Entr'acte

Hervé Niquet resurrects Ariane et Bacchus (1696), using for the first time the exact performing forces and layout of the Paris Opéra orchestra in 1700 and thus giving us a historically informed version of this tragédie en musique by Marin Marais. The latter became a viol player at the Académie Royale de Musique in 1676, just as his mentor Lully’s Atys triumphed there. Lully subsequently initiated him into the skills of operatic composition, and Ariane et Bacchus was premiered nine years after the older man’s death. This production, made possible by the support of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, was performed in concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées to great acclaim in 2022, when Diapason wrote that the work was ‘deservedly rescued from oblivion’ and was ‘magnified by a sober and telling interpretation from Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel, in perfect consonance with a remarkable cast’, featuring such luminaries as Judith van Wanroij, Véronique Gens, Mathias Vidal, Hélène Carpentier, Marie Perbost, Matthieu Lécroart, David Witczak, Tomislav Lavoie and Philippe Estèphe.

Pour sa dernière saison à la tête de l’Opéra de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski, toujours prêt à diriger des œuvres oubliées qui ont marqué l’histoire de la musique, avait jeté son dévolu sur Robert le Diable, l’opéra de Giacomo Meyerbeer qui fut un véritable phénomène de société dans la France de Louis-Philippe. Le Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française lui a emboîté le pas en publiant officiellement cette version de concert, qui bénéficie d’excellents solistes vocaux.

Faisant partie de la grande diaspora des chefs hongrois qui ont fui l’Europe à l’avènement du nazisme, George Szell (György Széll) fut un des plus grands chefs d’orchestre du XXe siècle. La guerre l’ayant surpris alors qu’il revenait d’une tournée en Australie en passant par les États-Unis, il s’installa avec sa famille à New York en commençant, comme beaucoup d’exilés européens, à enseigner. Mais George Szell n’était pas un inconnu. Après avoir longuement travaillé à Berlin où il avait succédé à Otto Klemperer), à Prague et à Düsseldorf, il avait fait ses débuts aux États-Unis avec l’Orchestre Symphonique de Saint-Louis dans les années trente.

French grand-opéra specialist Marc Minkowski has at last recorded Robert le Diable, a jewel of the genre. A triumph at its premiere in November 1831, it captivated contemporaries, and its influence stretched as far as Verdi and Wagner. An imposing international cast brings this repertory cornerstone to life: John Osborn portrays a Robert at once valiant and tender, Amina Edris reveals her full resources in the perilous role of Alice, while idiomatic performances by Nicolas Courjal, Erin Morley and Nico Darmanin complete a line-up offering the most vivid contrasts of tessitura.

'The rehearsals for La Vie parisienne are almost driving me insane', wrote librettist Ludovic Halevy a few days before the work's first performance. The artists of the Palais-Royal company were struggling with some of the musical numbers Offenbach had written for them. Under pressure, composer and librettists had to simplify, cut, rewrite and sometimes even abandon some of their most successful inspirations. The international success of the final score soon ensured the hundreds of pages reluctantly deleted by Offenbach were well and truly forgotten. Now the research of the Palazzetto Bru Zane team has uncovered all this musical material, making it possible to present the world premiere recording. Listeners can now enjoy a delightful Diplomatic Trio, a Seduction Quintet, a Roadsweeper's Song, an air for Urbain, the Fabliau of the Baroness, and more. The team of fourteen soloists assembled under the baton of Romain Dumas benefits from the glittering sonorities of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, which previously recorded Offenbach's 'other' Vie parisienne back in… 1976.

'The rehearsals for La Vie parisienne are almost driving me insane', wrote librettist Ludovic Halevy a few days before the work's first performance. The artists of the Palais-Royal company were struggling with some of the musical numbers Offenbach had written for them. Under pressure, composer and librettists had to simplify, cut, rewrite and sometimes even abandon some of their most successful inspirations. The international success of the final score soon ensured the hundreds of pages reluctantly deleted by Offenbach were well and truly forgotten. Now the research of the Palazzetto Bru Zane team has uncovered all this musical material, making it possible to present the world premiere recording. Listeners can now enjoy a delightful Diplomatic Trio, a Seduction Quintet, a Roadsweeper's Song, an air for Urbain, the Fabliau of the Baroness, and more. The team of fourteen soloists assembled under the baton of Romain Dumas benefits from the glittering sonorities of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, which previously recorded Offenbach's 'other' Vie parisienne back in… 1976.

With its exotic dances and virtuoso Italian arias, “Le Carnaval de Venise” (1699) by André Campra is one of the most original experiments to be found in the entire French musico-dramatic output of the time. With this work at the latest, the composer gained the reputation of being the new master of French opera. Campra creates a colorful score in the Franco-Italian style for his ballet opera, which evokes the exuberant spirit of the legendary Venetian carnival in the middle of Paris. With this 2011 recording, Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel have added another gem to their collection of rediscovered operas from the 17th and 18th centuries. In this re-release, this jewel is finally available again on the market.

No figure in 20th century American classical music had as prominent or controversial a career – or did more to sell classical music to the general public as something genuinely exciting, and worth getting into a sweat over – than Leonard Bernstein. For more than 30 years, from his assumption of the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958 until the final concerts that he conducted in obviously failing health near the end of his life in 1990, he was the most prominent and widely recognized American-born conductor in the world, and the dominant personality in American classical music as both a conductor and, to a lesser degree, a composer. A flamboyant public figure, he burst three different times on the musical world – twice in classical with a rush of success on Broadway in between – in a blaze of glory, in the space of 15 years; and over a career lasting from the early '40s until the beginning of the '90s, he never lost an opportunity to advance his reputation as well as the cause of music.

André Clutyens conducts the Orchestra De La Societe Des Concerts Du Conservatoire through two works by Bizet, his "L’Arlesienne" and "Carmen Suites". These two masterpieces have melodic and instrumental similarities that are brought to an emotional climax through Clutyens’ guidance. The remastered sound captures every nuance and instrumental subtleties. A masterful performance…in Stereo!

Digital premiere (in its complete version) of this underrated version of Carmen. It features a splendid vocal cast with Jennifer Larmore as the title character, an irresistible Samuel Ramey (who was a specialist of the role he sung dozens of times on stage all over the world) as Escamillo, and one of the most convincing Micaëlas of the discography by Angela Gheorghiu, in her first studio recording.