When the European youth chooses War above Love, Cupid decides to seek out new followers on other continents. The opera thus recounts the way people love, hate, envy or trust overseas, all the while asking its western audience a burning question: how do we love right? In "Dreams of Babel", a documentary about the dance prodigy Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui released on DVD by Bel Air Classiques in 2010, the choreographer explained how shifting identities, multiculturalism, and his own plural heritage as the son of an immigrant, had shaped his dramaturgy and artistic inspiration. Thus, to take on the stage direction for "Les Indes Galantes", whose multiple plots take place in a fantasized exotic « elsewhere » supposed to mirror the European society, meant for Cherkaoui bringing the tension between identity and alterity to a whole new level. And the choreographer pushes his reflection much farther than mere baroque specular aesthetics: his "Indes Galante"s raise the sensible issues of population movements, fragmented and ever-changing territories and borders, but also the refugee crisis that has shaken Europe to its very core… For this new production at the Prinzregenten Theater, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui brought his own dance ensemble, the Eastman company, as well as a brilliant vocal cast, among which Anna Prohaska, Francois Lis or Lisette Oropesa. Ivor Bolton conducts a Münchner Festspielorchester at the top of its game.

This recording of Rameau’s Les Fêtes de Polymnie (1745), directed by György Vashegyi, features Aurélia Legay, Emöke Barath, Mathias Vidal, and the incomparable Véronique Gens in the various vocal roles that appear in the work’s Prologue and three Entrées. Rameau, aided by his reformist librettist Louis de Cahusac, conjured up – in addition to sparkling arias and recitatives – a dazzling mosaic of intermèdes, passacailles, chaconnes and descriptive symphonies interspersed with vivid choral contributions, delivered with taste and aplomb by the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra.

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Emöke Barath is superb as Polyhymnie as she is in her other roles. Mathias Vidal is dramatic, lyrical and commanding as the "Leader of the Arts" and most especially Alcide, while Aurélia Legay is compelling…. György Vashegyi's direction… produces both stylish playing and… striking ensemble.

– BBC Music Magazine

As Rameau wrote in his treatise on harmony, “A good musician should surrender himself to all the characters he wishes to portray, and like a skillful actor, put himself in the speaker’s shoes.” Regardless of the means used to achieve this, the composer uses music and the interplay of harmony to convey feeling. This album on the Analekta label features bass-baritone Philippe Sly and soprano Hélène Guimette accompanied by musicians from Clavecin en concert under the direction of Luc Beauséjour.

JEAN-PHILIPPE RAMEAU IN CONVERTENDO

Nicolas Rivenq, Sophie Daneman, Jeffrey Thompson, Olga Pitarch
Orchestra and Chorus of Les Arts Florissants / William Christie

Picture Format: 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound Format: DTS Surround / LPCM Stereo
Menu languages: English
Running Time: 91 mins
Region Code: All regions
Subtitle: English/French/German/Spanish/Italian

Jean-Philippe Rameau was still a young musician when he moved to Lyon, where he probably composed his few surviving motets, including the Grand Motet In Convertendo, here performed by Les Arts Florissants under William Christie, which anticipates Rameau’s orchestration in his later operatic works. The wonderful fugue on Psalm 126 (verse 6) Euntes ibant et flebant (They went forth and wept) bears comparison with similar works by his contemporary, J. S. Bach.

In addition to a full performance of In Convertendo, this DVD presents some of Rameau’s key chamber music pieces and an insightful music documentary, The Real Rameau, which sheds light on the life of a composer who thought only of music, dreaming of a universal harmony and regarding music as an example to all the arts and, indeed, to all the sciences as well. Pictured by his contemporaries as a gaunt and taciturn man, ill-suited to courtly surroundings, his work was described by Berlioz as ‘one of the most sublime conceptions of dramatic music.'

