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As the curtain rises on Les Violons du Roy’s 40th season, Jonathan Cohen is proud to present a ravishing and radiant work by a seasoned Vivaldi at the height of his career. A veritable miniature opera, La Sena festeggiante has been attracting a lot of attention in Europe in recent years. A grand allegorical celebration of Louis XV’s time, this French-style work is full of surprises, with a virtuoso bass playing the leading role!
This concert will be preceded by a talk at 6:45 p.m. by Kelly Rice, who will share some thoughts and listening tips for the evening’s program.
Conductors and soloists

Jonathan Cohen
ConductorJonathan Cohen has forged a remarkable career as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist. Well known for his passion and commitment to chamber music Jonathan is equally at home in such diverse activities as baroque opera and the classical symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les Violons du Roy, Artistic Director of Tetbury Festival and Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra. From the 2023-2024 season, he will be the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society.
The 22-23 season sees Jonathan returning to the USA to conduct the Handel and Haydn Society and St Paul Chamber Orchestra and his projects with Les Violons du Roy include Handel’s Alcina and programmes with Carolyn Sampson and Philippe Jaroussky. He conducts Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, as well as projects with Arcangelo including Handel’s Theodora.
Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010, who strive to perform high quality and specially created projects. He has toured with them to exceptional halls and festivals including Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg Festival and Carnegie Hall New York. They made their Proms debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2016 and returned to the Proms in 2018 (Theodora) and 2021 (St Matthew Passion).
Arcangelo is busy and much in demand in the recording studio, partnering with fine soloists such as Iestyn Davies (its disc Arias for Guadagni won the Recital Category at the 2012 Gramophone Awards and its recording of Bach cantatas was best Baroque Vocal recording at the 2017 Gramophone Awards), Anna Prohaska, and Christopher Purves for Hyperion Records. Its recording CPE Bach Cello Concertos with Nicolas Altstaedt won the BBC Music Magazine Awards Concerto category in 2017, and its Buxtehude Trio Sonatas, Op.1 recording for Alpha Classics was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Arcangelo’s recent recordings include Handel’s Brockes-Passion, Buxtehude Trio Sonatas Op. 2 and a further disc of Bach Cantatas with Iestyn Davies.

