Jour de Fête Holiday (1949)

‘So Romantique !’ illustrates the ‘profoundly sentimental’ side of French opera from the 1830s to the 1900s, which gradually came to be judged overwrought and was condemned to partial oblivion. ‘I am convinced that this is because the principals of interpretation were lost’, says the tenor Cyrille Dubois. ‘I have therefore put together this programme, which gives pride of place to rarities while highlighting the theatrical character and the use of registers so emblematic of the French ténor de grâce , in the hope of restoring this precious French heritage to its former glory.’ The sleuthing skills of the Palazzetto Bru Zane have assembled these treasures by Bizet, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Auber, Halévy, Donizetti, Thomas and Delibes, the less well-known Godard, Dubois and Silver, and the virtually unknown Luce-Varlet and Clapisson. With the Orchestre National de Lille conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud, the French tenor deploys the full range of his artistry, the impressive high notes, the luminous tone and the graceful phrasing that is ‘so Cyrille’!

The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra currently performs most of its concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris.

La fille du régiment (The Daughter of the Regiment) is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, set to a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard. It was first performed on 11 February 1840 by the Paris Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse.

American tenor Rockwell Blake in this pyrotechnical recital conducted by Patrick Fournillier performs hits from the French repertoire by Bizet or Donizetti, and rare pieces by Adam, Auber or Boieldieu. This album includes the often-dismissed aria from Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice “L’espoir renaît en mon âme”. At the time of this recording, Blake was at his prime in the 80s and the 90s one of the most sought-after performers of classical and early Romantic operas being gifted with an incredibly agile voice.

Ernest Chausson - Symphony in B-Flat Major, Soir de fete, The Tempest
L'Orchestre Symphonique De La RTBF / José Serebrier
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 269 MB | Full Artwork: 42 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Chandos # CHAN 8369 | Country/Year: UK 1985
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

Chausson (1855 – 1899) was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish. (…) Chausson's work is deeply individual, but it does reflect some technical influences of both Wagner and his other musical hero Franck. Stylistic traces of Massenet and even Brahms can be detected sometimes. In general, Chausson's compositional idiom bridges the gap between the ripe Romanticism of Massenet and Franck and the more introverted Impressionism of Debussy…