Haller

Dukas’ opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue, based on Maeterlinck’s symbolist version of the classic tale, sees free spirit Ariane become the sixth wife of the infamous Barbe-bleue, who gives his new bride seven keys to seven doors, but prohibits the use of the last. Ariane discovers an array of glittering jewels behind the first six doors, but a terrifying reality awaits her as she unlocks the seventh. José van Dam is cast as the villainous Barbe-bleue, while taking on the immensely demanding role of Ariane - who does not leave the stage throughout the entire opera - is American soprano Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet.

Le Bal: Social Dances in the Early Baroque - I Ciarlatani
Michael Praetorius, Jacques Cordier, Étienne Nau, Jacques Mangeant (ed.) & Anon.
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 381 MB | RS
Recorded: 23-25/7 2007, St. Anna Kapelle, Sinsheim-Weiler, Germany
Released: 2008 | Label: Christophorus CHR 77295 | TT: 73:11
Regina Kabis - soprano, Benoit Haller - tenor, I Ciarlatani, Klaus Winkler (dir.)

In contrast with the familiar, well-researched ballets and dances of the High Baroque as exemplified at Versailles under Louis XIV, very little is known about social dances in France (and Europe) around 1600. […]
This wonderful collection of curiosities is the fruit of an extensive collaboration between I Ciarlatani and early dance expert Nicoline Winkler. It offers fascinating insights into the social dances of the Early Baroque and reveals astonishing musical variety – a veritable cornucopia, not only for aficionados of historical dance …

Pierre Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître is one of the essential compositions of the 20th century. Now, for the first time, this masterpiece appears on the same record as B-Partita, a tribute of French composer Philippe Manoury’s (*1952) to Boulez. Basing his music on texts by René Char, Boulez (1925-2016) vacillated between extremes: Celestial sounds are contrasted with pulsing rhythms. Free-flowing passages meet rigid meters. Sung passages follow purely instrumental writing. The music is ever changing, but the goal of its metamorphosis remains constant and discernable. With the particular instrumentation, which aims at the gradual deconstruction of a singing voice into percussive elements, the young, 30-year old Boulez was coming into his own as a composer. Manoury’s B-Partita, meanwhile, sees itself as a sympathetic homage to precisely that, Boulez’, musical language.

Gossec made an important contribution to the development of French symphonic music and played a central role in Parisian musical life for almost three-quarters of a century. The opera 'Le Triomphe de la République' was composed in 1793 folowing the French Revolution and wonderfully demonstrates the musical movement that France experienced following the change in political climate. Music was recognized as a medium for the diffusion of new ideas and 'Le Triomphe de la République' was a case in point. It was written in the wake of popular enthusiasm at the news of the army's victory at the battle of Vlamy in 1792 against the anti-French troops led by the Duke of Brunswick. It features folk music and popular dances of the day reflecting a kind of life quite distinct from that of intellectual, aristocratic society.

In collaboration with the Opéra de Nice and with the Ensemble Baroque de Nice, Dynamic releases a Vivaldian rarity, Rosmira Fedele, first staged at Venice’s Teatro Sant’Angelo on 27th January 1738. Written on a libretto by Silvio Stampiglia, Rosmira Fedele is the last opera by Vivaldi that has come down to us. Written three years before the composer’s death, this work heralds the end of one of the most fertile theatrical careers in the history of music.

Warner Classics & Erato DVD catalogue already contains several characteristically stylish and imaginative productions by the French opera director Laurent Pelly: Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Massenet’s Cendrillon, Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Handel’s Giulio Cesare. The last three all star Natalie Dessay, and now she and Pelly are reunited once again, this time for Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, staged at Barcelona’s Liceu opera house in early 2013.

The year 2001 marked the felicitous moment when Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel joined Glossa, starting a recording collaboration which to date (2013) has yielded twenty-plus titles. The first of all these was this memorable Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, at the time a somewhat unusual offering from an ensemble which had hitherto made of French Baroque music the cornerstone of its activities.