Philippe spoke to me last month about how memories of an inspirational teacher in the Paris suburbs inspired him to focus much of his energy on improving access to music education as his own career flourished, some of the changes he's seen (for better and for worse) during his twenty-five years in the industry, how moving from stage to orchestra-pit was always part of his gameplan, and his firm conviction that the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side...
Congratulations on twenty-five years in the profession! When did you first sense that music was your vocation?
I’m not from a family of musicians, and I was quite a late starter – I had my first violin lessons when I was ten, which obviously isn’t old but there are kids starting at four or five! Then I started piano in my mid-teens, and it became a huge passion. It was all thanks to a teacher at the general school in France – we had one hour of classroom music a week, and he told my parents ‘If there’s one child who should play music it’s Philippe!’ We said ‘Why not?’ and it changed my life.
As a teenager I was always playing Mahler, Stravinsky and Shostakovich very loudly in my room, as well as techno and metal. I didn’t really draw a distinction between them - I was just sitting there in the dark, feeling the vibes! Sometimes we forget how intense classical music can feel, especially when you’re young: that’s why I get super-irritated with the whole ‘classical music is relaxing’ angle that gets trotted out so much these days. Of course there are pieces which can give you peace, but classical music contains everything: there’s a piece for whatever emotion you’re feeling, for emotions you can’t even describe.
So when did singing come into the picture?
I discovered my voice at seventeen, and I think my attraction to high notes came from training as a violinist – if I’d been a double-bass player maybe things would’ve been different! I never sang in a choir, I just did it for my own pleasure. Then one day I went to a concert by a French countertenor and realised it was something I might pursue for real. Twenty-five years later, I’m very happy about that choice: maybe I would have had a decent career as a violinist but I would never have made it as a soloist, and as a countertenor I was in the right place at the right time…
What changes - for good or ill - have you seen in the recording industry since those early days?
The explosion of the Baroque happened just as I was getting started: nowadays almost all the opera houses produce at least one Baroque opera each season, which wasn’t the case twenty-five years ago. There was this huge resurgence of interest in Vivaldi, helped by that incredible album from Cecilia Bartoli which I love to this day. I arrived on the scene just at the end of the golden age of the CD, when concept albums were becoming a thing, and I really ran with that: twenty years ago I could record just about anything I wanted, so I did albums devoted to JC Bach, Carestini, all sorts…These days we have to think a bit more commercially – if a project is only of interest to me then it’s not going to work!
I’m very lucky to have had Alain Lanceron at Erato on my side from the beginning: he heard me for the first time when I was eighteen, so I’d just been singing for a year. Gérard Lesne was Virgin Classics’s countertenor at the time, and Alain met me at one of his rehearsals. Alain is really the soul of that team: he knows voices so well but he also understands the industry, so I always trust him to tell me when something isn’t a good idea!
Your latest album Gelosia brings together four Italian cantatas on the much-explored theme of jealousy, including two world premiere recordings - how did you select the material?
When you think about the word ‘Gelosia’ you imagine someone very tormented and impassioned, but I think there’s more to it than that. Metastasio [who wrote the text for the eponymous cantatas by Porpora and Galuppi] is the king of opera seria, but I’m convinced he had a sense of humour too and we can feel that here: ‘I’m not jealous, but I saw you with this guy the other week…’ We all know men like that!
I’m fascinated by this idea of bringing together different musical settings of the same text, as we do with Metastasio and Porpora/Galuppi here: I did it with my JC Bach album Forgotten Arias and on Green, where we had Debussy and Fauré responding to the same Verlaine poem in such contrasting ways. But programming different settings together isn't always easy on the performer…I’m planning to do the Gelosia programme from memory soon and I’m a bit worried about mixing up Galuppi and Porpora!
In your booklet-note you argue that 'cantatas of this kind often served as a laboratory for new ideas' - can you unpack that for me?
These pieces were performed in private spaces for very well-educated people including nobles who played a bit of music. This meant that composers could allow themselves to try out subtle, complicated things, as opposed to in opera where they have to seduce people directly!
I love doing cantatas in recitals because they’re self-contained pieces where all the shifts in mood feel organic. When you do a programme of opera arias you want a mix of slow and virtuosic arias, but there’s generally no narrative throughline: you have to shift from being sad to being happy or angry in the blink of an eye!
I usually perform four cantatas in a programme, and it feels like doing four miniature operas for one person. But it’s never really for one person, because you have to bring the character you’re addressing or complaining about (usually a woman!) to life for the audience, And sometimes you can break the fourth wall and make the audience become that other character: ‘Yeah, I’m not jealous but I saw you listening to other countertenors!’
