Suzie Morgenstein

Le Nouvel Opéra and Les Boréades de Montréal have assembled an exceptional group of artists for the first-ever recording of Nicandro e Fileno, a pastoral opera by Paolo Lorenzani (1640-1713) first performed in 1681 before Louis XIV at the palace of Fontainebleau.
The manuscript is conserved in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. Canadian musicologist Albert La France prepared the critical edition of Nicandro e Fileno for the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Thanks to the initiative of Suzie LeBlanc and Francis Colpron, this opera was restored to life for this recording and for the 2017 performance in Montreal, with stage direction by Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière.

Setting various German and Latin texts for solo voices, violins and continuo, these sacred cantatas are typical products of the late 17th century in their pragmatic approach to form.
Here are patchworks such as Jesu dulcis memoria and Salve, Jesu, Patris gnate unigenite; chorale or song variations such as Jesu, meine Freude; and others, like Ich halte es dafür and Ich habe Lustabzuscheiden, which combine the two. CantateDomino is liltingly Italianate, Mein Herz ist bereit is an agile showpiece for solo bass, while Herr, wennich nur dich hab is a set of variations over a ground bass. The Purcell Quartet's essential string sound has always been sweet, airy and lucid, and it's interesting to hear how that has been transferred here from the instrumental sphere to the vocal.

Le Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, qui publie régulièrement des joyaux inédits de la musique française, nous a permis cette dévouverte des oeuvres religieuses de Pierre Bouteiller. Le présent enregistrement propose en plus de la Missa pro defunctis à 5 voix et basse continue, des Motets pour voix, deux basses de viole et basse continue qui confirment que les violes étaient bel et bien mariées aux voix de la façon la plus heureuse dans le répertoire français.