Welcome to Saint-Michel Church

In 2021, Mondoville's Titon et l’Aurore, conducted by William Christie and directed by Basil Twist, revealed Belgian soprano Gwendoline Blondeel in the role of Aurora: with admirable vocal technique, a luminous timbre, and a striking stage presence, she literally lit up the stage of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Trained at the IMEP in Namur and a graduate of the La Monnaie Theatre Academy in Brussels, Gwendoline then joined the Young Ensemble of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. As early as 2019, she established herself as a rising star, winning First Prize at the Froville Competition. Gwendoline has become a highly sought-after interpreter of 17th- and 18th-century music, but she also explores a much broader repertoire, extending to composers as diverse as Delibes and Offenbach. This is evidenced by the diversity of scores performed with conductors such as William Christie (Titon and L’Aurore, Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres, Bach’s Magnificat…), Leonardo García Alarcón (Rossi’s Il Palazzo Incantato, Handel’s Solomon, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine…), Diego Fasolis (Vivaldi’s La Senna Festeggiante), Jérémie Rhorer (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), Jean-Christophe Spinosi (Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri), Alejo Perez (Prokofiev’s War and Peace), and Kazushi Ono (Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake). The last two seasons have been particularly fruitful: debuts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Les Arts Florissants; Her first concerts were at the Berlin Philharmonie and then at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Vox Luminis in Bach's St. Matthew Passion; Charpentier's David et Jonathan with Correspondances and Sébastien Daucé in a production directed by Jean Bellorini in Caen, Nancy, Paris, Luxembourg, Madrid, Lille, and Lyon. At the Liège Opera, she sang her first Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro (Christophe Rousset, Emilio Sagi), also making her US debut with Opera Lafayette in the first modern revival of Rameau's opera-ballet Io. The summer of 2024 proved to be intense. At the Beaune Festival, Gwendoline tackled two major Handel roles: Morgana in Alcina (Les Épopées, Stéphane Fuget) and Almirena in Rinaldo (Les Accents, Thibault Noally). As artist-in-residence at the Wallonia Festival, she gave no fewer than eight concerts there, collaborating with the Cappella Mediterranea (Leonardo García Alarcón) and the Justin Taylor Consort. She will reunite with this ensemble at the Radio France Auditorium for Monteverdi's Vespers of the Virgin, conducted by Lionel Sow. The Royal Opera of Versailles has become a favorite venue for Gwendoline: in addition to concerts (Le Carnaval du Parnasse with Alexis Kossenko, Lully's Atys with Christophe Rousset, Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Valentin Tournet), she acclaimed the role of Blondchen in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio with Gaétan Jarry conducting and Michel Fau directing, before her equally masterful portrayal of Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen (Hervé Niquet and Romain Gilbert). Her role debut as Marie in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment (Gaétan Jarry and Jean-Romain Vesperini) was praised for her vocal virtuosity and exceptional stage presence. Gwendoline also maintains a regular collaboration with Reinoud Van Mechelen and his ensemble A nocte temporis, performing the great French repertoire. The 2025/2026 season saw her further expand her repertoire. In Versailles, she sang Clorinda in a French version of Rossini's La Cenerentola (conducted by Gaétan Jarry and directed by Julien Lubek and Cécile Roussat), then Dalinda in Handel's Ariodante (Stefan Plewiak and Nicolas Briançon), before performing Messiah with the Royal Opera Orchestra and reprising The Abduction from the Seraglio (the production also ran at the Tours Opera). Other highlights include her first collaboration with Philippe Herreweghe in Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 "Lobgesang"), her debut at the Zurich Opera in Leclair's Scylla et Glaucus (Emmanuelle Haïm and Claus Guth), and Rameau's Les Boréades in a concert version with A Nocte Temporis (Toulouse, Bruges, Versailles, etc.). Gwendoline is very active in the recording world, most recently with a new version of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with Les Épopées; the world premiere of Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Céphale et Pro-cris, with A Nocte Temporis; Philippe d'Orléans' La Jérusalem délivrée with La Cappella Mediterranea; Mondonville's Le Car-naval du Parnasse with Les Ambassadeurs; and Mozart's Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots with Il Caravaggio for the Versailles Chateau Spectacle label. Her next album will be released by Harmonia Mundi in the fall of 2025.