‘These motets contain gorgeous music: they are to some degree concert music as much as religious music, and indeed the version of In Convertendo that has survived is the revised one for the Concert Spirituel. Lengthy orchestral parts, ravishing solos accompanied by flutes, occasional interludes with oboes and bassoons, make a lot of the music lyrical, if not elegiac.’ www.medieval.org

Note: The Blu-ray version is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

"For its first staging of a Rameau opera, the Glyndebourne Festival in England went big: a riotous yet sophisticated production, by Jonathan Kent, that captures both the frigidity and the passions of human relations, and that has the leadership of the French Baroque master William Christie, conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Ed Lyon, Christiane Karg, Sarah Connolly, and Stéphane Degout all give standout performances." – Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times

In Glyndebourne's first-ever staging of a opera by Rameau, director Jonathan Kent presents a production which, in his own words, strives to appeal to every sense and show audiences how engrossing and musically ravishing French Baroque opera can be. Rameau's inventive take on Racine's great tragedy Phèdre is brought to life by Paul Browns colourful and elegant designs and Ashley Pages playful choreography. Ed Lyon and Christiane Karg give captivating performances as the titular young lovers, while Sarah Connolly, making a welcome return to Glyndebourne, invests Phaedra with both grandeur and a desperately human vulnerability (The Independent). Leading exponent of early music William Christie sets an exhilarating pace, galvanising the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to playing of tremendous panache (The DailyTelegraph).

Jonathan Kent, stage director
Paul Brown, set and costume designer
Mark Henderson, lighting designer

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lewes, June 2013

Bonus: -
An opera to surprise and delight
- Cast gallery

• Picture format: NTSC 16:9
• Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
• Region code: 0 (worldwide)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
• Running time: 187 mins
• of DVDs: 2
• of Blu-ray discs: 1

REVIEW:

It could be argued that the loose-limbed structure of Hippolyte et Aricie strays too widely from Phèdre, though its major excursions are drawn from the mythological variants Racine himself discusses in the play’s preface. Its controlled extravagance makes it one of the great French Baroque entertainments, though Rameau’s insights into Phèdre’s emotional and moral torment form a real heart of darkness. Christie conducted a superb Glyndebourne cast in 2013.

-- Gramophone

RAMEAU: Harpsichord Music, Vol. 2

RAMEAU Dardanus: Suite. Le Temple de la gloire: Suite • Jeanne Lamon, cond; Tafelmusik Baroque O (period instruments) • TAFELMUSIK 1012 (67:12)

This arrived as a companion to Tafelmusik’s recording of Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music, which, with any luck, will be found reviewed elsewhere in this issue. Like that CD, this one is not new either; it was recorded in 2001 and originally released by CBC Records. Unlike the Handel disc, however, which was reviewed by Bernard Jacobson in Fanfare 21:5 when it initially appeared on Sony Classical, this Rameau CD does not appear to have been previously reviewed here.

As you can see from the headnote, this is not Rameau’s opera Dardanus, but an extended suite of 16 orchestral numbers taken from it. For a review of the complete opera, see entries by Brian Robins in 24:1 and Barry Brenesal in 31:5. Fortunately for me, since the recording at hand offers only the score’s overture and a generous helping of its set dances, I don’t have to deal with the labyrinthine twists and turns of Dardanus’s unwieldy plot or the infighting and even physical brawling that ensued between factions loyal to Rameau and those supporting Lully. From what I’ve read, things got pretty down and dirty, worse even, perhaps, than the infamous onstage slapping, hair-pulling, and nasty name-calling disturbance of the dueling divas that arose between sopranos Cuzzoni and Faustina during a performance of Bononcini’s Astinatte at London’s Haymarket Theatre in 1726.

One would be well advised to forego fluid intake before a performance of Dardanus, for as its critics complained, the opera was so stuffed with notes that for three hours there wasn’t time enough to sneeze. If it’s true, as the movie Amadeus has it, that the Emperor Joseph II thought there were too many notes in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, he’d have been carried out unconscious and wet from a performance of Rameau’s Dardanus.

The good news is that the suite recorded here lasts a mere 37 minutes and is a treat of pure terpsichorean delight. Ballet still played a central role in French Baroque opera when Dardanus came into being in 1739, and based on the evidence of these dance movements, Rameau invested a good deal of effort into capturing the musical essence of their steps. Lamon and Tafelmusik do likewise in performances that pirouette and plié with stylish elegance and flair.

