First cousin of the Roi Soleil’s organist, Marguerite Louise Couperin he was described by Titon de Tillet as one of the most celebrated musicians of her time, who “sang with a great lightness in her voice and a marvelously good taste”. Engaged in Versailles in 1702 as a soprano, she became one of the very first women to be able to sing at the tribune of the royal Chapel. It was thus that François Couperin was destined to write the most moving music for her, as part of very lofty instrumental ensembles, which particularly highlighted her voice: two flutes and no deep bass (this was given to the violin).
It is therefore from the name of this sweet muse that Marguerite Louise was born, today made up of the best musicians of the Baroque repertoire under the direction of the organist Gaétan Jarry. In 2015, Marguerite Louise released his first record Motets pour une Princesse (L’Encelade), dedicated to the unpublished masterpieces of Charpentier. Highly praised by critics, this record marks a turning point for the Ensemble then described as one of the most “promising of his generation”.
Since 2016, Marguerite Louise has had the pleasure of collaborating with the Château de Versailles, at the heart of which it performs the sacred music, chamber music and operatic repertoires. In 2018 the ensemble will celebrate the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of François Couperin by giving at the church of Saint Gervais. The Ensemble also performed at the Cité de la Musique, the Saint Gervais church in Paris, the Sinfonia Festival in the Perigord, the Sacred Music Festival in Saint Malo and the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The ensemble distinguished itself in several opera productions such as Pygmalion of Rameau, Charpentier’s Médée and Actéon alongside Tafelmusik and the Opéra-Atelier of Toronto at the Royal Opéra of Versailles, as well as in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust in collaboration with the Orchestra Les Siècles (François-Xavier Roth). In July 2017, Marguerite Louise interpreted the emblematic Les Arts Florissans by Charpentier at the Château de Versailles, which was made into a recording on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label in September 2018 (5 Diapasons, 5 Classica’s stars, Opéra Magazine Diamond).
Marguerite Louise is a member of the Fédération des Ensembles Vocaux et Instrumentaux Spécialisés. He is supported by the Orange Foundation and the City of Versailles.
