Les Diamants du Palace

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Offenbach: La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (2005)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Offenbach: La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (2005)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Français | LinearPCM, 2 ch | Dolby AC3, 6 ch | DTS, 5 ch | 3,46+6,17 Gb (DVD5+DVD9) | 154 min
Classical | Virgin Classics | Sub: English, Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, Espanol

Dame Felicity Lott stars in a rollicking performance of Offenbach's operetta "La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein." The stage production was filmed in December 2004 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris. The result is a kaleidoscope of artistry and comedy that should not be missed! This production goes back to the original version which had been adjusted and censored after it's premiere at the Theatre des Varietes in 1867.
Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Offenbach: La Belle Hélène (2000)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Offenbach: La Belle Hélène (2000)
PAL 16:9 (720x576) | Français | LinearPCM, 2 ch | Dolby AC3, 5 ch | DTS, 5 ch | 7,65 Gb (DVD9) | 127 min
Classical | Arthaus Musik | Sub: English, Deutsch, Francais, Italiano, Espanol

Staged and costumed by Laurent Pelly, with sets by Chantal Thomas and choreography by Laura Scozzi, this production of La Belle Hélène never forgets for one moment that Offenbach’s parody of the origins of the Trojan war -clearly recognisable in his day as a satire on the moral laxity of Second Empire high society- is, above all, a supreme manifestion of his comic genius. From start to finish it combines a musically superb performance with a stream of visual humour that flows from Pelly’s core idea that the action all takes place in the imagination of a sleeping, sex-starved, suburban housewife. Dame Felicity Lott is magnificent as the woman who gets into bed beside her somnolent old husband and dreams of being the most beautiful woman in the world, entangled in amorous adventures with the virile young Paris, tastily portrayed by Yann Beuron. And just as dreams do not respect the normal limitations of logic, time and place, so her nighttime fantasies combine the everyday with the mythical, and muddle up Greece, ancient and modern.
Charles Richard-Hamelin, Les Violons du Roy & Jonathan Cohen - Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 22 & 24 (2020)

Charles Richard-Hamelin, Les Violons du Roy & Jonathan Cohen - Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 22 & 24 (2020)
XLD Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) - 231 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 156 Mb | 01:05:15
Classical | Label: Analekta

In their very first recording together, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin and the Violons du Roy present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano concertos No. 22 and No. 24 that are replete with passionate outbursts, startling contrasts, rich orchestration and overt emotional fervor. Charles Richard-Hamelin, Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman award at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, impresses with his extremely refined playing and the Violons du Roy, under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, offer grandiose performances imbued with dignity and grace.
Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Jean-Féry Rebel: Les Elémens (1993)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Jean-Féry Rebel: Les Elémens (1993)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 248 Mb | Total time: 47:36 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Erato | # 2292-45974-2 | Recorded: 1992

Les trois oeuvres enregistrées ici sont "Tombeau de M. de Lulli" (1695), "Les Caractères de la Danse" (1715) & "Les Elémens" (1737). La première est un vibrant hommage à celui qui fut le "mentor" de Rebel. Ecrite pour ensemble instrumental, cette pièce aux caractères changeants adopte une ritournelle déchirante qui réapparait entre chaque mouvements rapides. Les deux dernières sont des "symphonies chorégraphiques" où les mouvements de danses ont une place de choix (notamment dans les "Caractères de la Danse" ; le public de l'époque était friand de ces pièces ("Courante", "Chaconne", "Rigaudon", "Passepied"…)). Le "Prélude" des "Elémens" est une représentation du "Chaos", dont le tout premier accord est une des pages les plus célèbres de son auteur.
Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Marin Marais: Alcyone (1990)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Marin Marais: Alcyone (1990)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 796 Mb | Total time: 53:56+47:15+54:05 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Erato | # 2292-45522-2 | Recorded: 1990

