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Gloire Immortelle !

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released November 17, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Leontyne Price - Verdi and Puccini Arias

Leontyne Price

Classical - Released January 13, 2015 | RCA Red Seal

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Camille Saint-Saëns: Phryné

Hervé Niquet

Opera - Released February 11, 2022 | Bru Zane

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Everyone knows Camille Saint-Saëns has a great sense of humour thanks to his Carnaval des Animaux in which no one escapes ridicule, not even him. Now the Palazzetto Bru Zane Foundation and Hervé Niquet have unearthed Phryné, a forgotten comic opera from 1893 enriched with recitatives composed by André Messager three years later.Received with immense and lasting success in its time, this brilliant work eventually fell into the abyss, never to be seen again. Fortunately, fans of Saint-Saëns made great efforts to rediscover his works on the centenary of his death in 2021. Phryné captures the "Grecomania" that was prevalent in all the arts in France at this time, especially in Offenbach’s music and even in architecture (just think of the beautiful Parisian district of New Athens in the 9th arrondissement). Ironically, and perhaps a little cheekily, Saint-Saens confessed that he was “working on this little piece with infinite pleasure” and was infatuated with this courtesan musician who had served as a model for the sculptor Praxitele.Always keen to discover a forgotten repertoire, Hervé Niquet brought together a few singers, Florie Valiquette, Cyrille Dubois, Anaïs Constans and Thomas Dolié, to breathe some life back into Phryné with his Concert Spirituel, with the aim of producing a concert version to be performed in the Opéra de Rouen Normandie in 2021. Though Lucien Augé’s libretto may seem tasteless today with its hefty dose of misogyny, Saint-Saens’ music is simply delicious, with a succession of arias and ensembles. This modest and charming opera-comedy, which Charles Gounod so enjoyed, offers a less serious and less academic take of a composer that well and truly deserves to be rediscovered. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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David & Jonathas

Gaétan Jarry

Classical - Released June 9, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Tchaikovsky: Eugène Onéguine (Diapason n°598)

Galina Vichnievskaia

Full Operas - Released September 25, 2010 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Rameau: Pygmalion & Les Fêtes de Polymnie

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released September 1, 2017 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone: Recording of the Month - Choc de Classica - 5 Sterne Fono Forum Jazz
Christophe Rousset and the Talens Lyriques bring us to the stage of the Royal Academy of Music where Pygmalion, an act of ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau inspired by an episode of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was created in 1748. Love, showing empathy for Pygmalion’s despair of loving a statue, invigorates the sculpted woman who immediately falls in love with her creator. Very suggestive, the music of this tender and mischievous ballet deploys the grace of 18th century dances. Like Ovid’s Love, Christophe Rousset instils life in this score, one of Rameau’s greatest successes in his day, and offers us, thanks to his sense of drama and his impeccable leadership, a new and essential reading of this ballet. © Aparté
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Albert Roussel: Chamber Music

Czech Nonet

Chamber Music - Released September 1, 1995 | Praga Digitals

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Verdi : Aida (Remastered)

Erich Leinsdorf

Classical - Released January 1, 1971 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Distinctions 5 de Diapason
« En 1970, neuf ans après la mythique version Solti, Leontyne Price, malgré un médium moins nourri, reste une Aïda d'anthologie, d'une irrésistible sensualité. Sous la baguette experte d'Erich Leinsdorf, à Londres, Grace Bumbry, séduisante et redoutable, Placido Domingo entre vaillance et abandon, Sherill Milnes, père inflexible, sont à sa hauteur.» (Diapason, mars 2018 / Didier Van Moere)
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Bizet: Symphony in C; Jeux d'enfants / Debussy: Danses for Harp

Bernard Haitink

Classical - Released January 1, 1986 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

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Jacques Offenbach : La Vie parisienne (5 septembre 1954)

Jules Gresssier

Classical - Released April 15, 2014 | Ina, musique(s)

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Halévy : La Reine de Chypre

Hervé Niquet

Full Operas - Released May 11, 2018 | Bru Zane

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We'll admit: this Reine de Chypre by Fromental Halévy is probably not the unfairly-overlooked work of commanding genius for which the lyrical world has been waiting for fifty years… But it would still be a shame to miss it, especially when performed by such a line-up, with Véronique Gens, Cyrille Dubois and Etienne Dupuis at the top of the bill. And after all, the score is full of vocal marvels and very original ensembles; but it is rather in the orchestration – which is not much more adventurous than that of any other piece of Italian bel canto of the era – that Halévy has taken it easy. The melodic richness was pointed out in an article in the Revue et gazette musicale in April 1842: "In the Reine de Chypre, Halévy's new style is on display with more dash, and more success. I have had occasion to point out the preconditions, as I see them, of the production of a good opera, by pointing out the obstacles which stand in the way of meeting these conditions fully and in good time, whether by the poet or the composer. When these conditions are met, it is an event of great importance for the world of art. Now, in the present case, circumstances have conspired in the performance of a work which, as even the most exacting critic must admit, possesses all the qualities which constitute a good opera. (…) The composer has put all the enchantment of his art into the duet that breathes the sentiments that enrapture them. The dark cloth on which these two charming figures are drawn shows through even in those songs which are so sparkling and alive with happiness, like a sinister cloud, and lends them a particular character of melancholy intrigue. There is no equal, in nobility or in grace, of the magnificent melody of the final part of this duet." The article continues in this vein. The byline? One Richard Wagner… © SM/Qobuz
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The Verdi Album

