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About
French conductor and harpsichordist Christophe Rousset made his Royal Opera debut in the 2016/17 Season conducting Mitridate, re di Ponto.
Rousset studied harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum in Paris with Huguette Dreyfus and at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Bob van Asperen, and in 1983 won first prize in the Bruges Harpsichord Competition. In 1991 he founded Les Talens Lyriques, now a highly respected ensembles working in historically informed performance. Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques have performed for companies and venues including Paris Opéra, Dutch National Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Salle Pleyel, Opéra de Lausanne, Teatro Real, Madrid, Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie, Brussels, the Barbican Centre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and at the Aix-en-Provence and Beaune festivals. His recordings include Das wohltemperierte Clavier for Aparté, and with Les Talens Lyriques recordings of Farinelli with Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg, Salieri’s Les Danaïdes, Rameau’s Zaïs and Lully’s Armide. Rousset’s studies of Rameau (2007) and Couperin (2016) were published by Actes Sud.
Rousset’s engagements as an opera conductor include La Calisto and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Theater an der Wien), Alcina (Paris Opéra), Platée (Opéra national du Rhin), Les Indes galantes and Castor et Pollux (Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse), La scala di seta (La Scala, Milan), Tamerlano and Alcina (Dutch National Opera), Mitridate, re di Ponto (La Monnaie, Brussels) and Alceste (Vienna State Opera). Rousset is a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.