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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released January 13, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Verdi : Le Trouvère (Diapason n°609)

Choeur de L'Opera de Vienne

Classical - Released September 25, 2011 | Les Indispensables de Diapason

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Céphale et Procris

Reinoud Van Mechelen

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

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A Night in London

Ophélie Gaillard

Classical - Released March 4, 2022 | Aparté

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In the 1730s, many composers tried their luck in London, where many other treasures were in preparation: Geminiani revolutionized instrumental writing with his famous treatise on interpretation and presented an amazing version of La Folia; his pupil Avison orchestrated concertos by Scarlatti, and Porpora ventured away from opera to rediscover the vocality of the cello with one of the most beautiful concertos of that period. Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella treat us to a frenzied and poetic night in London. They meet Vivaldi, Hasse, Scottish composer James Oswald and virtuoso cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri. Guest artists Sandrine Piau and Lucile Richardot take on magnificent vocal pieces by Geminiani and Handel – Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni would have been seriously envious, that’s for sure! © Aparté
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Donizetti: L'esule di Roma

Carlo Rizzi

Opera - Released March 1, 2024 | Opera Rara

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Among Donizetti's 75 operas are many that keep specialists in operatic rarities in business. What is different about L'esule di Roma ("Exile from Rome," 1828) is that it shouldn't have taken specialists to revive it. The work was quite popular in Italy and beyond through the late 1860s, and in 1840, well after several of the big Donizetti hits had appeared, his hometown of Bergamo staged a production of the work aimed at displaying his prowess. L'esule di Roma may be classed as early Donizetti, but Anna Bolena and L'elisir d'amore were soon to follow, and one can hear a lot of this highly variegated score in those works, with its strong characterizations and its recitatives that constantly seem to be breaking into song. The opera is set in ancient Rome, with its central character, the senator Murena, unusually being a baritone or bass-baritone. He emerges as a figure of some depth in the conflict between his daughter Argelia and his loyalty to the emperor Tiberius, and he gets his very own mad scene. An international cast is headed by the very capable Nicola Alaimo as Murena, but another draw is the rising coloratura soprano Albina Shagimuratova as Argelia, and yet another is the work of conductor Carlo Rizzi, leading the Britten Sinfonia. Even for many Donizetti fans, this work will be new, and for them, it is a must.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Handel: Serse, HWV 40

Accademia Bizantina

Classical - Released May 27, 2022 | Hdb Sonus

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Famous for its aria “Ombra mai fu”, known as “Handel’s Largo”, Serse (or Xerxes) is one of this German composer’s most original and varied operas. It’s one of his rare “comic” works, containing a great deal of facetiousness and humour whilst still being grounded in reality.This version was recorded live in 2019 across two evenings at the Teatro Romollo Valli de Reggio Emilia. Ottavio Dantone favoured mainly Baroque Italian voices without resorting to falsettists who, in his opinion, are too often used to replace the castrati of the past. The tendency to use countertenors for every purpose seems to be declining in favour of offering a better historical perspective. As such, Ottavio Dantone gave the main role of Serse to Arianna Vendittelli and her beautiful soprano voice, whose tone really captures the character’s fragility.Under the direction of its conductor, the Accademia Bizantina perfectly reflects the varied colours of this well-known work thanks to their clear attacks which beautifully emphasize the score’s many bravura arias. As for the young cast assembled for the occasion, they’re simply perfect. Monica Piccini excels in the role of Monica whilst the bright, clear voice of Francesca Aspromonte is perfect for the role of Atlanta. Alto Delphine Galou shines as Amaster, and the hilarious Elviro is flawlessly interpreted by Biagio Pizzuti. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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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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Dreams (Gounod, Donizetti, Bellini)

Pretty Yende

Opera Extracts - Released October 27, 2017 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Choc de Classica
Soprano Pretty Yende made a big splash with her debut album, A Journey, which musically reenacted her path from small-town South Africa to Europe's major operatic stages. On that album she had both star quality and rough spots, and it was a matter of some interest to learn whether she was just a novelty or a major new voice. As it happens, Yende's second album, Dreams, does not answer the question. There is still the fact that Yende is one of those performers who just transmit; even in the chilly language of digital ones and zeroes, she has charisma. And in Italian bel canto repertoire she's clearly progressing. In both the more ornate Donizetti excerpts from Lucia di Lammermoor (sample "Ohimè! Sorge il tremendo fantasma" to hear Yende's control in quiet passages in the stratosphere) and in the more melodic Bellini, Yende delivers very fetching sounds. In the French music the news is not so good; Yende can't live up to the striking opening gesture in "Ah! je veux vivire" from Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and her voice shows strain here. Still, most of the music sounds great, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano "Giuseppe Verdi" under Giacomo Sagripanti has an ideally subdued way of accompanying her. The indications are at this point that the way to deal with Yende is to play to her considerable strengths. Just before this album's release, Yende pulled out of a Rome production of Fra Diavolo for unspecified artistic reasons. One hopes that vocal problems were not involved.© TiVo
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Salieri: Les Danaïdes

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released May 19, 2015 | Bru Zane

