E vidi quattro stelle Alice Foccroulle, Nikolay Borchev & InAlto

• Bernard Foccroulle (b. 1953):
• 1 Departure from Hell at Dawn 02:48
• 2 Along the Shore (Canto I) 04:47
• 3 Dante and Virgil Climb the Mountain (Canto IV) 03:36
• 4 The Meeting with a Crowd of Sinners Who Died Violent Deaths (Canto V) 04:21
• 5 In the Smoke of the Wrathful (Cantos XV-XVI-XVIII) 04:01
• 6 Dante's Dream (Canto XXIII) 03:52
• 7 Dante Finds Beatrice (Canto XXX) 09:39
• 8 The Accusations of Beatrice and Dante's Loss of Consciousness (Canto XXXI) 08:03
• 9 Matelda Bathes Dante in the Waters of Lethe - Dance of the Four Fair Ladies (Canto XXXI) 03:53
• 10 The Sun, Slower and More Blazing Than Before, Arrives at Its Noonday Zenith (Canto XXXIII) 03:00
• 11 Revived and Refreshed, Dante Is Ready to Ascend to the Stars (End of canto XXXIII / Purgatorio) 01:59
• Total Runtime 49:59

Info for E vidi quattro stelle

This composition was commissioned from Bernard Foccroulle for the inauguration of the new organ of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The work’s text consists of fragments from Dante’s Purgatorio. At the beginning, the narrator and Virgil emerge from Hell and climb the mountain that leads to Paradise. The most sublime visions of the sky and nature are scattered throughout the text. The two travellers converse and meet many tormented shades who are awaiting their salvation. Exhausted, Dante falls asleep several times. Towards the end of their ascent, Virgil silently disappears at the very moment when Dante meets Beatrice. Their reunion forms an extremely dramatic scene: Beatrice reminds her friend of his past errors and the betrayals that followed her death. Her bitter reproaches plunge the poet into a state of prostration close to a swoon. But forgiveness comes: Matelda (a beautiful and mysterious lady we have encountered shortly before, who probably represents earthly happiness) comes to meet him, bathes him in the waters of Lethe and entrusts him to four beautiful women who dance and enfold him in their arms. The blazing sun is at its zenith. Regenerated like a young plant, Dante is ready to rise up to the stars.

Alice Foccroulle, soprano
Nikolay Borchev, baritone
InAlto

Alice Foccroulle
soprano, was a member of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie children’s choir from the age of seven. Besides the lessons she takes with the Danish singing teacher Susanna Eken, she studied at the Musikhochschule Köln as a student of Joseph Protschka and Christoph Prégardien. Alice is regularly invited to perform with various ensembles and conductors such as Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Herreweghe), la Fenice (Jean Tubéry), Musica Favola (Stephane van Dijck) and Wim Becu. She took part in the “House of the sleeping beauties” composed by Kris Defoort and conducted by Patrick Davin, created in the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and performed all over Europe. More recently, she recorded the roll of Dorinda in Zamponi's opera "Ulysse", conducted by Leonardo Garcia Alarcòn for the label Ricercar.

Nikolay Borchev
began his career at a very young age as a principal at the Bavarian State Opera. After several seasons in Munich, he spent two seasons as a member of the Vienna State Opera. With both companies he sang numerous main roles of his Fach including ‘Papageno’/ “Die Zauberflöte”, ‘Guglielmo’/”Così fan tutte” and ‘Figaro’/”Il Barbiere di Siviglia”. An exceptional musician, he developed an extensive repertoire within just a few years and, thanks to his vocal and artistic qualities as well as his compelling stage presence, has established himself as a regular guest of the world’s most important operatic, concert and recital venues.

