Charpentier M-A - Les Arts florissants - Christie, Les Arts Florissants

 

Release Date: December 16, 1992 Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr. Number of discs: 1 Composer: Marc-Antoine Charpentier Performer: William Christie, Les Arts Florissants  cd info/ buy

Review:

Les arts florissants (H. 487) is a short chamber opera (also described by the composer as idylle en musique) in five scenes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was written in 1685 for the group of musicians employed by Marie de Lorraine, Duchess of Guise, at her residence in Paris. The reason behind the creation of this work, as well as its place of performance, remain a matter for speculation. The French libretto, written by an unknown author, is allegorical in nature and draws on aspects of mythological and natural symbolism familiar to 17th-century audiences to add depth to a superficially simple plot. In 1979, Christie founded Les Arts Florissants, named after the opera of the same name by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which was to be its first fully-staged production. William Christie's enthusiasm for the French Baroque has never diminished. From Charpentier to Rameau, through Couperin, Mondonville, Campra or Montéclair, he is an acknowledged master of tragédie-lyrique as well as opéra-ballet, and is equally at home with French motets as with music of the court.

 

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Charpentier, M-A - Le Malade Imaginaire – Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre

 

Release Date: January 27, 1992 Label: Erato Number of discs: 1 Composer: Marc-Antoine Charpentier Performer: Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre cd info/ buy

Review:

The music of Le malade imaginaire is contained in a prologue and three intermedes. For many years that of the first Intermede was thought to have been lost, notwithstanding a clue to its whereabouts provided in La musique a la Comedie Francaise by Jules Bonassies. An American musicologist, John S. Powell followed up the clue and found the missing music in the library of the Cornedie Francaise itself. This new recording, the first to offer virtually all of Charpentier's music, is based on Powell's rediscovery and on H. W. Hitchcock's edition of the remaining sections of the score. Few if any lovers of French baroque music, or particularly of music by this outstandingly gifted representative of it, will have cause for disappointment. Minkowski sensibly has opted for Charpentier's original version of 1673 just predating Lully's tiresome dictature musicale, which subsequently obliged composers to pare down their instrumental and vocal forces. The vocal line-up is first rate with strong contributions from all eight soloists. Instrumental ensemble is not always tidy but it is variously affectingly tender and infectiously robust. Charpentier's orchestral palette is a colourful one with oboes, flutes, recorders and four-part string texture, as opposed to the customary fivepart writing of Lully. Additionally there are some surprising sound effects, notably in the percussion department where, in the third Intermede, the composer calls for apothecary's mortars, apparently cast in those days in a bell foundry! These ones are kindly lent by a Paris antiquarian. Beware of imitations. Castanets, drums and tambourines also make an appearance. This is a most entertaining issue, affectionately realized and superbly recorded by Erato.

 

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Charpentier - La Descente D'Orphee aux enfers - Christie, Les Arts Florissants

 

Release Date: August 18, 2005 Label: Erato Number of discs: 1 Composer: Marc-Antoine Charpentier Performer: William Christie, Les Arts Florissants  cd info/ buy

Review:

The myth of Orpheus--the divine musician who went to Hades to rescue his bride Eurydice from the dead and whose song actually persuaded Pluto to release her--has been irresistible to operatic composers from Monteverdi to Offenbach. One of the happiest rediscoveries of the Baroque revival is this lovely one-act chamber opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier,which combines the gentle lilt typical of French Baroque music with the beautiful melodies and delicious suspensions in which Charpentier excelled. Charpentier diverged from the myth in one important respect: he omitted the tragic ending in which Orpheus loses Eurydice a second time, instead allowing the couple to live happily ever after. Orpheus is sung by Baroque tenor extraordinaire Paul Agnew,whose pure, sweet, and flexible singing would convince Pluto to release the dead from Hell if anyone's could. Sophie Daneman, Monique Zanetti, Patricia Petibon, and Jean-François Gardeil head a cast without a single weak link; the instrumentalists of Les Arts Florissants are as skillful and sensitive as always. If you want to sample French Baroque opera at its best without investing in a three- or four-disc set, you can do no better than this. --Matthew Westphal

 

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier - Medee - Hunt, Padmore, Christie, Les Arts Florissants

 

Release Date: March 28, 1995 Label: Erato Number of discs: 3 Composer: Marc-Antoine Charpentier Performer: Hunt, Padmore, Christie, Les Arts Florissants  cd info/ buy

Review:

Charpentier's Médée gets this writer's vote for the greatest opera of the entire French Baroque era. In their retelling of the Medea legend, Charpentier and his librettist Corneille combine all the grace, charm, and artifice typical of the French Baroque era with truly gripping drama. William Christie and Les Arts Florissants  give a thrilling performance with a fabulous cast featuring stellar high tenor Mark Padmore and "La Divina" Lorraine Hunt (yes, she is the Maria Callas of 18th-century opera) in the role that made her a Baroque superstar. --Matthew Westphal

 

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