Purcell, Dido And Aenes, Les Arts Florissants

It's possible to recreate everything about an eighteenth century opera except the audience,’ says director Robert Carsen in a documentary included with this DVD. ‘My work is for modern audiences.’ And how…In this brilliant production, Carsen goes to the heart of the drama…Michael Levine's stylised, bold designs allow the story to unfold with gripping clarity and, remarkably, some of the spectacular set-pieces (especially the storm in Act III) work even better on DVD than in the theatre itself. Barbara Bonney is vocally and dramatically stunning as Alphise…Conductor William Christie responds to Rameau's varied and colourful score with élan, and Édouard Lock's choreography – a version of classical ballet deconstructed and then pumped with amphetamines – is breathtaking.

William Christie directs the singers and period-instrument musicians of Les Arts Florissants in a recording of works by Etienne Moulinié (c1600-c1669). Recorded June 1980, Eglise du Bon Secours, Paris with notes in English, French, and German and texts with English translations.

This is a mixed bag, but it is a mixture of wonderful stuff put together with considerable expertise. Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a major composer of the French Baroque, served at the Sainte-Chappelle in Paris, and wrote much music of solemnity and grandeur, but was also principal composer for the Comedie Française where he wrote music of a lighter nature. What we get here is mainly the latter, more directly entertaining Charpentier, and we get it in the forms of airs serieux, which are refined songs intended for court circles, and airs a boire, in a more popular style.

This first complete recording of Rameau’s tribute to the lyric arts, poetry, music and dance, is riveting. At first sight, it should not work within the limitations of sound recording. It depends heavily on spectacle, on pastoral stage sets and costume, and movement in dance on any pretext – inserted as allegory, as plot, or in festive rejoicing. The dramatic ‘argument’ is negligible, never developing credible passions within its mythological characters. For instance, in the second of the three ‘entrées’, an oracle decrees that Tyrtaeus must conquer a nation before he and Iphise can marry. He does, and they do!

Danielle de Niese - Handel: Arias
Danielle de Niese / Les Arts Florissants / William Christie
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 357 MB | Full Artwork: 172 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Decca 475 8746 DH | Country/Year: Europe 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Opera, Vocal

"…De Niese is discreet in her ornamentation of the da capo arias; in the laments, she is particularly sensitive, avoiding inappropriate vocal displays out of character with the grief expressed in the music. William Christie conducts Les Arts Florissants in a bravura performance that's both crisp and nuanced. Decca's sound is deep, warm, and clean. De Niese's spectacular recital should be of interest to fans of Baroque opera, and of intelligent, emotionally honest coloratura singing." ~AMG

The Handel opera boom continues apace. And no wonder. Over the last 20 years singers, directors and audiences have collectively discovered that these musically rich works are also penetrating human dramas. And no Handel opera is more psychologically astute than “Orlando.” … The formidable conductor William Christie, in his 1996 recording, draws a fervent, deeply expressive yet stylistically informed performance from his acclaimed early-music ensemble, Les Arts Florissants, and a fine cast headed by the mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon in the title role.

- Anthony Tommasini

Handel’s Theodora, a tale of Christian martyrdom in 4th century Antioch, is a dramatic oratorio rather than an opera, but it achieved a new currency in 1996, when William Christie conducted a staging at Glyndebourne Festival Opera; this led to an audio recording, released by Erato in 2003 and described by Gramophone as “a magnificent and deeply satisfying performance”. Christie, who lives in France, was the natural choice to conduct Theodora’s first Parisian staging – at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Autumn 2015. Le Monde spoke of William Christie’s conducting in glowing terms; it achieved “great mystic depth” through “phrasing that was both firm and subtle, pure but warm in tone, empathetically following each inflection of anger, pain or ecstasy. The sonic fabric was rich and dense, the attack precise.”