No doubt exhausted by the trials and tribulations surrounding Dardanus, Rameau swore off opera for the next four years, concentrating on revisions and other projects. But in 1745 he received a number of commissions, among which was one for a short, one-act opera-ballet for the court’s entertainment. For the occasion, Rameau offered Le Temple de la gloire, a work on which he’d collaborated with Voltaire. It’s a tale of three kings, each seeking access to the Temple of Glory. The first two are turned away, but the third, obviously intended to personify Louis XV, is granted entrance. The story also doubles as a thinly disguised allegory on the relationship between the King and his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. It seems not to have occurred to the well-meaning Rameau that Louis’s wife, Queen Marie, and her children would be there. Oops. As one writer put it, “Rameau’s intended tribute was received with little enthusiasm.”

Rameau was one of music’s greatest—perhaps the greatest—master of the dance, and the two suites offered on this CD will keep your feet tapping for more than an hour. I continue to marvel at the robustness of Tafelmusik’s playing, noted in my review of the ensemble’s Handel album. This is a recording for those who hate period instruments (or think they do), because Tafelmusik’s mastery of them is of such consummate technical and artistic skill that you may well believe you’re listening to modern instruments. This whole disc is a joy from beginning to end.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Classical Music

Celebrated harpsichordist Steven Devine completes his monumental survey for Resonus Classics of the complete solo keyboard works by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) with this new collection. These seminal works of the French Baroque era are brought to life vividly by Devine, mainly marking the earlier part of Rameau’s career and charting the development of the future prolific opera and ballet composer. The three books of Pieces de Clavecin are joined by the Cinq Pieces (derived from the Pieces de Clavecin en Concert), and the individual work La Dauphine. Also included is the substantial compendium Les Indes Galantes- keyboard transcriptions that Rameau himself made from his own opera-ballet of the same name composed in 1735/36. “[Devine] is authoritative, suave, technically dazzling and delivers immaculately manicured ornaments that lend brilliance and expressive introspection when required.” (BBC Music Magazine)

This is the 1754 revision of Rameau's 1737 masterpiece. The earlier version was coolly received as a result of the Lulliste-Ramiste battles that were waged at that time (Rameau was the new opera composer in town and, in subject matter and harmonies, was breaking with tradition). The revised version slims down the original: the allegorical prologue is gone; Castor and Pollux no longer compete for the same woman (Telaire); the first act is new, and the rest of the action is tightened, with some new music added. Whichever version you hear is good enough--it's a beautiful, moving work--and this set complements William Christie's performance of the 1737 original on Harmonia Mundi.

The most beautiful performance here comes from Monica Whicher as Telaire. Everything she sings is filled with meaning, her tone is lovely, and in her big aria, "Tristes apprets", she scales her voice down with great expressivity at key points. And the bassoon that plays obbligato around her is as mournful as her words and sound. Colin Ainsworth is an excellent Castor, his high tenor never quite entering falsetto but nevertheless exhibiting a mastery of voix-mixte. Contrasting nicely with him is the baritone Pollux of Joshua Hopkins, dark and throbbing, with a fine ear for natural French phrasing. Meredith Hall sings Phébé and Hébé with passion and celestial beauty, respectively.


While Kevin Mallon's leadership and the singing and playing of his Opera in Concert chorus and Aradia Ensemble are expert, as I listened I felt that there was a certain "snap" missing. Mallon sculpts the work almost in an Italian fashion, smoothly and with long legato, and this does something to Rameau's dance rhythms and the sharp attacks they need. But this may be only a personal gripe; in all, and at this price, this recording should be added to the collection of every French Baroque opera lover. [7/14/2004]
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

This recording highlights a selection of Rameau's well-loved ballet suites. Previously an established keyboard player and composer, 17th century composer Rameau's foray into the world of opera was well received by an adoring French public, and he became renowned for his ability to produce one brilliant melody line after another.

Plateé's Ouverture begins with a particularly sensitive touch and beautiful dynamic interpretation - the strings echo each other with a real tenderness as their imitations fade to a whisper. But Rameau's penchant for switching moods soon makes an appearance, and with a flurry of strings and harpsichord, the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) springs to life. The vivacity and humour of this comic opera are conjured up beautifully by the dynamic style of the players, and they bring a real energy to these suites.

