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On December 19, 2011 Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Le Concert d’Astrée, under its founder and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm gave a concert entitled ‘Fêtes Baroques’ to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Joining Haïm and the orchestra were no less than 24 of the world’s most distinguished singers of baroque repertoire. Performing music by Handel, Purcell, Rameau and Lully, these included Laura Claycomb, Stéphane Degout, Karine Deshayes, Natalie Dessay, Ann Hallenberg, Philippe Jaroussky, Topi Lehtipuu, Marijana Mijanović, Sara Mingardo, Sandrine Piau, Renata Pokupić, Sonya Yoncheva, Anne Sofie Von Otter and Rolando Villazón. Among the sources of the evening’s arias and ensembles were Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Rinaldo, Tamerlano, Come Ye Sons of Art, Thésée, Dardanus, Hippolyte et Aricie, and Les Indes galantes. The recording of this spectacular concert joins the more than 15 discs that Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée already have in the Virgin Classics catalog.
Under the patronage of Madame Simone Veil, the former President of the European Parliament, the proceeds of the concert went to the Révolution Cancer 2010-2013 program of the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, south of Paris. The institute, with a staff of 2,600, is the leading oncology centre in Europe.
