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In 1985, Lesne founded his own group: Il Seminario Musicale. Since then, he has devoted the bulk of his time to this group, both as a singer and as a music director. Il Seminario Musicale specializes in Italian and French baroque repertoir. Many of their recordings have won prestigious prizes such as Diapason d'Or, ffff Telerama, Choc du Monde de la Musique and Timbre de Platine. In addition to working with his own group, Lesne occasionally collaborates with his sister Brigitte, who is herself a fine alto. |
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| Born in 1956, Gerard Lesne studied musicology at the Sorbonne. He started his singing career as a singer of jazz and rock. In 1979, he was "discovered" by conductor Rene Clemencic who persuaded him to join the Clemencic Consort. After a few years with the Consort, Lesne moved on to a solo career becoming one of the most celebrated countertenors of our time. As a soloist, he has worked with conductors such as William Christie, Jordi Savall, Marcel Peres, Philippe Herreweghe, Marc Minkowski, and others. |
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| Gerard Lesne |
| Contralto Haute-contre |
| Gerard Lesne, haute-contre charismatique qui allie une perfection quasi instrumentale a la plenitude du timbre... Opera International |
| Existe-t'il un autre alto masculin susceptible de rendre a ces musiques leur panache, leur grace, leur fievre? Telerama |
| Immense talent. La technique infallible et le genie expressif. Diapason |
| L'art subtil. Gerard Lesne est un haute-contre francais dont la richesse du timbre, le raffinement du phrase surclassent en sensualite et en preciosite de ses homologues anglais et belges... Le Monde de la Musique |
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Many of Lesne's recordings describe him as a "contralto" rather than simply a "countertenor." This choice of terminology is fitting. He does sound much like a female mezzo-soprano or a contralto. The funny thing is that I normally dislike countertenors who sound like mezzos but I adore Lesne. I guess, he's not your typical male mezzo. Lesne has a way of varying the volume and the color of his voice, especially on higher notes and around the passagio, which tones down his vibrato and adds sexiness and vulnerability to what he is singing. The lilting effect of his crescendo/decrescendo way of approaching notes and the floating (unsupported) higher notes make his vocal technique truly unique. His solid technique is all the more impressive considering that he had no formal training in voice. Of course, no vocal technique, however spectacular, would do much good if it wasn't combined with an ability to interpret the texts. Lesne has this ability in abundance, and sounds reasonably comfortable in several different languages. |
| Me and THE MAN (New York, April 2001) |
| DISCLAIMER: This is just a fan page. The Il Seminario official website can be found at Fondation Royaumont. Other websites about Lesne: Virgin Classics Artists Performers of Bach Cantatas |
| Hautes-contre Mark Padmore Paul Agnew Jean-Paul Fouchecourt Rodrigo del Pozo The Webmeisterin E-mail the webmeisterin Links |
| Sound sample: Monteverdi Egos flos campi |
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| Gerard's vignette. Isn't that original? (I scanned it in from his autograph) |