Lecons de Tenebres du Jeudy Sainct

"They transform into an entertainment that which has been created for no other purpose than to produce in the Christian soul a holy and salutary sadness." It was in these terms that the ecclesiastical authorities in France towards the end of the 17th century deplored the widely popular Leçons de Ténèbres - a specifically French genre which grew from the readings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah during Holy Week. And the unequalled master of this "pleasure in contrition" was Marc-Antoine Charpentier, who was even more skilled than his contemporaries in touching the hearts of the congregation, having learnt his art in Italy.

René Jacobs was born in Gent, where he was a cathedral chorister. He studied classics and singing in Brussels, followed by a further period of study in The Hague. The Kuijken brothers, Alfred Deller and Gustav Leonhardt all encouraged him to specialise as a countertenor, and within a few years he has become one of the most eminent singers in this field, giving recitals all over the world. Excited and inspired by the vast baroque repertoire that still remains to be discovered, René Jacobs founded the Concerto Vocale in 1977. His talent as a conductor has given him the opportunity to conduct the operas of Monteverdi, Cesti, Cavalli, Gluck and Handel on all the major stages in Europe and Japan. Most of these performances have been recorded as well and have obtained several prestigious awards. In 1991 René Jacobs was elected artistic director for the opera programme at the Innsbruck Festival. He completed his Monteverdi cycle with Orfeo, performed at the Salzburg Festival in 1993. His particular passion is the Venetian opera, and the work and devotion he has given to this cause have found their ultimate expression in the recent production of La Calisto at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, internationally acclaimed as a major triumph - a production performed again in Berlin, Barcelona, Lyon and Montpellier. In his role as principal guest conductor and artistic adviser on early music with the Berlin Staatsoper, René Jacobs has just produced Telemann's Orpheus and Gassmann's Opera Seria, both with equal success. In 1996/97 the Schwetzingen Festival and the Nationale Reisopera of Holland invited him to conduct his first opera by Mozart. He chose Così fan tutte which had such a success that the production was performed again in the same year at the Berlin Staatsoper. In 1999 René Jacobs will also conduct Reinhard Keiser's Croesus (Berlin, January), Cavalli's La Calisto (revivals in March and April in Lyon and Montpellier), Monteverdi's Orfeo (in April in Paris, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, and in June at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), Cesti's L'Argia (in October in Paris, Théâtre des Champs Elysées) and Rameau's Castor et Pollux (in December in Basle). René Jacobs teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.