Sonya Yoncheva

Classical - Released February 2, 2018 | Sony Classical

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For huge fans of Yoncheva, this is a beautiful collection of some of the Verdian soprano's finest moments. Half of the tracks are great hits: Otello and his famous prayer, Don Carlo, Nabucco, Il Trovatore and La forza del destino, the other half being made up of lesser-known works such as Stiffelio, Luisa Miller or Attila. The Bulgarian soprano (note that she was born in 1981, and is already a star at the peak of her career) demonstrates at once the warmth of her voice, an instrument fallen from heaven, with her mezzo tones and the range of her great lyrical voice, but also her bel canto vocal technique which is deployed to great effect in this brilliant repertoire. More purist listeners might have issues with her way of making her attacks "from below" in the Italian style, but that is her stylistic and technical choice, and it is a choice shared by a good proportion of lyrical singers who work with the Italian repertoire. This studio recording was created in 2017. © SM/Qobuz

The Pretty Yende Coronation & Opera Classics Collection

Pretty Yende

Classical - Released March 17, 2023 | Sony Classical

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Rameau: Castor & Pollux (Choruses & Dances)

Les Arts Florissants

Classical - Released March 8, 1993 | harmonia mundi

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Delibes: Coppélia

Kent Nagano

Classical - Released January 1, 1994 | Warner Classics

Coppélia, with music by Léo Delibes, is probably the major ballet of French romanticism along with Giselle, the first in which music in not only a decorative item anymore but is closely linked with the choreography and the libretto. Inspired by a tale of E.T.A Hoffmann, Coppélia established itself as one of the main works of the ballet repertoire in spite of its difficult debut (Franco-Prussian war, death of the choreographer and the prima ballerina…). This recording conducted by Kent Nagano was staged at the Opéra de Lyon in 1993 with an innovative staging by great choreographer Maguy Marin and enjoyed a tremendous success. Previously released only through excerpts in digital, its complete version is now made available. © Warner Classics
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Les classiques de la pub

L'Orchestre National du Bolchoï

Film Soundtracks - Released May 15, 2010 | Via Classic

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Les Grands Choeurs d'Opéras, Vol. 1

L'Orchestre National du Bolchoï

Opera - Released August 7, 2002 | Via Classic

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Atys

Christophe Rousset

Opera - Released January 5, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Backed by the Sun King despite a lukewarm audience reception at first, Lully's Atys (1676) went on to become one of the composer's most successful operas, with revivals at French court theaters as late as 1753. In modern times, however, it is a considerably rarer item due to the massive forces and time required. Christophe Rousset was in the pit as harpsichordist when conductor William Christie gave the first modern revival of the work in the late '80s. That experience marks this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller lists at the beginning of that year. That is not common for a hefty five-act Baroque opera, but even a bit of sampling will confirm why it happened: Rousset, from the keyboard, brings tremendous energy to the opera. He pushes the tempo in the numerous dances and entrance numbers, and the musicians of Les Talens Lyriques and the singers of the Choeur du Chambre de Namur, all of whom have worked closely with Rousset in the past, keep right up. The singers in the solo roles are all fine; haut-contre Reinoud Van Mechelen in the title role and Ambroisine Bré as the goddess Cybèle, who sets the tragic plot in motion, are standouts. The sound from the increasingly engineering-expert Château de Versailles label is exceptionally clear in complex textures, and the sensuous cover art (representing, it is true, not the Roman mythological figure of Atys but Hippomène and Atalante) is a bonus. In the end, this is Rousset's Atys, and that is a very good thing.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Jules Massenet: Ariane

Münchner Rundfunkorchester

Classical - Released September 8, 2023 | Bru Zane

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
For many years, it was only Manon and Werther that were heard among Massenet's operas, but his reputation appears to be on the rise, and his champion, conductor Laurent Campellone, has recorded a good number of them. Ariane, from 1906, is one of the last to receive its recorded premiere. The Palazzetto Bru Zane label, specializing in obscure French opera, does a typically fine job here; the sound is superb, and the cast of singers, led by the soprano Amina Edris in the lead role, offers several revelations. In his later operas, Massenet often attempted to put a French stamp on the newer styles of the day, and here, it is Wagner who gets this treatment; the opera is built around a set of motifs de rappel (or "reminiscence motifs"), whose parentage in Wagner's leitmotifs is clear. This structure is shoehorned into the durable machinery of French opera. There are big entrance scenes, a pantomime, and plenty of spectacular stage machinery to go with the love triangle plot involving Ariane (Ariadne), Phèdre (Phaedra), and Theseus, who gets to take on the Minotaur in a grand scene with Wagnerian bass trumpet and bass trombone. Massenet's orchestration is impressive throughout. The work does not have the inevitability of truly great art, but it is in no way dull, and anyone with any interest in French opera should hear it for the singers alone; enough of those listeners have already weighed in and put the album on classical best-seller lists in the late summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris

Reinoud Van Mechelen

Classical - Released February 9, 2024 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or