Tassis Christoyannis - Monteclair Jephte (2020)
FLAC tracks +booklet | 02:21:30 | 739 Mb
Genre: Classical / Label: Glossa
In Jephte by Michel Pignolet de Monteclair, Gyorgy Vashegyi directs - with style and energy - another riveting account of a neglected French Baroque opera. The work, based on the Biblical tale of a conquering general obliged, by a sacred vow, to sacrifice his own kin, became an immediate success in 1732, indeed a fixture in opera life in France, receiving over a hundred performances at the Opera alone in the three decades following its premiere. Monteclair and his librettist Pellegrin were open to preparing revised versions of the opera and it is the third and conclusive edition which has been worked on by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and recorded by Vashegyi and his musicians. The central and demanding role of Iphise here is taken by Chantal Santon Jeffery, who is joined by Tassis Christoyannis as the unfortunate but successful-in-war title character, Judith van Wanroij as the bewildered but resolute mother and Thomas Dolie as the relayer of divine messages, Phinee. There is an imaginative and individual flair to Monteclair's music, nurtured by his extensive orchestral pit experience at the Paris Opera - and Jephte is a work of his maturity.