Cappella Mediterranea’s concert tours are supported by the Centre National de la Musique.

In just under twenty years, Cappella Mediterranea has established itself as one of the most prominent ensembles performing baroque and classical music. Its qualities of sound, commitment, finesse, and colour are unanimously appreciated by the audiences that have the opportunity to hear it, and are acclaimed by critics everywhere.

Leonardo García-Alarcón created this ensemble in 2005 to serve all repertoires of the Latin world. From the madrigal repertoire to grand opera, Cappella Mediterranea performs with small or large forces, depending on the works performed. Starting with the Italian and Spanish repertoires, the ensemble is led, in the impetus of its director’s multiple curiosities, to interpret French, Flemish, or Germanic composers.

If the intimate repertoire of madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Sigismondo d’India, or Jacques Arcadelt highlights lute players, gambists, or baroque violinists, gathered around the harpsichord and organ of Leonardo García-Alarcón, it is undoubtedly the discovery or rediscovery of a wider repertoire that has established the international reputation of Cappella Mediterranea. Thus, the re-creations of Michelangelo Falvetti’s Il Diluvio Universale and Nabucco at the Ambronay Festival, followed by Antonio Draghi’s El Prometeo, Francesco Sacrati’s La Finta Pazza, and Luigi Rossi’s Il Palazzo Incantato at the Dijon Opera (before revivals in Nancy, Geneva, and at the Opéra Royal de Versailles) revealed to the public previously unpublished or unknown works, were essential milestones in the history of opera.

In this repertoire, the musicians of Cappella Mediterranea participate in Leonardo García-Alarcón’s research into the ideas of authenticity, articulation, and musical incarnation. His attraction to all forms of theatricality has led them to participate together in Rameau’s astonishing Indes galantes, choreographed by Bintou Dembélé and directed by Clément Cogitore, which triumphed at the Opéra Bastille in 2019, or in a rereading of Lully’s Atys, choreographed and directed by Angelin Preljocaj (Geneva and Versailles, 2022).

These escapades into French music should not obscure what remains at the core of Cappella Mediteranea’s repertoire, namely Monteverdi, with first and foremost, L’Orfeo, which has been revived many times (and recorded with Valerio Contaldo in the title role), and L’incoronazione di Poppea (Aix-en-Provence, 2022, revival at Versailles in January 2023), but also Francesco Cavalli: the ensemble participated in Elena (Aix-en-Provence, 2013), Eliogabalo in 2016 at the Paris Opera, Il Giasone (Geneva 2017), and Erismena (Aix-en-Provence, 2017).

The sacred repertoire is another axis of the ensemble. Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine and Bach’s Mass in B minor and St. Matthew Passion have left the memory of particularly intense moments, thanks especially to the collaboration of the ensemble with the Chamber Choir of Namur, of which Leonardo García-Alarcón is the Artistic Director since 2010.

More recently, the ensemble opened up to the contemporary repertoire with Leonardo García-Alarcón’s first major composition: the oratorio Pasión Argentina, a powerful and very personal work, which was enthusiastically received in Ambronay and Geneva in 2022, and in Namur and Saint-Denis in 2023. In the same year, the ensemble continues its exploration of little-known works and composers, with the premieres of Il Dono della vita eterna, an oratorio by Antonio Draghi, and La Jérusalem délivrée, an opera by Philippe d’Orléans with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.

In 2024, Cappella Mediterranea will once again be collaborating with dancers and choreographers, with Mozart’s Idomeneo, re di Creta at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, directed and choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Bach’s St. John Passion set to dance by German choreographer Sasha Waltz, a triumph at the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Opéra de Dijon, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. This close relationship between music and dance will continue in 2025, with the creation of the choreographic concert Indes galantes – de la voix des âmes, a new project based on Rameau’s opera with Bintou Dembélé, her structure Rualité, and the Namur Chamber Choir.

Cappella Mediterranea’s discography includes more than 30 critically acclaimed recordings for Ambronay Editions, Naïve, Ricercar, and Alpha Classics. In 2021, they released Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Sigismondo d’India’s Lamenti & Sospiri with Mariana Flores and Julie Roset, and in 2022, Sacrati’s La Finta Pazza with Mariana Flores, a world premiere. In 2024, Cappella Mediterranea released Amore Siciliano (Alpha), a “little Tosca,” based on the music of 17th- and 18th-century Italy, and in 2025, La Jérusalem délivrée by the Regent Philippe d’Orléans, and Lully’s Atys (Château de Versailles Spectacles).

Cappella Mediterranea is supported by the Ministry of Culture – DRAC Auvergne Rhône Alpes, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, the City of Geneva, a Swiss family foundation, a Geneva private foundation, Brigette Lescure, and by its Circle of Friends and its Circle of Entrepreneurs with Diot-Siac, Chatillon Architects, Synapsys, and 400 Partners.

Aline Foriel-Destezet is the main sponsor of Cappella Mediterranea.

Cappella Mediterranea is a member of the Fevis (Federation of Specialized Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles) and CNM (National Centre of Music).

Cappella Mediterranea’s concert tours are supported by the Centre National de la Musique.