(3-CD box set) Jacqueline Pagnol reads the classic story "Bonjour Tristesse," written by Francoise Sagan and touted by some as the French "Catcher In The Rye." "Bonjour Tristesse" is the story of a spoiled teenager who acts with a high-society sophistication beyond her years. The girl plots to end the relationship of her playboy father's new love interest with equal parts conniving ruthlessness and juvenile prankishness, too self-absorbed to even consider the brutal results of her actions.
Castor et Pollux is Rameau's third opera and is packed with arias that show off the soloists to their best advantage: Tristes apprêts for Telaire, Nature, Amour for Pollux, Sejour de l'eternelle paix for Castor, and Soulevons tous les dieux for Phebe. In this new recording Judith van Wanroij, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Tassis Christoyannis and Veronique Gens are the outstanding performers, alongside the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra conducted by Gyorgy Vashegyi, in a new edition of Rameau's work prepared under the aegis of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Research that was begun several years ago on questions of performance practice has now been complemented by their intensive work on the score and the division of roles, respecting what we now know about performance practice at the Paris Opera in Rameau's day.