Nikolay Borchev has appeared at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as ‘Guglielmo’ (Sir Colin Davis), and as ‘Harlekin’/”Ariadne auf Naxos”; at Carnegie Hall New York as ‘Apollo’/”Apollo e Dafne” (Jonathan Cohen), at the Opéra Comique Paris as ‘Aeneas’/”Dido and Aeneas” (William Christie), at the Hamburg State Opera as ‘Figaro’, at the State Opera Berlin as ‘Eginhard’ in Telemann’s ”Emma and Eginhard” (René Jacobs), at the Frankfurt Oper as ‘Dandini’/”La Cenerentola” and ‘Spielmann’/”Die Königskinder” (Sebastian Weigle with CD production), at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as ‘Figaro’; at Brussel’s Théâtre de la Monnaie in the world première of Benoît Mernier’s “Frühlingserwachen”, as ‘Ulisse’/”Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria”, as ‘Papageno’, as Dandini’ as well as as ‘Passaglio’ in a new production of Gassmnn’s “L’opera seria” (René Jacobs), in the title role of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, ‘Mercurio’/”La Calisto”, ‘Jeletzki’/” Pikovaya Dama” and ‘Lurcanio’/” Ariodante” at Theater Basel; in the title role of “Yevgenij Onegin” at the State Theatre Stuttgart, as ‘Conte’/”Le nozze di Figaro” at Theater Sankt Gallen; at Düsseldorf’s Deutsche Oper am Rhein as ‘Orfeo’ and ‘Guglielmo’; at Cologne Opera as ‘Marcello’/”La Bohème”, Kris Kelvin’ in Glanert’s “Solaris”, ‘Fieramosca’ in Berlioz’s “Benvenuto Cellini” and as ‘Stolzius’/”Die Soldaten (Francois-Xavier Roth), as ‘Marcello’ at the Opera Leipzig and in Riga; in Spain’s Ópera de Bilbao as ‘Donald’/”Billy Budd”, and at the Palau de les Arts Valencia as ‘Harlekin’; at the opera houses of Lille and Dijon as ‘Nardo’/”La finta giardiniera “(Emmanuelle Haïm); at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in Ullmann’s “Der Kaiser von Atlantis”; as ‘Malatesta’/”Don Pasquale” at the Glyndebourne Festival (conducted by Enrique Mazzola and staged by Mariame Clément which was commercially released on DVD); as well as in the festivals of Weimar in Hanns Eisler's “Deutsche Sinfonie”; Schwetzingen, as ‘Pluto’ in Josef Martin Kraus’ “Proserpina”; the Rheingau Music Festival; the Salzburg Festival in Händel’s “Das Alexanderfest” (René Jacobs); the Ruhrtriennale and at the Baden-Baden Festival as ‘Harlekin’ (Christian Thielemann; released on DVD), and as ‘Albert’/“Werther” (Bertrand de Billy). Further credits include, amongst others, ‘Schneidebart’/“The silent woman”, ‘Prosdocimo’/”Il Turco in Italia “ and ‘Der Liebende’ at the world-premiere of Nikolaus Brass’ “Die Vorübergehenden” at the Bavarian State Opera (Paolo Arrivabeni); the role of ‘; the role Morald in Wagner’s “Die Feen” at the Opera Leipzig, as ‘Dandini’/”La Cenerentola” at the Opéra de Lyon (Stefano Montanaro) and the role of ‘Danilo’ in Léhar’s “Merry Widow” at the Staatsoperette Dresden.

Nikolay Borchev is also a highly sought-after concert singer and recitalist. He has been featured with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich, in Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln; the Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble as ‘Orfeo’ (Thomas Hengelbrock); the Freiburger Barockorchester in “Don Giovanni “(commercially released on CD and DVD, René Jacobs); the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; the Capella Augustina in Haydn’s “Il ritorno di Tobia”; the Museumsorchester Frankfurt in “Carmina Burana” and “Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln”; the NPS Amsterdam in “Orlando Paladino”; with the London Mozart Players; the Chamber Orchestra of Munich; the Radio Symphony Orchestra of the Saarland in Saint-Saëns “Oratorio de Noël”; the RSO Berlin and as Apollo in Händel’s “Apollo e Dafne” with the Philharmonic State Orchestra Halle; the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie (Frank Beermann); with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (Jeffrey Tate); with the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, with the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, with the Warsaw Philharmonic, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, with the Munich Bachchor in Bach’s “Matthäus-Passion” (Hans-Jörg Albrecht) and with the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester in a concert version Bohuslav Martinů's opera “Ariane”, in the role of ‘Thesée’ (Martyn Brabbins), amongst others. His participation in a semi-staged, cross-over production of Rossini’s “La Petite Messe Solennelle” with the dance company Nico and the Navigator, with performances at the Weimar Festival, in Berlin, Dijon as well as in Paris has been of special interest and was highly acclaimed.. Further highlights included his successful role-debut as ‘Pelléas’/”Pelléas et Mélisande” with the Niederösterreichische Tonkünstler under the baton of Jun Märkl at Vienna’s Musikverein”. He recently gave his debut at Concertgebouw Amsterdam in “Das Paradies und die Peri” with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, conducted by Markus Stenz and in Rossini’s “La petite messe solennelle” under Leonardo Garcia Alarcón.

His recital repertoire is extensive, and encompasses cycles by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler and Wolf, as well as songs by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Grieg. He sang Schubert’s “Die Winterreise” (commercially released on CD) at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, where he has also been the object of an "Artist's Portrait" with numerous concerts, recitals and gala performances. With Wolfram Rieger he presented a recital at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. He is a regular guest of Vilabertran’s Schubertiada, and has given recitals at Dortmund’s Konzerthaus, at the festival of Weimar and the Brühler Schlosskonzerte. Additional recitals have taken him regularly to the Music at Menlo Festival in Atherton, California; to Spain’s Gran Canaria; and as far as Taiwan.

Current and future projects include his debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid and his role-debuts as ‘Posa’/”Don Carlo at the Theatre St. Gallen, as “Don Giovanni”/titelrole at the Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg and as ‘Fritz’/”Die tote Stadt” at La Monnaie Brussels. He will return to the Chamber Music Society of New York as well as to the Bachakademie Stuttgart and will perform “Dido and Aeneas”/Aeneas with the company of Sasha Waltz at the Berlin State Opera as well as at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

Nikolay Borchev was born in Pinsk, Belarus, and started his musical education at age seven years with piano, flute and organ. At sixteen he began studying singing at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Pavel Lisitsian and Maria Ariya and later continued his studies in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" under the guidance of Heinz Reeh, Júlia Várady and Wolfram Rieger. He was a prize winner at numerous international vocal competitions.

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