Aux Arts

The myth of Orpheus–the divine musician who went to Hades to rescue his bride Eurydice from the dead and whose song actually persuaded Pluto to release her–has been irresistible to operatic composers from Monteverdi to Offenbach. One of the happiest rediscoveries of the Baroque revival is this lovely one-act chamber opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which combines the gentle lilt typical of French Baroque music with the beautiful melodies and delicious suspensions in which Charpentier excelled. Charpentier diverged from the myth in one important respect: he omitted the tragic ending in which Orpheus loses Eurydice a second time, instead allowing the couple to live happily ever after.

Les combats d'arts martiaux mixtes: des batailles de rue à l'intérieur d'une cage?
Les femmes ont-elles autant de succès que les hommes dans ce milieu?
Pourquoi les combattants ont-ils souvent les oreilles déformées?
Dans ce livre coup de poing, Patrick «The Predator» Côté raconte les secrets les plus sombres mais aussi les plus belles réussites des arts martiaux mixtes. …

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.

“Christie's love-affair with Hippolyte informs every note of this mesmerising performance, transporting the listener from enchanting pastoral scenes to ominous, Stygian shores.” BBC Music Magazine

Charpentier’s Médée is one of the glories of the Baroque. Medea’s betrayal by Jason, her comprehensive revenge and the plight of those caught up in this epic tragedy prompted Charpentier to compose music of devastating power. Transcending the constraints of the Lullian tragédie lyrique, he produced characterisations of astonishing complexity and invested vast stretches of music with a dramatic pace and a harmonic richness rivalled among contemporaries only by Purcell. The electrifying exchanges of the third act, mingling pathos with extreme violence, alone put Charpentier on the same imaginative level as Rameau and Berlioz. The machinations of the fourth act and the dénouement in the fifth maintain the same captivating impetus.