Taking its name from a prevalent theme of the age of Louis XIV, Le Tendre Amour is an energetic group of musicians who have been drawn together by their common dedication to performing music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in a way that is inspiring to the audiences of today. The ensemble, directed and organized by Katy Elkin and Esteban Mazer, is based in Barcelona, though its members come from many corners of the world: France, Italy, Cuba, Argentina, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, the United States and, of course, Spain. Since their inception, the emphasis has been in creating unusual programs, always with the aim of pleasing audiences of all ages.
The ensemble has been invited to perform in important festivals throughout Europe and the USA such as: Styriarte and Trigonale Festivals (Austria), Winterzauber, Potsdam Sanssouci and Güldener Herbst (Germany), Sablé-sur-Sarthe and Strasbourg Festival de Musique Ancienne (France), Brezice (Slovenia, ensemble in residence for 3 years), Varna Summer (Bulgaria), Samobor Music Festival and Varazdin Baroque Evenings (Croatia), Banchetto Musicale (Lithuania), Connecticut Early Music Festival, Washington Early Music Festival, and Boston Sohip Festival (USA) among many others.
Over the past few years, their artistic interest has turned towards the field of chamber opera and alternative programs. Research in the field of Jewish baroque music led to the prize of best interpretation for their program of that repertoire at the Varazdin Baroque Evenings (Croatia) and subsequently their first chamber opera production, Esther by C.G. Lidarti, which was a commission by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris. Its success led to a production of Esther at the Psalm festival in Graz, Austria and soon after the intermezzo Le Devin du Village by J.J. Rousseau at the famed Styriarte festival in Graz, Austria. In 2011, Le Tendre Amour, in cooperation with the Teatre de Sarrià, produced Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona in Barcelona. The premiere of Los Elementos also took place in 2011, with roaring success in the Trigonale festival der Alte Musik in Austria. Since then, Los Elementos by Literes has appeared in such festivals as Banchetto Musicale (Vilnius, Lithuania), the early music festival in Luxembourg, the opera season in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and the Varazdin Baroque Evenings (Croatia), where the production was awarded the ‘Ivan Lukacić Prize’ for the best concert of the festival as well as for the best interpretation. All of these opera productions continue to tour, and were collaborations with actor and stage director Adrián Schvarzstein. In 2013, Le Tendre Amour performed 40 concerts of Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, a completely original production that combined theater, circus, and music in the Biennale de Bron (Lyon).
Their most recent productions are Seasons (2015), a large scale circus, music and theatre show in co-production with Theater op de Markt (Neerpelt, Belgium) and Cirque Nöel (Graz, Austria), premiered with a sold-out 18 performance run on 2015 Christmas season in Graz; and an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2016) which brings back the long lost music with which it was performed in early 17th century England.
The ensemble recorded a CD of French sacred cantatas called Le Passage de la Mer Rouge for French label K617 in 2009, a disc of 17th century English music called All in a Garden Green for Brilliant Classics in 2011, as well as a disc of the music of De Bousset called Le Naufrage du Pharaon in 2012, again for Brilliant Classics, and released in the spring of 2013. Le Tendre Amour has also recorded for the national radios in Spain, Austria, Catalonia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Croatia and receives steady support from Acción Cultural Española, INAEM, the embassies of Spain, Institut Ramon Llull and British Council (The Tempest).