Each autumn, Le Petit Palais hosts within its permanent collection, works by contempory artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and video-artists) in order to advance its philosophy. The art of photography, considered until recently a lesser art, has finally been recognized as a fine art. This season, Le Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris, presents a comprehensive selection of 400 photographs by the French fashion and celebrity photographer Patrick Demarchelier (b. 1943).

Robert de Niro, Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Elton John, Lenny Kravitz, Gianni Versace,  Naomi Campbell, Warren Beatty, Madonna, Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Janet Jackson, Karl Lagerfeld, Ralph Lauren, Laura Bush, Président Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Susan Sarandon, Linda Evangelista, Ronald Reagan, Diana Princess of Wales are among those who have posed for Demarchelier.

Based in New York since 1975 and the official photographer of the Condé Nast group, Demarchelier has shot advertising campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Céline, Tag Heuer, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacoste Lancôme, Guerlain, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferre, Anne Klein, Valentino, Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors.

Born in or around 1431 in the small town of Isola di Carturo, near Padua, Andrea Mantegna is one of the greatest and most famous Italian Renaissance painters. French museums are home to a number of masterpieces by Mantegna, by far the largest grouping of his works outside Italy. The exhibition of some 190 works by Mantegna and contemporary artists, whose highlights also include loans from public and private collections worldwide, attempts to trace the major phases in Mantegna’s career as an artist, his influence on his contemporaries and the early dissemination of his works throughout Europe.


Andrea Mantegna, La Résurrection, 1457-1459. Bois. H. 71, 1 ; l. 94 cm. Tours, musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 803-1-25
© Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours
Photo courtesy of Musée du Louvre

Renowned for his indomitable personality, Mantegna was an avid antiquarian who moved in sophisticated humanist circles, for whom he embodied the Renaissance ideal in northern Italy as early as the mid-15th century. Mantegna’s characteristically severe style, which applied a rigor and consistency never seen before his time, emerged from an enthusiastic admiration for classical antiquity, the artist’s vast ornamental vocabulary and his cherished ideal of virtue, the scrupulous reproduction of nature by way of an exacting—and often bold—use of perspective, but also found inspiration in Flemish painting and evinced a genuine fascination with sculpture.

The key phases of the show are:

I - Padua in Artistic Ferment (1440–1460)

II - Giovanni Bellini and Mantegna

III - On the San Zeno Altarpiece

IV - Mantegna in Mantua between 1460 and 1470

V - On the Aigueperse Saint Sebastian (1478–1490)

VI - Mantegna “invenit”

VII - The Madonna della Vittoria and the Painted Reliefs (1490s)

VIII - The Studiolo of Isabella d’Este (1491–1502)

IX - The Triumphs of Caesar (1486–1506)

X - Advent of the “Maniera Moderna”

The first major French retrospective of the work of Jacques Villeglé, 82, an artist who since 1949 used one single material, the torn poster. Bringing together some one hundred works dating from the 1940s to the present, the exhibition adopts a thematic approach to the artist’s work, from the typographical explosions and colored abstract compositions of his early work to the recent rhythmical juxtapositions derived from concert posters.

Villeglé is not a creator of readymades, even if he does nothing (except lend the occasional “helping hand”) to the posters he finds in the streets and then mounts on canvas. He sees himself rather as a flâneur, and his work is to reveal among the urban chaos the beauties hidden in the layered paper torn and sometimes written on or otherwise marked by anonymous hands.

J.S. Bach:

Cantata BWV 30
Cantata BWV 38
Cantata BWV 70

Concentus Musicus Wien
Arnold Schoenberg Chor 
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor
Barbara Bonney, soprano
Elisabeth von Magnus, viola
Werner Güra, tenor
Timothy Sharp, bass

Les Enfants du paradis
Music: Marc-Olivier Dupin (commissioned by l'Opéra national de Paris)
Choreography: José Martinez
Adaptation: François Roussillon and José Martinez after a scenario by Jacques Prévert
Sets: Ezio Toffolutti
Costumes: Agnès Letestu
Lighting: André Diot

Baptiste : Mathieu Ganio or Stéphane Bullion or Mathias Heymann
Frédérick Lemaître : Alessio Carbone or Karl Paquette or Josua Hoffalt
Garance : Eleonora Abbagnato or Isabelle Ciaravola or Eve Grinsztajn
Nathalie : Mélanie Hurel or Muriel Zusperreguy or Alice Renavand
Lacenaire : Benjamin Pech or Stéphane Phavorin or Vincent Chaillet
La ballerine : Nolwenn Daniel ou Aurélia Bellet or Sarah Kora Dayanova
Le comte : Christophe Duquenne or Jean-Christophe Guerri or Aurélien Houette
Madame Hermine : Caroline Bance or Ghyslaine Reichert or Caroline Robert
Desdémone : Nolwenn Daniel or Miteki Kudo or Charline Giezendanner
Le directeur de théâtre en Aboyeur : Fabien Roques or Alexis Renaud
Un musicien : Pierre Rétif or Samuel Murez
Jean-Louis Barrault : nn

Les Étoiles, les Premiers Danseurs et le Corps de Ballet

Ensemble Orchestral de Paris
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor

A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miguel Zenón studied saxophone at the famed Escuela Libre de Musica and at the Berklee School of Music in America. After graduating from Berklee, Zenón received a scholarship to attend Manhattan School of Music and in 2001, he received a Masters in Saxophone Performance.

