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COMPANY HISTORY
Opera Lafayette is an American period instrument ensemble dedicated to performances of 17th- and 18th-century operas, particularly the French repertoire. Founded in 1995 by
Artistic Director Ryan Brown, Opera Lafayette has garnered critical acclaim and a loyal following for its concert and staged opera productions with well-known American and international artists. Its collaborations with
The New York Baroque Dance Company, the leading baroque dance group in this country, have produced world premiere musical and dance performances.
Opera Lafayette records for Naxos. Its debut recording of the 1774 Paris version of Gluck’s
Orphée et Euridice was released internationally in 2005, followed by Sacchini’s
Oedipe à Colone in 2006 and Rameau’s Rameau Opera Arias for Haute-Contre with tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt in 2007. Opera Lafayette has also recorded Lully's
Armide for release in 2008 and Rebel and Francoeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes, a world premiere recording made at the Music Center at Strathmore, for release in 2009.
With
the 2007-2008 season’s performances and recording of
Zélindor, Opera Lafayette
launched a three-year project to present modern American premieres of
three 18th-century French operas in Washington, D.C. and in
New York City at the Rose Theater, Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and
also to make premiere recordings of these operas. Monsigny's Le
Déserteur, popular in Europe and the United States in
the 18th century, is its next project, and will be presented in January
and February 2009.
 Opera Lafayette was founded by Mr. Brown in 1995 as The Violins
of Lafayette, producing a series of chamber concerts in the Salon Doré,
an 18th-century drawing room in the Corcoran Gallery of Art
in
Washington, D.C. The ensemble quickly established a
reputation for excellence, giving particular attention to opera in both
semi-staged and concert performances. Among these were Charpentier’s
Actéon; in 1999, Rameau’s Pygmalion in 2000, and Lully’s
Acis et Galatée with The New York Baroque Dance Company at the
Embassy of France.
The
newly-named Opera Lafayette was presented on the 2001-2002 inaugural
season of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. Gluck’s Orphée et Euridice
(1774 Paris version) with French tenor Jean-Paul
Fouchécourt began a series of performances and recordings of 17th-
and 18th-century opera at the Center. Also in the
2001-2002 season, Opera Lafayette performed sections of Charpentier
and Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire in collaboration with the
Redwoods Festival in California, following a
tour of Handel’s Acis and Galatea in collaboration with The
Four Nations Ensemble. In recent seasons, Opera Lafayette has
produced Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie in concert, Haydn’s
Il Mondo della Luna in a semi-staged production directed by Leon
Major, and Mozart’s Idomeneo in concert with The New York
Baroque Dance Company. In 2006-2007 Opera Lafayette presented The
Armide Project - a concert performance with the New York Baroque
Dance Company of Lully’s 1686 Armide, and a fully staged
production of Gluck’s 1777 Armide with Mr. Major and the
Maryland Opera Studio. In the 2007 – 2008 season Opera Lafayette
made its Strathmore Hall and New York City debuts with
Zélindor, and also
produced a program entitled
The Genesis of Don Giovanni featuring the music of Mozart and
earlier composers whose works were the models for this opera. In
2009 the ensemble will perform the modern American
premiere of Monsigny’s Le
Déserteur in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
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