The care for historical performance practice has been a tradition at the Zurich Opera House for many decades. In the seventies, Nikolaus Harnoncourt first made a furore in the field of early music with his Monteverdi cycle; In the eighties, he continued his work at the Zurich Opera House together with the director, Jean Pierre Ponnelle, with Mozart (including Idomeneo, Lucio Silla, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro). Harnoncourt did further pioneering work and the musicians of the Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House adapted their playing technique to the latest findings in historical performance practice.

This continuum formed the orchestra of the opera, today's Philharmonia Zürich, an independent ensemble of first-class specialized musicians, which were able to create an excellent reputation. The spark that ignited the enthusiasm for new early music gave the ensemble its name: officially founded in 1998, the ensemble called itself La Scintilla - The Spark.

In the years that followed, performances with luminaries like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, William Christie, Mark Minkowski, Reinhard Goebel, Giuliano Carmignola, Giovanni Antonini, and Ottavio Dantone were so successful that the Zurich Opera House let the ensemble play all the baroque operas and more and more works from the classical period.

Outside of the opera house La Scintilla performs regularly in the large concert halls and with renowned soloists, instrumentalists and singers like Cecilia Bartoli, Rolando Villazon, Andreas Scholl and others.

In 2014, the orchestra received the Echo Klassik Music Award in the category "Opera Recording of the Year" (19th century) for its recording of Norma with Giovanni Antonini and Cecilia Bartoli. Besides that, Mozart arias with Juan Diego Florez, Norma and La sonnambula with Cecilia Bartoli, Orlando and Iphigénie en Tauride with William Christie and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with Nikolaus Harnoncourt appeared amongst others on CD and DVD.

In the season 2018/19 La Scintilla designes the La Scintilla series of four concerts in close collaboration with the violinist and conductor Ricardo Minasi. The musical spectrum spans from the early symphonic beginnings in Italy to the great masters of baroque, Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Sebastian Bach to the sounds of the early Giuseppe Verdi.

You can find more information on the Orchestra La Scintilla here.

Bach – 1st La Scintilla Concert on 7th of March 2O19

Vivaldi/Verdi – 2nd La Scintilla Concert on 14th of April 2O19

Händel – 3rd La Scintilla Concert on 13th of May 2O19

Corelli / Pergolesi / Vivaldi – 4th La Scintilla Concert on 1st of July 2O19