akademie Versailles is an international educational project aimed at the interpretation of French Baroque music and its period performance practice. The project is organized by Collegium Marianum in collaboration with the Prague Conservatoire, the French Institute in Prague and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (CMBV). It is part of a long-term partnership between the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague and the CMBV, whose task it is to preserve and promote French Baroque music.
Akademie Versailles 2024 | photo © Petra Hajská
Organised by
Collegium Marianum – Týnská škola
as an additional program of the Summer Festivities of Early Music international music festival 2025
with the participation of Collegium Marianum Foundation,
the French Institute in Prague and Centre de musique baroque de Versailles.
and in collaboration withThe Municipal District of Prague 1.
With the financial support of Ministry of Culture and the City of Prague.
