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Lully: Acis et Galatée, LWV 73

Jean-François Lombard

Opera - Released October 13, 2023 | Naxos

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Écho & Narcisse

Hervé Niquet

Classical - Released August 25, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Véronique Gens. "Tragédiennes"

Véronique Gens

Classical - Released May 1, 2006 | Warner Classics

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Lully: Phaéton

Le Poème Harmonique

Classical - Released September 27, 2019 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Lully, J.-B.: Psyche [Opera]

Paul O'Dette

Full Operas - Released January 1, 2008 | CPO

CPO follows its stellar releases of Conradi's Ariadne and Lully's Thésée by the Boston Early Music Festival with an equally extraordinary performance of Lully's Psyché. These are works that have had limited exposure and are known far better by reputation than by performances or recordings. What's revelatory about the recordings of the Lully operas is how exceptionally attractive the music is; it's amazing that works of this quality have been unheard for centuries, and their resurrection, particularly in performances as fine as these, is a cause for rejoicing for any opera lover eager to look beyond the standard repertoire. Lully's vocal writing, even his recitatives, is graceful and expressive, and the numerous ensembles in Psyché are marvels of charm and inventiveness. The variety and cleverness of his orchestration keeps the listener constantly engaged. Much credit goes to Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, who lead the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus, and to all the musicians who contributed to the realization of the score. The performances are elegant, but never stuffy, and they are bursting with energy and liveliness. It's remarkable to encounter a cast of such high quality and consistency; it's a real achievement for the directors to have assembled a cast of over 20 soloists who sing with beautifully pure, fresh, focused tone; the understanding and ability to master the idiom and complex system of middle Baroque French ornamentation and immaculate French pronunciation. They also bring strong, vivid characterizations to their roles, so the performance has real dramatic energy. CPO's sound is absolutely clean and beautifully balanced. Highly recommended. © TiVo
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Charpentier: Médée

Les Arts Florissants

Opera - Released August 20, 1984 | harmonia mundi

The Pretty Yende Coronation & Opera Classics Collection

Pretty Yende

Classical - Released March 17, 2023 | Sony Classical

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L'Ile Enchantée

Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra

Classical - Released July 20, 2004 | Alpha Classics

Even by the supremely high production standards of Alpha recordings, this issue is especially splendid. Entitled Versailles, L'ile enchantée, it fully lives up to its name. As directed by Skip Sempé, the widely varied program features music written for Louis XIV's pleasure palace, performed by the Capriccio Stravagante Orchestra with mezzo soprano Guillemette Laurens and bass violist Jay Bernfeld. Each work is superbly selected, and every performance is absolutely idiomatic and wonderfully alive. There is wit and tenderness and elegance and, yes, nobility to their performances, which taken together form as much a portrait of the Sun King as the palace of Versailles itself. As organized into eight Divertissements, Sempé's choices range from the grand Ouverture de Psyché by Lully to the intimate Mes Yeux by Campra, from the soulful Les Voix Humaines by Marais to the massive Passacaille in C by Louis Couperin. As captured in the evocative photographs by Jean-Baptiste Leroux and reproduced in Alpha's superlative program book, Versailles looks every bit as beautiful as this disc sounds. Anyone who loves Baroque music, particularly French Baroque music, will love this disc.© TiVo
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Rameau : Castor et Pollux

Raphaël Pichon

Full Operas - Released April 27, 2015 | harmonia mundi

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Parry: Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Blest Pair of Sirens

London Mozart Players

Choral Music (Choirs) - Released September 8, 2023 | Chandos

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone: Recording of the Month
Hubert Parry's Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, from 1880, here receives its world-recorded premiere. Perhaps recording companies thought there wouldn't be much of a market for a heavy 19th century choral work with, it must be said, a ponderous text by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Prometheus was a play intended to be read, not performed, just to give an idea). How wrong they were. This release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023, and it is altogether enjoyable. At the time, Parry was under the spell of Wagner, whom he traveled to Bayreuth to meet. That influence certainly shows up in Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, with its basically declamatory text, partly through-composed music, wind-and-brass-heavy orchestration, and splashes of chromaticism. Yet what is remarkable is that the music does not come off as an imitation of Wagner at all. Rather, it uses elements of his style to match a specific kind of English literary text. The work gradually disappeared, but it would be surprising if Elgar, whom it clearly prefigures, did not know it well. The performances here are luminous, with William Vann using the lighter-than-expected London Mozart Players to create transparent textures against which he can set the substantial voices of Sarah Fox, Sarah Connolly, and other soloists. Parry did write some shorter pieces that remain in the repertory; one of these, Blest Pair of Sirens, is included here as a finale. However, the Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound are the main news here, and this performance, showing how this kind of thing should be done, may generate a new life for the work. © James Manheim /TiVo
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Psyché

Christophe Rousset

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

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Maurice Yvain: Yes!