The big challenge is to put it across in a more dramatic way than you would in the recording-studio, but without hamming it up; I have an obsession with not over-playing things, because I think if you’re emotionally authentic then you’ll connect with the audience naturally.
This programme is also a big challenge for the players because all of them are soloists - apart from the Handel, these cantatas are all scored for string quartet with a harpsichord and a lute. One of my favourite things in Baroque music is recitativo accompagnato, and we had so much to get our teeth into with these pieces. Sometimes the strings prepare your mood - like at the beginning of the Scarlatti – but at other times they comment on what you sang and get into real dialogue with the voice. Sometimes they have to cut you off, sometimes they have to give you space…it all has to feel organic, and I love making all those interpretative decisions with the players.
Speaking of which, you've been devoting a fair amount of your schedule to conducting lately...is that the shape of things to come for you?
I’ve envisaged myself in the orchestra pit for twenty years! I know there are people out there thinking ‘Oh he’s pushing fifty, he’s preparing for his retirement as a singer’, and obviously a part of me accepts that I don’t have another two decades in me as a countertenor, but the truth is that I always wanted to conduct. That’s why I created Ensemble Artaserse back in 2005 – we started out as a chamber group and grew into a Baroque orchestra.
I just conducted three concert performances of Alcina with them in Montpellier, Paris and Barcelona, and I was super-happy. Conducting other singers is quite new to me, and Ruggiero in Alcina is a part I’ve sung a lot…but when I heard Carlo Vistoli doing such a great job I didn’t miss it at all! I was content to be at his service, listening to his voice and supporting him with the best accompaniment I could provide.
The other new element is the physical side of things, because conducting a whole opera from the pit is different from the singing-directing hybrid I was doing before. This new job is quite exhausting, because when you start out you bring all your energy to the table – maybe too much in my case! I have to learn to be as efficient with giving less, like I did as a singer.
I started right at the beginning with Mitridate, which is quite a big ‘first baby’! My dream is to follow the chronology of his operas and get to Don Giovanni in ten years’ time. And there’s symphonic repertoire which interests me too…I won’t be like my dear colleague Nathalie Stutzmann and do Beethoven, Dvořák and Mahler, but I’m keen to explore composers like Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn who fit better with my personality.
You're celebrating another anniversary in 2026: the tenth birthday of the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky! What was the impetus behind setting up the foundation, and what sort of support to you provide?
It all started when I was reflecting on my own musical education: even as a kid from the lower-middle-class suburbs of Paris, my parents still had to make a lot of sacrifices to pay for instruments, courses and lessons, and I’m very aware that a lot of people have it much tougher than we did. I had so many people who supported me, and about fifteen years ago I thought it was a good moment to give back to others what was given to me.
We have two parallel projects in the Académie, which is quite unusual: some institutions have programmes focused on children and others have foundations for young talent, but we have both. We offer our Young Apprentices (aged 7 to 12) three years of free lessons on piano, violin and cello; we have fifteen teachers giving them two sessions per week, so it’s quite intense. There are kids who've been playing for seven or eight years now because of us, and I think that’s the thing I’m most proud of in my entire career.
The second branch is our Foundation for Young Talents – we select twenty artists a year and offer them three weeks of masterclasses, as well as handling their PR and organising things like concerts and radio recordings. The programme is open to cellists, violinists, pianists and singers: we have a fantastic team of mentors in Anne Gastinel, Nemanja Radulović and Cédric Tiberghien, and each of us select five young artists to support every year.
This profession has changed a lot over the past decade, with the advent of social media and so much more: back in 2000 it was easy for me to find an agent and get on the ladder, but things are different now. There are so many talented musicians who just need that bit of extra support to succeed, and that’s what we’re here for. A big part of the game now is fundraising, which is relatively new to me, but I’m absolutely prepared to step up and be a fighter if that's what it takes.
Teaching is also a slightly selfish pleasure because when I give a week of masterclasses I sing better myself afterwards! When I give examples or demonstrate I have to be so precise, and that helps me to figure out what works for myself too.
And it makes me appreciate the people who came into my life at the right moment: Alain Lanceron, my teacher Nicole Fallien, and some of the Artaserse musicians who’ve been there from the beginning. I’m a very faithful guy: I’ve had the same label, teacher, agent and husband for almost twenty years! I’ve never had much time for that old French adage, 'L'herbe est toujours plus verte ailleurs'. I’ve always believed that if a place feels right it’s better to stay.
Gelosia!
Italian Cantatas
Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor/director), Ensemble Artaserse
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
