ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

Raphaël Pichon has had dual careers as a countertenor and later as the founder and director of the historically oriented choir Pygmalion. That group has developed into a major force in the performance of French Baroque opera.

Pichon was born in Paris on October 17, 1984. As a child, he sang in a famous youth choir, the Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs in Versailles. Pichon studied the violin and piano at the Versailles Academy, but he told Télérama, "As a child, working on the [violin], alone in my room, put me off; I only rediscovered pleasure in making music by discovering the joy of building a sound together in a choir...." Moving on to the Paris Conservatory, Pichon began to come closer to his ultimate place, studying voice and conducting. As a countertenor, he performed under some of the leading early music conductors of the early 21st century, both French and foreign, including Jordi Savall, Jean Tubéry, and Ton Koopman. Pichon founded Pygmalion in 2006 and built it into one of the most successful choral ensembles oriented toward early music. For a time, Pichon also conducted the chamber choir OTrente, which specialized in Romantic and contemporary works, but he stepped down to devote full time to Pygmalion. That group made its debut recording on the Alpha label in 2010 with a release devoted to Bach's Missae Brevis, BWV 233 and BWV 236.

The group, accompanied by period instruments, has performed not only in France but around Europe and in China and Hong Kong. Pygmalion has especially been associated with productions of Baroque opera and has appeared on leading French stages, including the Opéra Royal de Versailles and a theater at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence. The group collaborated with the Bordeaux Opera in notable productions of Rameau's operas Castor et Pollux and Dardanus -- later becoming artists-in-residence with that company -- and also worked with the venerable Opéra-Comique in Paris. Pichon and Pygmalion recorded several more albums for the Alpha label. In 2014, the group moved to Harmonia Mundi for a recording of Bach's rarely performed Köthener Trauermusik, BWV 244a. Pichon and Pygmalion have continued to record for Harmonia Mundi, also backing soprano Sabine Devieilhe on the album Mozart: The Weber Sisters in 2015. In 2020, the ensemble released the album Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets on Harmonia Mundi. Pichon and Devieilhe teamed up once again on the album Bach, Handel on Erato in 2021, and the group returned to Harmonia Mundi for a recording of Bach's Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244. In 2023, Pichon and Pygmalion recorded Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine. ~ James Manheim

The versatile operatic baritone Stéphane Degout has been a frequent sight on operatic stages in his native France, the U.S., Italy, and elsewhere since coming on the scene in the late '90s. In addition to mainstream Italian, German, and French opera, he has also appeared in early music productions and is adept in French song repertory.

Degout was born in Bourg-en-Bresse in eastern France on June 9, 1975, and grew up in nearby Saint-Jean-de-Niost. He attended the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Lyon, went on to the National Conservatory of Music and Dance, and has continued to live in France's second city. His debut major role came in 1998 at the Opéra National in Lyon, as Pagageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and he reprised the role in Aix-en-Provence in 1999. Degout studied with Margreet Honig at the conservatory and took master classes with Régine Crespin and Gundula Janowitz, among other prominent singers. A second prize in the 2002 Plácido Domingo Competition boosted his profile beyond his home region, and since then, he has appeared at many of the world's top houses.

At the Theater an der Wien, Degout has sung Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the title role in Monteverdi's Orfeo. At London's Covent Garden, he has been seen as Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola and as Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. He has also made multiple appearances at both the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the early music field, he has worked under conductors René Jacobs, William Christie, and Emmanuelle Haïm, among others. Degout also lists several premieres of contemporary operas among his credits; he was cast in the premiere of Benôit Mernier's La Dispute in 2013 and in three operas by composer Philippe Boesmans: Au monde (2014) and La monnaie and Pinocchio (2017). The year 2018 saw the release of no fewer than three Degout recordings: a Pinocchio recording was issued on the Cypres label; the aria recital Enfers (with Raphaël Pichon) appeared on Harmonia Mundi; and he was the baritone soloist in Charpentier's Leçons de Ténèbres under conductor Jonathan Cohen on the Hyperion label. Degout was nominated for a Best Opera Recording Grammy Award in 2019 for George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence. He continued to record for Harmonia Mundi and had a busy schedule in 2019 and 2020 that was interrupted only briefly by the coronavirus pandemic. In March of 2020, he issued the album Epic: Lieder & Balladen with pianist Simon Lepper. Degout returned in 2022 with a pair of releases, an appearance on the group Pygmalion's recording of Bach's Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244, and another on an album of Ravel works featuring pianist Cédric Tiberghien. Degout was made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2012. ~ James Manheim