Detailed program
From August 20 (arrival tuesday 19) to August 26, 2025 (departure wednesday 27)
Few authors of oratorio librettos can boast of having had a libretto set to music by so many composers. In less than 10 years, more than a dozen composers have composed a passion using Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ text. In fact, the term Brockes Passion has come to be used in the same way as Mattheus Passion or Johannes Passion!
And if a composer like Handel chooses a libretto, we can be sure that it’s of the highest quality.
So let’s take a look at Brockes’ libretto, but through the works of three composers:
- Reinhard Keiser (the first to use Brockes’ work)
- Georg Friedrich Handel (HWV 48)
- Georg Philipp Telemann (TWV (5:1)
All their lives, these three composers crossed paths, worked together and influenced each other.
The aim is not, of course, to perform the entire Passions (2:30 hours for Handel, 2:20 hours for Telemann), but to show through choruses, solos and ensembles how a text of great dramatic force could be set to music in different ways, using musical and rhetorical devices specific to each of these composers.
- Reinhard Keiser (1674-1729) trained at Leipzig’s famous Thomasschule before J.S. Bach taught there. He later worked at the Hamburg Opera before becoming its director. The Am Gänsenmarkt opera house was a public opera house, i.e. open to all, unlike the court operas. He worked with Handel early in the latter’s career (Handel was violinist and then harpsichordist at the Am Gänsenmarkt opera). His Brockes Passion was an instant hit, so much so that Bach himself copied the score for performance in Leipzig (leading some musicologists to believe that the work was by Bach).
- Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759) needs no introduction. His Brockes Passion probably dates from 1719, by which time Handel had already settled in England, but had accompanied the British monarch on a visit to Hanover. His oratorio was given after Handel had already returned to England. One wonders whether Handel ever had the opportunity to hear his work.
- Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), like Keiser, spent most of his career in Hamburg. Musical director of the city’s five largest churches, he also took charge of the opera. At the same time, he was also Kapellmeister in Bayreuth (despite the 600 kilometers separating the two cities). His Brockes Passion is one of his masterpieces.
Workshop structure
The days begin at 9:30 am with a 45-minute group vocal technique class with Muriel Ferraro or Maarten Koningsberger: posture, breathing, vocal technique according to a pre-established progression throughout the week.
Then, until 1:00 p.m., choir members work with Philippe Le Fèvre on the musical program, accompanied by Stefano Intrieri. Rehearsals resume at 4:30 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.
At 3:30 p.m., in tutti or by section, choir members take a vocal technique course with Muriel Ferraro or Maarten Koningsberger. The Summer Academy choral training course attaches particular importance to vocal quality and gives the choir members the maximum amount of time to work on vocal technique to achieve this.
Saturday afternoons offer everyone a break from rehearsals and singing lessons.
Choristers receive their scores by e-mail before the course, and have access to audio files to help them prepare for the course. It is imperative that the scores have been worked on by everyone prior to the choral workshop, so that the week can be devoted solely to musical work and not to deciphering!
At the beginning of July, work sessions will be organized in groups. Choir members living in the Paris region will be able to attend in person, while others will be able to participate by video.