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Jean-Baptiste Lully : Amadis (Édition 5.1)

Christophe Rousset

Opera - Released September 22, 2014 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Diamant d'Opéra - Choc de Classica
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Il gioco della cieca. Madrigali, Canzoni & Villanelle per cantare, et sonare

Concerto di Margherita

Classical - Released February 4, 2022 | Arcana

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A young ensemble of instrumentalists and singers revives the precious historical practice of singers accompanying themselves (already brought back into currency by the soloist Vivabiancaluna Biffi), thus producing a wholly new sound in music usually assigned to unaccompanied voices. With Concerto di Margherita, self-accompanied singing becomes "collective" for the first time in our era, and is amplified in a shared gesture in which all the members of the group – playing and singing together with extraordinary coordination – produce a sonority unprecedented in this repertory. Created at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, the group (which is named after the Duchess of Ferrara, Margherita Gonzaga) performs as a consort of five voices, theorbo, harp, viola da gamba, guitar and lutes, inspired by the "Concerto delle dame" of Ferrara. The recording debut of Concerto di Margherita presents arrangements of a wide range of instrumental and vocal works (madrigals, villanellas and canzonas), drawing on music by De Wert, Gastoldi, Monteverdi and the "blind man’s buff" scene from Giovanni Battista Guarini’s Il pastor fido (1580). © Arcana
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Jean-Baptiste Lully : Phaéton

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released October 16, 2013 | Aparté

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama - Choc de Classica - Choc Classica de l'année
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Lully: Acis et Galatée, LWV 73

Jean-François Lombard

Opera - Released October 13, 2023 | Naxos

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La Captive du Sérail

Florie Valiquette

Classical - Released March 11, 2022 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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In the 18th century, it was common for theatre audiences around Europe to shudder in their seats. Performances at the time would often put an exotic twist on the not-so-distant past, forcing viewers to once again confront the terror of the Battle of Vienna, which ended the Turk’s second siege of the Austrian city. The Ottoman threat had now receded: people could now enjoy a coffee and croissant in a café, and the much-loved Viennese pastries were born. Tales of harems, Christian slaves and the orient, such as One Thousand and One Nights, frightened, intrigued and amazed the population. Not to be outdone, composers made sure to put their mark on this growing craze. “Turqueries” were fashionable in both operas and instrumental music, and orientalism allowed for all kinds of fantasies. This wave of exoticism became especially popular in Paris, particularly in its Opéra-Comique, one of the oldest theatres in France.Soprano Florie Valiquette, from Quebec, offers us a brilliant, moving and light take on this repertoire. Her grace, coupled with her skilful versatility, means she successfully tackles a diverse range of works. Created in 2019 for the Fantômes de Versailles, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal regularly plays in the pit of the recently restored theatre at Versailles. This building is also used for recordings performed under the label Château de Versailles Spectacles, now almost exclusively available on Qobuz, and there’s so many great projects in the pipeline!Built around excerpts from Grétry’s La Caravane du Caire, which enjoyed great success following its premiere in 1783, the programme also includes excerpts from Gluck’s Pèlerins de la Mecque and Mozart’s L’Enlèvement au sérail, sung in French. Complemented by works by Philidor, Monsigny and Gibert, the “gallant turqueries” presented here paint a fairly accurate picture of the type of performances enjoyed by French society in the second half of the Age of Enlightenment, just a few years before the great upheaval of the French Revolution. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Lully: Atys

Les Arts Florissants

Opera - Released February 28, 1987 | harmonia mundi

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Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy

Eve Queler

Classical - Released September 22, 2017 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Distinctions 5 de Diapason
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Rameau: Castor & Pollux (Choruses & Dances)

Les Arts Florissants

Classical - Released March 8, 1993 | harmonia mundi

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The Secret Fauré: Orchestral Songs & Suites

Olga Peretyatko

Classical - Released August 10, 2018 | Sony Classical - Sony Music

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If Le Secret is the title of a melody that Gabriel Fauré composed on a rather vapid poem by Armand Silvestre, it doesn’t seem like it inspired the title of the present album called “The Secret Fauré”, and it is rather underlining the rare and intimate character of the works. Ivor Bolton, conducting the Sinfonieorchester Basel, of which he is the artistic director, offers a very subtle selection composed of extracts of stage music or music for the stage: Caligula, Pénélope, Shylock, Pelléas et Mélisande, mixed with a few melodies orchestrated by Fauré or more probably by his friends, such as Charles Koechlin. The Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, the new international queen of bel canto, lends her voice to the very discreet art of Fauré. Forgotten are her numerous Traviata in Berlin, at the Met or in Vienna, in favor of a song of a reserved limpidity. Alongside her, tenor Benjamin Bruns and the Balthasar Neumann female choir complete this disc devoted to a certain French spirit seen from outside, made of a blend of insouciance, discreet elegance and some futility. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Couperin & moi

Christophe Rousset

Classical - Released December 7, 2018 | Aparté

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Donizetti : Lucia di Lammermoor (Remastered)

Georges Prêtre

Classical - Released January 1, 1966 | RCA Red Seal

Distinctions 4 étoiles Classica