Le Concert d’Astrée, under its founder and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, celebrates its 10th anniversary in style with a charity concert in Paris featuring 23 of the world’s most distinguished singers of baroque repertoire.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Le Concert d’Astrée, under its founder and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, will give a concert entitled ‘Fête Baroque’ at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées on 19th December 2011. Joining Haïm and the orchestra are no less than 23 of the world’s most distinguished singers of baroque repertoire. Among the sources of the evening’s arias and ensembles are Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Rinaldo, Tamerlano, Come Ye Sons of Art, Thésée, Dardanus, Hippolyte et Aricie, and Les Indes galantes. The recording of this spectacular concert will join 15 discs that Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée already have in the Virgin Classics catalogue.

The concert also benefits a good cause as will this CD. Under the patronage of Madame Simone Veil, the former President of the European Parliament, the proceeds of the concert will go to the Révolution Cancer 2010-2013 programme of the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, south of Paris. The institute, with a staff of 2,600, is the leading oncology centre in Europe.

Artists

Natalie Dessay, Sandrine Piau, Sonya Yoncheva, Jaël Azzaretti, Laura Claycomb, Aurélia Legay, Magali Léger, Françoise Masset, Patricia Petibon (sopranos), Anne Sofie Von Otter, Ann Hallenberg, Renata Pokupić, Karine Deshayes, Delphine Haidan (mezzos), Marijana Mijanović, Sara Mingardo (contraltos), Pascal Bertin, Philippe Jaroussky (countertenors), Rolando Villazón, Topi Lehtipuu (tenors), Stéphane Degout, Christopher Purves (baritones), Lorenzo Regazzo (bass)

Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm