Enchantements

Victime d'un sort, Deirdre, une jeune reine, est emprisonnée sur l'île de l'Hiver, condamnée à ne connaître que le froid. Le soldat blessé qu'elle recueille serait-il la promesse d'une vie nouvelle ? Grâce à ses pouvoirs, Kadra, chasseuse de démons, arrive à New York, où elle doit mettre la main sur son ennemi juré avec l'aide du détective Harper. Élevée par des bohémiens dans la forêt Perdue, Aurora est l'héritière du royaume. Quand elle se rend au château, elle rencontre Thane, l'amant qui peuple ses rêves…

Les possessions, exorcismes, charmes et enchantements, extase naturelle et satanique, devins et magiciens, le sortilège et la magie, la Kabbale, gnosticisme et manichéisme, les sorciers, les envoûtements, les Rose-Croix, Martinisme, franc-maçonnerie mystique et hermétique, etc. …

The Marquise de Sévigné (1625 96) was a 17th-century blogger, writing letters to family and friends about life at the court of Louis XIV, and in particular performances of Lully during his lifetime, letters that were copied and widely circulated in manuscript. Our quartet of musicians has gathered together a selection of contemporary music, instrumental trio arrangements of popular songs and Lullian airs as well as duo and solo music such as she might have heard or had performed in her Parisian salon. These works – and many others like them – survive mainly in manuscript, though most are available in facsimile or online.

Following on acclaimed releases of Bellerophon and Phaeton, Christophe Rousset continues his revival of Lully's tragedies lyriques for the Aparte label with Amadis. One of the composer's finest scores, Amadis is a masterpiece of French Baroque music. It was Louis XIV himself who asked Lully and his librettist Quinault to base an opera on Montalvo's Amadis de Gaula. Avoiding the usual mythological subjects gave the composer and librettist an opportunity to expand the scope of the tragedie lyrique genre.