Robin Johannsen
SopranoAmerican soprano Robin Johannsen has established an international career both on the opera stage and in concert and has become known for her special affinity for the Baroque and Classical repertoires. Robin began her career as a young artist with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, after which she joined Oper Leipzig.
Robin has appeared at Theater an der Wien, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Athens’ Megaron, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Teatro Regio Torino, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper Frankfurt, Vlaamse Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Komische Oper Berlin, and Bayreuth Festival, where roles have included Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Norina Don Pasquale, Oscar Un ballo in maschera, Venere/Giuturna Amor vien dal destino, title role Almira, Soeur Constance Les dialogues des Carmélites, Marzelline Beethoven’s Leonore Konstanze Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, the title role of Telemann’s Emma und Eginhard, and Adina L’elisir d’amore.
She has a close working relationship with René Jacobs and the Freiburger Barockorchester, and is a frequent guest with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, La Cetra Basel, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Concerto Köln, Kammerakademie Potsdam, La Folia Barockorchester and Belgium’s B’Rock. She has also collaborated with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Teodor Currentzis, Ottavio Dantone, Antonello Manacorda, Andrea Marcon, Alessandro De Marchi, Raphaël Pichon, Jérémie Rhorer, Thomas Hengelbrock, David Afkham Philippe Herreweghe, Christian Thielemann, Stefan Gottfried, Manfred Honeck, Daniel Reuss, Ton Koopman, Nicholas McGegan, Hans Christoph Rademann, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Philippe Jordan.
Robin’s numerous concert engagements have included performances with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Dresden Philharmonic, OSESP São Paolo, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Ensemble Pygmalion, Academy of Ancient Music, RIAS Kammerchor, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, NDR Hannover, Helsinki Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, and Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España as well as at the Berliner Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Essen Philharmonie, Gasteig Munich, Konzerthaus Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Paris Philharmonie, the Vatican, Salzburg’s Mozarteum and Groβes Festspielhaus, Tonhalle Zürich, Elbphilharmonie, the Wiener Musikverein and Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Anna Reinhold
Mezzo-sopranoAfter studying at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMD) and the University of Vienna, Anna Reinhold made her stage debut under the direction of William Christie, as part of his academy, "Le Jardin des Voix"; this was followed by numerous engagements with Les Arts Florissants, in Europe and America.
She now collaborates regularly with many conductors and ensembles: Leonardo García Alarcón (Cappella Mediterranea), Raphaël Pichon (Pygmalion), Laurence Equilbey (Accentus and Insula Orchestra), Jonathan Cohen (Balearic Islands Simphony Orchestra, Arcangelo ensemble, Orchestre d'Auvergne), Vincent Dumestre (Le Poème Harmonique), Simon-Pierre Bestion (La Tempête), Ryan Brown (Lafayette Opera), John Butt (Edinburgh Orchestra), Josh van Veldhoven (Bachvereniging), Andrea Marcon (La Cetra Barockorchester Basel)...
At the Opera, she sang the title role of L'Italiana in Algeri (Rossini) and Mélisande (Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Atelier lyrique de Tourcoing, L'Italiana in Algeri again, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Cybèle (Lully's Atys) at the Opéra Royal de Versailles and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Menesto (Cavalli's Elena) at the Festival d'Aix en Provence, Pandora (Draghi's El Prometeo) at the Opéra de Dijon, Adèle and Al Cirbec (Le Mystère de l'écureuil bleu by Marc-Olivier Dupin) at the Opéra Comique in Paris, or the Second Camerist (Le Nain by Zemlinsky) at the Théâtre de Caen.
Particularly appreciated for her interpretations in concerts and chamber music repertoire, Anna Reinhold is a regular guest at festivals such as Les Musicales de Colmar (Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ...), the Kaposvar Festival and the Budapest Festival Academy in Hungary, the Cork Festival in Ireland; she recently sang the cantata Phaedra (Britten) with the Orchestre rérgional de Normandie and performs in duet with guitarist and lutenist Quito Gato, in both baroque ("Lagrime mie") and popular ("Mi corazón espanol") programs.
She also founded the ensemble "Il Caravaggio" with harpsichordist Camille Delaforge, which can be heard in France and abroad, in French and Italian baroque repertoires.
Anna Reinhold made numerous recordings, notably with Raphaël Pichon and the Pygmalion ensemble (Bach's Hohe Messe), lutenist Thomas Dunford ("Labirinto d'Amore"), Cappella Mediterranea conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón ("Heroines of the Venetian Baroque"), William Christie's Les Arts Florissants (« N’espérez plus, mes yeux », « Bien que l'Amour », « Si vous vouliez un jour »), or the ensemble Il Caravaggio (« Madonna della Grazia »).
Her 2022/2023 season includes concerts with Cappella Mediterranea, Les Arts Florissants, le Poème Harmonique, Il Giardino Armonico, the ensemble L'Encyclopédie, and a recital at the Opéra Comique.
Anna Reinhold is represented by RSB Artists since 2013.

Alex Rosen
BassAfter completing his studies at the Juilliard School, Alex Rosen made his international debut with Les Arts Florissants, under the direction of William Christie, in two tours of Haydn’s Creation and Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Since then, he has guarded his passion for historical performance, in projects both in Europe and back in the United States. Recently he appeared as Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea with Cincinnati Opera, as Cadmus and Somnus in Handel’s Semele with Opera Philadelphia, and as Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Les Arts Florissants, again under the direction of William Christie.
In the 2022/23 season, Alex embarks on a tour of Ariodante with Il Pomo d’Oro before making his debut at the Teatro Real, Madrid, as Caronte in L’Orfeo. He makes further appearances with the company of the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Versailles as Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea, and later makes his debut with the Drottningholms Slottsteater in The Fairy Queen. Alex returns to the Basel Opera for Thomas Verstraeten’s staged production of The Creation, and appears in concert with Les Musiciens du Louvre and Les Arts Florissants.
Last season, Alex made a number of exciting company debuts including Commendatore/Masetto at the Liceu, Barcelona, and at the Bordeaux Opera, before then appearing at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea. He also appeared with the Basel Opera in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and appeared in concert in Poland with Capella Cracoviensis.
Alex enjoys an ongoing collaboration with pianist Michał Biel, with whom he won 2nd prize in the 2018 International Hugo Wolf Academy Competition. As laureates of the Royaumont Foundation’s Art Song Academy, they have given recitals in some of Europe’s most prominent art song venues, including the Festival Lied Victoria de los Angeles in Barcelona, and Wigmore Hall in London. Alex is a native of La Cañada, California.
Program
La Sena festeggiante, RV 693
Other performances of the concert
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