The EUBO was formed to give young players the opportunity to fine-tune their Baroque playing style, and this youthful ensemble firmly plants its own stamp on the collection of suites. Their versatile style lends itself wonderfully to the series of short dances that feature in the Pigmalion suite, capturing the sober mood of the Gracieusement and the uplifting spirit of the Tambourin.

When Rameau originally penned Dardanus, it was described as 'a piece so laden with music that for three whole hours, the orchestral players do not even have time to sneeze'. You get this sense with the recording, but the tempo never suffers from being rushed or forced. The steady opening of the Ouverture is faithfully interpreted and during the moments when the players scurry through the Rigaudons and Tambourins, their well-phrased playing gives the dances room to breath. The EUBO are in no danger of playing catch-up with Rameau's racing melody lines - their vivid performance is an arresting tribute to Rameau's vibrant style.

Helenka Bednar, BBC Music

Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote two complete Anacréons, both of them a one-act acte de ballet, but with two different plots and librettos. Anacréon (1754) had a successful premiere followed by some performances in Paris after the composer’s death, and then fell into oblivion for almost 250 years. From fragmented manuscripts scattered through Paris’s libraries the work was subsequently reconstructed by Dr. Jonathan Williams and published. Dr. Williams leads this world premiere recording, joined by a leading cast of soloists and the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment.

Jean-Philippe Rameau was perhaps the greatest of all French composers of the Baroque. Sylvie Proulx presents an exceptional program of Rameau's works in transcriptions for guitar. Canadian virtuoso guitarist, Sylvie Proulx has concertized throughout Canada, the United States and England. A champion of new works for the guitar, she has presented numerous Canadian world-premieres. Acclaimed for her exceptional musicality and remarkable technique, her repertoire reflects a wide range of periods and styles. In addition to solo and orchestral work, Ms. Proulx always enjoys the collaborative aspect of chamber music, welcoming new and challenging pieces for that genre.

RAMEAU Les surprises de l’Amour • Sébastien d’Hérin, cond; Amel Brahim-Djelloul ( Adonis ); Virginie Pochon ( Venus, Parthénope ); Caroline Mutel ( Vénus, Amour ); Karine Deshayes ( Diane, Uraine, The Grand Priestess ); Anders Dahlin ( Mercure, Linus, Agathocie ); Pierre-Yves Pruvot ( Apollo ); Jean-Sébastien Bou ( Anacréon ); Les Nouveaux Caractères • GLOSSA 922701 (3 CDs: 146:28 Text and Translation)


The opéra-ballet Les surprises de l’Amour went through several revisions, a practice Rameau regularly engaged in when new productions of his works were mounted (and not infrequently during the middle of runs, as well). It first appeared in 1748, as a prolog followed by what later became its second and first acts. This was for a celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle at Versailles. (Madame de Pompadour, a highly cultured patroness, was supposedly very pleased with the results.) In 1757 the work was overhauled for the Paris Opéra, with its dated prolog jettisoned, the two extent acts inverted, and a third added. Scarcely two months later Rameau replaced the second act, but a year later it was returned—and that is the version we have on this album. All of these revisions were accompanied by other changes to whatever was retained.


Les surprises de l’Amour fits comfortably in to the genre of the mid-18th-century opéra-ballet . It consists of a series of three independent one-act works, united thematically in their Louis XV period obsession with love, and the inevitable French requirement to cloak everything in Greco-Roman garb. In the first act, Adonis, kept in chaste captivity by the huntress/goddess Diana, is kidnapped by Cupid, seduced by Venus, and ultimately chooses the latter over the former goddess. In the second act, the siren Parthenope desires the mortal Linus as a lover, but he’s enraptured with the muse of astronomy, Urania. The latter warns Linus to focus on intellectual pursuits and forget about love, which Parthenope considers dirty pool—so she enchants a lyre which Urania discovers and plays, only to gradually lose all control over her carefully sublimated emotions. Apollo appears to save the day. In the third act, the poet Anacreon, famous since Roman times for his passions embracing both love and wine, decides on love. This causes some temporary problems with Bacchus’s worshipers, as you might guess, but everything turns out all right in the end.


