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Ever since Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus and the subsequent film by Milos Forman, the operas of Mozart's rival Antonio Salieri have enjoyed a revival: historians determined that not only did Salieri not poison Mozart, he admired him, and Mozart at least respected the older Italian. Indeed, Les Horaces (1786) represents several accomplishments that were not on Mozart's résumé: it is a full-scale French opera, and its recitatives are orchestrally accompanied and contribute elegantly to the action. Berlioz, always an astute critic, numbered himself among the admirers of Salieri's French operas of the 1780s; this one was not as successful as the others, but that could have been due to any number of factors. The plot deals with a woman, Camille, whose romantic life is caught between factions in a war in early Roman times, and Rousset's live reading here benefits from a strong soprano lead, Dutch singer and French Baroque specialist Judith van Wanroij. Other singers likewise step up, but the real credit goes to Rousset, who gets the strengths of Salieri's score: the grand intermèdes, and the exciting finale of Act 1, where the joining-together of action and music is in Mozart's league even if the tunes are not. Also praiseworthy is the engineering work of the curiously named Little Tribeca team, who obtain the best possible sound from none other than Versailles. Highly recommended to those who have dismissed Salieri: this is a sympathetic and enthusiastic performance of his music. © TiVo

While Mozart was largely overlooked in the French capital, Antonio Salieri took on the reigns of the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opera), a fruitful collaboration that was completely broken up by the French Revolution. After the success of his work Les Danaïdes, composed for Paris in 1784, Salieri worked tirelessly with Beaumarchais, spurred on by the success and scandal of his Figaro, on a new project which would become Tarare. Beaumarchais moved himself shamelessly toward stardom, skillfully self-promoting and attending rehearsals so as to assure that the orchestra played pianissimo to emphasize the primacy of his verse during performances. Beaumarchais found that the music was too overwhelming to “embellish the lyrics”.Created one year after Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (which was relatively well-received in Vienna before triumphing in Prague), Tarare was an immense success in Paris maintaining the status of the composer’s repertoire despite the political turmoil of the time before disappearing from view around 1826, thereon ceasing to be played. Beaumarchais’ words were immediately adapted into Italian by Lorenzo Da Ponte to be performed and met with equal success in Vienna. Tarare is half lyrical tragedy, half comic opera with a hint of orientalism.After resuscitating Les Danaïdes and Les Horaces, Christophe Rousset finished off his series of recordings dedicated to Salieri’s French operas for the Parisian public. Tarare is very much of its time, that of the Lumières, and used the power of art to challenge despotism in all its forms. Thanks to Christophe Rousset’s excellent delivery and lively direction, this recording enables one to judge the merits of the composition and the chasm that separates an honest and talented musician from a solitary and impassioned one like Mozart. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Olimpie was described by Hector Berlioz as a “sublime work” and Spontini himself viewed it as his best composition. When it was premiered in Paris, however, it gathered no interest. The work is based on a lesser-known play by Voltaire and was considered out of fashion before it even reached the stage in 1819. In Berlin two years later, in a translated and happier version modified by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Olimpie was more of a success. Back in Parisian venues in 1826, the piece was rarely played, which Berlioz regretted. It occasionally made it to Germany, but was eventually forgotten until its rediscovery in the 1950’s as an Italian version performed by La Tebaldi in Florence. Olimpie is not often included in operas’ repertoires, but nevertheless, with its visuals and refined language, it features many magnificent moments and offers a plethora of staging opportunities.The original 1819 musical score has disappeared. Jérémie Rohrer is presenting instead the 1826 version of the score prepared by Federico Agostinelli with various printed sources as well as an autographed manuscript. The album follows this version with the exception of two cuts during Acts I and III. The recording is meticulous and benefits from the splendid acoustic of the Philharmonie de Paris. Recorded before the concert given at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, it features a set of excellent soloists led by Jérémie Rohrer’s imagination and energy. A perfect resurrection and a gift from the indispensable Bru Zane Foundation in Venice. © François Hudry/Qobuz