Les Frivolités Parisiennes

Classical - Released March 22, 2024 | Alpha Classics

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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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Bastien et Bastienne · La Servante maîtresse

Gaétan Jarry

Classical - Released September 8, 2023 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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Bizet: Djamileh

Münchner Rundfunkorchester

Opera - Released January 1, 2016 | Orfeo

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Un opéra pour trois rois

Orfeo Orchestra

Classical - Released October 6, 2017 | Glossa

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For approaching a century and a half in France – across the reigns of Louis XIV, XV and XVI – the Palace of Versailles played host, both indoors and outdoors, for an extraordinary sequence of dramatic musical performances. "Un Opéra pour trois rois", conducted by György Vashegyi, represents the legacy of that time, a specially constructed operatic entertainment drawn from works by composers from Lully to Gluck, commissioned – and even, on occasion, performed – by kings, their queens and inamoratas. There are plenty of firm favourites here – Rameau’s “Tristes apprêts” (Castor et Pollux) and “Forêts paisibles” (Les Indes galantes), but one of the additional attractions of this double-album extravaganza released by Glossa is the chance to hear music of quality by hitherto woefully ignored compositions (Le Retour du printemps, Les Caractères de la Folie, Le Pouvoir de l’Amour), all demonstrating the depths of quality still waiting to be rediscovered. And there are selections to be had from operas by Mondonville, Destouches, Leclair and Francoeur and Rebel as well. Further attractions are the performances from the three soloists (each adopting the role of an allegorical figure for the event): Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Emöke Barath and Thomas Dolié, along with Vashegyi’s Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra. In his booklet essay, Benoît Dratwicki draws on his immense knowledge in order to set the scene in the royal residence of Versailles for this imaginary fête musicale of lyricism and duets, music both sombre and joyful, symphonies and orages.
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Rameau: Castor & Pollux

Les Arts Florissants

Classical - Released March 8, 1993 | harmonia mundi

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André Cardinal Destouches : Callirhoe [Opera]

Hervé Niquet

Full Operas - Released January 1, 2006 | Glossa

André Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749) is virtually unknown today, but he was the preeminent composer of French opera in the half century between the end of Lully's career and the beginning of Rameau's. On the basis of this fine recording of Callirhoé, considered one of his most important operas, the neglect is difficult to understand. Its strength lies not so much in its originality -- it basically develops the conventions established by Lully -- but in the music's ability to illuminate the drama. Destouches was clearly a master of music for the theater; his scenes build with power and inexorability, and his dramatic confrontations, in particular, are vividly expressed. The conclusion of the second act, for example, depicting the priests of Bacchus going on a rampage, has a wildness and energy one usually associates not so much with the Baroque as with the heat of the Romantic era. The starkness of the opera's finale, which abruptly ends with a character's suicide, is brilliant theater, but entirely out of character with the conventions of the time, which would have required a tidy denouement, and most likely, the intervention of a deity. The first, 1712 version of Callirhoé, in fact, had just such an ending, but the composer revised the opera extensively for revivals in 1731 and 1743, and wisely rethought the finale, hugely increasing its effectiveness. Destouches' vocal writing is expressive and gratifyingly lyrical, and even his recitatives have emotional power. His orchestration is notably varied and colorful. The recording is the result of the commitment and passion of Hervé Niquet, director of Le Concert Spirituel, which he leads in this outstanding performance. The orchestra and chorus perform with energy and finesse, and the climaxes are thrillingly urgent. The soloists, none of whom are international stars, sound like they ought to be, singing with unfailing purity, idiomatic security, and dramatic intensity. Glossa's exemplary sound is full, warm, and spacious, with excellent balance. Callirhoé should be of strong interest to any fan of Baroque opera, and a reminder of the wealth of strong repertoire that has yet to achieve broad exposure. © TiVo
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Semiramis

Les Ombres

Classical - Released June 25, 2021 | Château de Versailles Spectacles

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