Les Fetes grecques et romaines, Colin de Blamont's first opera, was a resounding success from the moment it premiered in 1723. A synthesis between the nobility of the tragedie lyrique created by Lully and the more playful tone, with it's choreographed divertissements, of the opera-ballet created by Campra, it's libretto brings to life the best-known festivals of ancient History. The eloquent Alcibiades distinguishes himself at the Olympic Games, Mark Antony and Cleopatra celebrate the intoxicating Bacchanalia, and the poet Tibullus passionately courts his beloved Delia at the Saturnalia... Valentin Tournet helps us rediscover this masterpiece of the Age of Enlightenment, which for far too long has been overshadowed by it's famous contemporaries.
Lully, F. Couperin et al: Les fables de La Fontaine / La Chappelle Harmonique
B Records
CD
$20.99Oct 14, 2022
Only fifty years after they were written, the Fables of La Fontaine were set to music by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault. Little known to the general public, these pieces offer a new and authentic perspective on the comical bestiary with which we are all familiar. La Chapelle Harmonique brings them to life in this new b•records album which navigates between recitation, song and instrumental pieces and carries us into the atmosphere of the Versailles gardens for a moment of great poetry.