(Parenthetically, it was the distinguished scholar Aubrey de Sélincourt who once wrote that most of Anacreon’s poems express a desire to drink, and that there exists a fragment of one where he writes of having some secret he wished he could have passed along to Sappho, far his elder. Sélincourt suggests it might have been a desire to share a drink with her.)


There was a time when even learned and sensible critics dismissed French Baroque opera en masse for a lack of coherent drama, endless padding, and frivolous subject matter. With repeated productions on stage and records this view has retreated somewhat, though it can still be found in reviews of such works as this opéra-ballet . In brief rebuttal: The drama is often more coherent and better written than in 19th-century opera; the padding isn’t padding when the entertainment form itself deliberately incorporates dance and spectacle as part of the fun; and the librettos, while limited in their breadth, often reveal a psychological perceptiveness worthy of Marivaux. Consider the first of the three parts of this work, “L’Enlèvement d’Adonis.” It isn’t Jupiter’s trick of disguising Adonis to look like a second Cupid and asking Diana to choose the right one that stymies her. It is Adonis’s refusal to speak out and identify himself, which isn’t forbidden. The action of Adonis breaks her will, not those of Jupiter, Cupid, or Venus, and in a silence that speaks more eloquently than all Diana’s fury and despair.


And, being composed by Rameau, wonderful examples of fury and despair, as well as anger, fear, mirth, and, of course, love in many expressive shades, abound. The music ranges in depth from the charming though detached air “Chantez la faveur” of Urania to the surprisingly austere condemnation by Bacchus’s Priestess (with excellent three-part counterpoint), to the powerful, discordant scene for Diana and chorus, “Adonis, Adonis … pourquoi nous fuyez-vous.” Urania’s mad scene, with the muse falling increasingly under the spell of the music on the lyre she herself plays, is another highlight of the work—as is the supple recitative throughout, and the many dances that equal anything Rameau composed for any of his other stage works.


None of the performances are execrable, and a few are exceptional. Amel Brahim-Djelloul stands out in the first section not only for tonal beauty and phrasing, but for an extremely forward enunciation that surpasses that of her colleagues. Anders Dahlin is a sweet rather than powerful haute-contre , and while doing justice to all three roles, is at his best as the love-struck Linus. Finally, Karine Deshayes makes the most of all the dramatic possibilities she receives in three parts, as Diane, Uraine, and the Grand Priestess of Bacchus. Sébastien d’Hérin leads Les Nouveaux Caractères in exciting but disciplined performances. The orchestra never swamps the singers, and the result is one of the best recordings of a Rameau stage work in several years.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

The second volume in pianist Stephen Gutman’s three-disc survey of Rameau’s complete keyboard music begins with the composer’s harpsichord transcriptions of the ballet music from his opera Les Indes galantes, heard in what appears to be their first recording on a modern concert grand. Gutman’s booklet notes present detailed analyses of how Rameau carefully went about his business of “de-orchestration”. Happily, Gutman does not feel the need to flesh out the keyboard writing, and makes expressive points through tone color, subtle dynamic contrasts, and articulation. Discreet agogic stresses help to point up a melodic phrase or give appropriate weight to a bass note when needed, as in the Vivement movement, or in the sophisticated accentuation of the ascending imitative arpeggios in the final pair of Gavottes.

The Third Suite receives an equally commanding performance, and its virtues can be illuminated through comparative listening. For example, in the second-movement variation set Les niais de Sologne, Jill Crossland’s recent recording focuses on the right-hand melody as the phrases fall into generic four- and eight-bar patterns. Robert Casadesus’ strong legato left-hand presence adds more linear tension to the mix. By contrast, Gutman anchors his right-hand legato line with the left-hand counterpoint played in a detached yet tellingly inflected manner that gives shape to implied cross-rhythmic patterns.

The concluding Les Cyclopes fuses incisive brilliance and refinement, while Gutman’s transcription of the B-flat concerto is a model of poised fingerwork and tonal application. Nor do the relatively modest demands of the concluding Gavotte and the Menuet en rondeau (the latter lasts just half a minute, not four minutes as inaccurately noted on the back cover) lack for understated elegance. What is more, Toccata Classics’ engineering captures Gutman’s warm timbre in an ambience akin to an intimate room suitable for both instrument and repertoire. A lovely disc in every way, and I look forward to this cycle’s imminent completion.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com