In his relatively short, but rather illustrious career, Zenón has performed and/or recorded with a quite a diverse array of artists including: David Sanchez, Danilo Perez, Charlie Haden, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Bobby Hutcherson, Jason Lindner, Guillermo Klein y Los Guachos, The Mingus Big Band, Brian Lynch, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, Ray Barretto, Steve Coleman and Branford Marsalis, among others.

Perhaps one his most important collaborations began in 2004, when Zenón was asked to become one of the founding members of the SF Jazz Collective; an octet whose past and present members include:  Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas and Brian Blade.

Miguel Zenón has just been named a MacArthur Fellow for 2008. Also known as a "Genius Grant", the prestigious award provides $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.

Miguel Zenon Quartet
Luis Perdromo, piano
Henry Cole, drums
Hans Glawischnig, bass
Miguel Zenon, alto sax

Bedřich Smetana: The Bartered Bride (Prodaná Nevesta, 1866)
Libretto: Karel Sabina
Sung in Czech

Jirí Belohlávek, conductor

Gilbert Deflo, director
Sets and costumes: William Orlandi
Lighting: Roberto Venturi
Choreography: Micha van Hoecke

Krušina: Oleg Bryjak
Ludmila: Martina Dike
Marenka: Christiane Oelze
Mícha: Stefan Kocán
Háta: Helene Schneiderman
Vašek: Christoph Homberger
Jeník: Ales Briscein
Kecal Franz: Hawlata
Esmeralda: Amanda Squitieri
Indian: Ugo Rabec

Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris

Directed by Robert Carsen with choreography by Jean-Claude Gallotta, this production of French baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully's Armide at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in October is sure to be a hot ticket.

Set in a prologue and five acts, Armide, from 1686, is regarded as one of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s greatest masterpieces. The libretto by Philippe Quinault is based on the Renaissance poem Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso. This lyric tragedy tells the story of a sorceress’the warrior princess Armide ’ torn between hatred and attraction for the Christian knight Renaud. The music is elegant yet passionate and, at its most dramatic, portrays the full range of Armide’s emotions’from hostility to tenderness, from sensuousness to despair. From declamatory recitatives to elegant "airs à la française," the music is an opera lover’s delight. Baroque dance plays an important role in the drama too, whether poetic, dramatic, or, finally, in the Grande Passacaille that concludes Act V, profoundly majestic. Armide was first produced on the stage of the Académie Royale in Paris in 1686.

Jean-Baptiste Lully: Armide

William Christie, conductor
Robert Carsen, director

Jean-Claude Gallotta, choreography
Gideon Davey, sets and constumes
Robert Carsen et Peter Van Praet, lighting

Cast:
Claire Debono: La Gloire, Phénice, Lucinde
Isabelle Druet: La Sagesse, Sidonie, Mélisse
Stéphanie d’Oustrac: Armide
Nathan Berg: Hidraot
Paul Agnew: Renaud
Marc Mauillon: Ubalde, Aronte
Marc Callahan: Artémidore
Andrew Tortise: Le Chevalier Danois
Laurent Naouri: La Haine
Anders J. Dahlin: Un amant fortuné

Choeur et Orchestre Les Arts Florissants

The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the most renowned and respected early music groups in Europe and around the world. Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by the American, William Christie, and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les Arts Florissants have been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France in 17th-century French repertoire as well as in European music of the 17th and 18th centuries more generally. This was repertoire which had, for the most part, been neglected but which is now widely performed and admired.

Afro-beat superstar, Femi Kuti is the undisputed inheritor of the genius of his father, Nigerian Afro-beat star Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Like that of his father’s, Femi’s musical commentary echos the plight of the Nigerian people yet he continues to express his own musical style. Femi Kuti rose from the ranks of Egypt 80 to become a star in his own right with his own outfit, Positive Force, even touring America with Jane’s Addiction. He appeals to contemporary audiences with two critically acclaimed albums, Shoki Shoki and Fight To Win.

Britpop band Oasis in concert at the Cardiff International Arena in Wales in support of the release of their new album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’. Oasis have also announced that they will be making available a special, fully-loaded limited edition box set of the new album. This  set contains four 12" vinyl discs, two CDs, a DVD and hardback book all housed within an embossed hardback box. In fact this is the only way to get the album and the complete set of all 9 bonus songs, remixes and films that were recorded during the album sessions. Available for purchase exclusively through the band's website.

'The Shock of the Lightning', the first single to be taken from the band's new album, will be released on September 29th and the album 'Dig Out Your Soul' on October 6th both on Big Brother Recordings worldwide.