The 15th September 2024 marked my 20th performance of a staged opera this year with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset—it is actually 23 if you count ticketed dress rehearsals, and even more if you count concert versions. Ten performances of Mozart’s Così fan tutte took place at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in February, six performances of Salieri’s Cublai gran kan de' Tartari took

In the week that Labour won a landslide election in the UK and Mark Cavendish (fellow Manxman and childhood friend) cemented his 35th stage win to become the greatest Tour de France cyclist of all time, I was working in Paris with Les Talens Lyriques. This was just 20 days before the opening of the Paris Olympics. Having finally finished my book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet (www.justnaturaltrumpet.com),

The last few months have been quite a whirlwind—in fact, it’s been incredibly busy since January when we began rehearsing Mozart’s Così fan tutte for a staged production at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. It was great to perform this opera at the Würzburg Mozartfest with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset: we gave performances on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th June 2024 in the

I performed the programme ‘Mozart and Friends’ with Les Talens Lyriques and the bass soloist Benjamin Appl. Rehearsals took place at La Seine Musicale in Paris, with the first concert at ‘Le Majestic’ in Montereau (around an hour south of Paris) on Wednesday 22 May 2024, and two subsequent performances in the Würzburg Mozartfest (Friday 24 and Saturday 25 May). It was great to revisit

I performed Domenico Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade (1784) with Christophe Rousset’s Les Talens Lyriques in Halle E of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier on Sunday 31 March 2024. This concert performance of the opera took place just a few days before our staged opera production began—we will be giving six performances of Salieri’s opera Cublai gran kan de' Tartari (1788) in Halle

I played first trumpet in Handel’s Jephtha [HWV 70] on Sunday 17 March 2024 in Oslo Cathedral, with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. The performance featured the singers: Jeremy Ovenden (Jephtha), Deborah Cachet (Iphis), Sophie Harmsen (Storgé), Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Zebul), Tim Mead (Hamor), Lian Wei (Angel) and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur. This performance was the last

It was wonderful to be back at the magnificent Théâtre du Châtelet in February 2024, having performed a complete Schubert symphony cycle here around this time last year. I returned, once again with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, to give ten staged performances of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte (1790). It is quite amazing to watch Christophe directing, juggling his roles as conductor

It was great to revisit the programme, 'Mozart and Friends', that Les Talens Lyriques, under Christophe Rousset and with the baritone Benjamin Appl, most recently performed in April 2023 in Krakow. This time, 27th June 2023, we performed at La Seine Musicale in Paris (Boulogne-Billancourt).After the exciting Louise Bertin Fausto project last week, it was wonderful to play some well-known repertoire,

Fresh from a tour of Spain with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, I continued this action-packed month with a recording and performance—thought to be a modern premiere—of Louise Bertin’s Fausto (1831) with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset. The performance took place on Tuesday 20th June 2023 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the recording took place in La Seine Musicale

If you were to ask me to describe my ideal day it would start with a leisurely morning and a nice breakfast, it would also involve exploring, a good walk, a mid-afternoon chill, (Face)time with family, and it would include some lovely music and fine company. This was exactly my day in Kraków on Easter Sunday: I performed at the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic as part of the Misteria Paschalia festival:

I played principal trumpet with Les Talens Lyriques under the direction of Christophe Rousset for three all-Schubert performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet. The project took place between 18th January and 31st January 2023. Our first performance took place on Friday 27th January 2023 and it featured Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 in C major (D 589), Symphony No. 2 in B-flat minor (D 125),

Eight performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio; eight standing ovations. This was a tour of Holland to remember, with so many great components, including the Nederlands Kamerkoor, Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset, Johanna Winkel (soprano), Sophie Harmsen (alto), Zachary Wilder (tenor) and Krešimir Strazanac (bass). We performed in the Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht (12 December 2022), De

I played with Les Talens Lyriques for a recording of excerpts from several nineteenth-century works by composers such as Méhul, Beethoven, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Weber, Auber, Spontini, Bellini, Marschner, and Wagner. This recording project, called The Sorcerer’s Shadow, featured the virtuoso tenor soloist Michael Spyres. The programme explored Wagner and his influences. Christophe Rousset conducted

As part of their 30th anniversary season Les Talens Lyriques performed an all-Bach programme in three cities in the week beginning 21st November 2022. The first performance took place at Salle Gaveau in Paris (21st), the second at the Théâtre d'Orléans (23rd), and the third at the Casino de Montbenon as part of the Bach Festival in Lausanne (25th). The programme featured Bach’s Orchestral Suite

I arrived at the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (CMBV) around three hours early for the afternoon rehearsal on Sunday 12th December 2021. I had intended to leave my trumpet in the rehearsal room and have a walk around the gardens at the Palace of Versailles. However, when I arrived at the CMBV, I cupped my hands to look through the tinted window in the door and I was spotted by the musical

Over the years Will Russell (2nd trumpet) and I have been fortunate enough to come into the possession of several rare and unusual nineteenth-century brass instruments. We were delighted when Les Talens Lyriques invited us to join their recording project – Portrait de Pauline Viardot – as we do not often get the opportunity to play these instruments professionally. The programme featured music

Now that I have had both vaccinations, and France has moved to the UK’s amber list (and vice versa), travel has become significantly more straightforward. Having had the vaccine I did not have to quarantine upon arrival in France, nor did I have to quarantine when I returned to the UK. There were still passenger locator forms, declarations from high incidence areas, an antigenic test to be undertaken,

Having isolated in France before rehearsing and performing Mozart’s Idomeneo in Würzburg, I returned to Paris with Les Talens Lyriques, instead of going home as I usually would. These are still not usual times and it was not pragmatic for me to return to London (to quarantine in England and then to have to quarantine again upon return to France). So, as it happened, I had ten isolation-free

It all began with doubt as I boarded the train towards London St. Pancras. In light of the coronavirus situation French entry requirements had changed just 10 hours before I travelled, which left some doubt as to whether I would be permitted to get even as far as the Eurostar lounge. Luckily, entry was permitted. I travelled to Puteaux, to the west of Paris where I would be in quarantine. Other Parisians

The Georges Enescu Festival welcomed Les Talens Lyriques to perform Handel’s Giulio Cesare [HWV 17] on the 20th September 2019 and Handel’s Agrippina [HWV 6] on the 21st September 2019. These consecutive late night performances took place at the Romanian Athenaeum in the Romanian capital city of Bucharest. This project began with rehearsals in Paris at one of Les Talens Lyriques’ usual Montmartre