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To say that André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry's 1784 comic opera, Richard Coeur de Lion, has a lot to answer for is something of an understatement, when it was its popular Act I air, “O Richard, O my King”, which in 1789 accidentally brought about one of the defining moments of the French Revolution: the air is sung by the imprisoned King Richard's knights who want to free him, and one night in 1789 it became the song French officers chose to sing to King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette under house arrest at Versailles after the couple turned up to greet the officers at a banquet thrown in the Royal Opera House; which in turn got interpreted by the Paris press as an anti-revolutionary act, leading to the palace being stormed and the royal couple taken away, never to return. Add the fact that Grétry was none other than Marie-Antoinette's favourite composer, and the opera was an obvious choice for the Royal Opera House's 250th anniversary season. Plus, the October 2019 production under the direction of Hervé Niquet was a wonderful one: fizzing with vivacious energy and fun, nailing its grandeur and intimacy in equal measure, all with just the right dose of heart-on-sleeve sentimentality, and from a no-exceptions superb cast of young talent - headed up by tenors Rémy Mathieu as Richard and Reinoud Van Mechelen as Blondel - supported by an on-fire Le Concert Spirituel. So, although with this live recording you don't get to enjoy the production's sumptuous late eighteenth century stage sets and concerts, the music making was of a level for it all still to be leaping out of the stereo regardless. What's more, the polished, immediate engineering has done a magnificent job of capturing the theatre's acoustics, meaning you really do feel as if you're sat there in the theatre's best seats. Then, while one might imagine that non-French speakers may get less out of the audio alone, given that the opera's action moves forwards not via sung recitatives but instead spoken texts, the reality is that the vim and melodious tones with which those spoken lines are dispatched actually amounts to a sort of music in itself. In short, thank goodness they snuck this one in before Covid, because it's a life-affirming triumph. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz

After making a name for herself as a featured vocalist on hits by French rappers Diam's and Dadoo, French pop singer/songwriter Vitaa made her chart-topping album debut with À Fleur de Toi (2007). The 15-track album was co-written by Mounir Maarouf, with the exception of a few songs co-penned by Street Fabulous, most notably the hit single "Ma Soeur." Other highlights of the album are "À Fleur de Toi," "Toi," and "Pourquoi les Hommes?"© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

Young Frenchman Raphael Haroche, who performs under the name Raphael starting with this, his debut album, is not to be confused with the Spaniard Rafael Martos, who has been performing under the same name for much longer. The newer Raphael's willingness to risk a mix-up may not be as ill-advised as it seems, if only because his musical style is far different from the middle-of-the-road veteran to his south. Musically, this Raphael is less likely to be mistaken for his namesake than he is for another artist to his north; at times, the music of Hôtel de l'Univers is reminiscent of David Bowie, and Raphael sounds like he has a good familiarity with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The hard, yet melodic guitar rock may suggest Bowie, but as a singer Raphael is his own man, boasting an expressive tenor that emphasizes his emotional lyrics, sung, of course, in French, though they shouldn't tax a second-year high school French student in the U.S.; American or French, it seems to be teenagers Raphael is aiming at, and his first recording indicates that he will be able to find them without much trouble.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

With this anthology of airs sérieux and airs à boire of the Grand Siècle, Les Arts Florissants launches a new series on harmonia mundi. We may listen to the tracks on this disc as contemporaries turned the pages of successful collections of songs alternating between invocations to Bacchus and invitations to love. Around William Christie at the harpsichord and his musicians, five singers offer multiple combinations of close-knit voices. From the intimacy of the salons to the liveliness of court banquets, these airs, models of refined skill, make light of the paradoxes of our hearts – for as an air by Lambert tells us: ‘Though Love creates all my grief, / I wish to love and to die loving.’ (Editor's Note) 

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