Marin Marais (1656-1728)est ajourd'hui célèbre grâce au fabuleux corpus de pièces pour violes de gambe qu'il nous a laissé et qui ont été remises à l'honneur avec le célèbre film "Tous les matins du monde" et les disques de Jordi Savall Mais Marais a aussi écrit 4 opéras dont Alcione, le meilleur d'entre eux.
Avant son enregistrement, celui-ci avait la réputation d'être digne des chefs-d'oeuvre de Lully et annonciateur des splendeurs ramistes, mais pour certains figé dans les règles passéistes du grand style français et refusant malencontreusement les harmonies italianisantes chères à Campra et Charpentier.
Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - George Frideric Handel: Alcina (2011)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Anja Harteros, Vesselina Kasarova - George Frideric Handel: Alcina (2011)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Italiano (LinearPCM, 2 ch) | (Dolby AC3, 5 ch) | 205 min | 6,79+6,49 Gb (2xDVD9)
Classical | Label: Arthaus Musik | Sub: Italiano, English, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol, Japanese, Korean | Recorded: 2010

Handels operas are now so thoroughly a part of modern musical life that you might think every major opera house welcomes them. But until November 2010, when it introduced an absorbing new production of Alcina, the Vienna Staatsoper resisted them, not having done a Baroque opera since Monteverdis Poppea in the 1960s. The present production boasted an all-star cast of Baroque specialists, a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company Adrian Noble, the highly-acclaimed conductor Marc Minkowski and his Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble in the pit. Adrian Noble places his Alcina into a framework which begins in the magnificent ballroom of the Devonshire-House in London Piccadilly. The legendary Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, stages a play in which she is acting together with her friends, a stage on the stage. Alcina is a great musical experience geared to the Baroque curiosity. Marc Minkowski revives Handels music in an outstanding way.
Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Marc Minkowski - Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer, Dietsch: Le Vaisseau Fantôme (2013)

Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Marc Minkowski - Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer, Dietsch: Le Vaisseau Fantôme (2013)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 03:54:57 | 1,12 Gb
Genre: Classical, Opera | Label: Naïve | Catalog: V 5349

When Richard Wagner failed to have his one-act version of Der fliegende Holländer staged at the Paris Opera, the cash-strapped composer sold a synopsis of the plot, written in broken French. This was fashioned into a proper libretto, which was then set to music by Pierre-Louis Dietsch, who enjoyed 11 performances of Le Vasseau fantôme before it was pulled from the repertoire in 1843. Ironically, Wagner's success with Der fliegende Holländer in Dresden happened shortly after that, and the expanded three-act version has remained an essential part of Wagner's canon.
Ensemble Les Monts du Reuil - Guillaume Tell (Les Monts du Reuil) (2020/2021)

Ensemble Les Monts du Reuil - Guillaume Tell (Les Monts du Reuil) (2020/2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 285 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 164 Mb | 01:11:09
Classical, Opera | Label: Les Belles Ecouteuses

André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry’s three-act opera Guillaume Tell was first performed in 1791 at the Salle Favart of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris. The opera deals with the Swiss fight for freedom in the 14th century against the domination of the Habsburgs. The story of Wilhelm Tell is well-known.
Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Jean-Joseph Mouret: Les Amours de Ragonde (1992)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Jean-Joseph Mouret: Les Amours de Ragonde ou la Vieillée de Village (1992)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 289 Mb | Total time: 55:44 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Erato | # 2292-45823-2 | Recorded: 1991

Les amours de Ragonde (The Loves of Ragonde, original title: Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin ou La Veillée de Village) is an opera in three acts by Jean-Joseph Mouret with a libretto by Philippe Néricault Destouches. It was first performed at the Château de Sceaux in December, 1714. It is one of the first French comic operas.
Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Jacques Offenbach: La Perichole (2019)

Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre - Jacques Offenbach: La Périchole (2019)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 527 Mb | Total time: 51:40+51:11 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Bru Zane | # BZ1036 | Recorded: 2018

Offenbachs La Périchole (1868) will never cease to delight music lovers of all persuasions. Marc Minkowski long one of the composers prophets was keen to pay tribute to him with this world premiere recording on period instruments, in the company of the young school of French singers, including the bewitching Aude Extrémo, the dashing Stanislas de Barbeyrac and the hilarious Alexandre Duhamel. Combining fashionable rhythms with the most unexpected touches of folklore, the score is a veritable flood of hit numbers. How can one not be swept away by the insolence of the Seguidilla, the frenzy of the Bolero or the furious rhythm of the Prison Trio? Never before, perhaps, had Offenbach gone so far in caricaturing political leaders nor used drunkenness to resolve the imbroglio of inextricable sentimental relationships. And indeed, the Tipsy Arietta is one of the composer's best-known numbers. Cheers!