Les Hurlements D’leo il en Faudra Des Soleils

Desmarest was something of a frustrated genius. A precocious musician, he had a great career on opera from 1693 to 1698. His destiny was broken when he kidnapped the love of his life and fled to Brussels to escape a death sentence. Kapellmeister to the King of Spain, Philippe V in 1701, then to the Duke of Lorraine, Paris remained off-limits to him until 1720 … Circé (1694) was his apotheosis, meeting of Ulysses and the sorcerers, a superb and supernatural heroine. The dramatic force of the work stimulates the flamboyant Véronique Gens who plays the evil lover!

Sans remonter à la glorieuse progéniture de Manuel Garcia (père de Pauline Viardot et Maria Malibran), l’Espagne a souvent offert à notre pays ses plus belles voix. Ainsi, toute planétaire fût-elle, la carrière de Teresa Berganza passa d’abord par la France. C’est à Aix-en-Provence qu’eut lieu la consécration, à l’été 1957, dans un Così fan tutte d’illustre mémoire où une Dorabella de vingt-quatre ans (!) volait la vedette à ses partenaires. Quelques mois plus tard, cette artiste à peine sortie de l’adolescence, mais douée déjà de la technique la plus aguerrie (merci Lola Rodriguez Aragon, son professeur), s’envolait pour Dallas. Dans le tout nouvel Opéra de la cité texane, elle fut non seulement Isabella dans L’Italienne à Alger, mais aussi Néris dans Medea, face à une certaine Maria Callas qui prit aussitôt la petite Espagnole sous son aile, subjuguée par sa maturité musicale et le fini quasi instrumental qu’elle déployait dans sa grande scène avec basson obligé.

Omdat zijn vader hem verbiedt naar het conservatorium te gaan, gaat Léo Ferré (1916-1993) maar rechten studeren in Parijs. Tijdens de oorlog keert hij als vluchteling terug naar zijn geboorteland Monaco. Hier gaat hij werken voor de radio en componeert hij zijn eerste liederen. Na de bevrijding duikt Ferré op in de cabaretwereld van Parijs. In de jaren vijftig en zestig neemt hij een serie albums op gewijd aan beroemde Franse dichters.

Laurent Cugny - La Tectonique des Nuages (2011) {2CD Set, Signature–Harmonia Mundi SIG 11180/81}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 669 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 252 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 204 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 Signature / Harmonia Mundi | SIG 11180/81
Jazz / Jazz-Opera / Modern Big Band / Contemporary Jazz

To a backdrop of the apocalypse, torrential flooding and the threat of earthquake, a simple man embraces a curious nymph-like créature, pregnant and désirable, who stops clocks and awakens long-forgotten languages. Adapted from the work of José Rivera, "Cloud Tectonics" represents a singular approach to jazz-opera, masterfully written and performed by Laurent Cugny.

One of French pop's most poetic songwriters, Georges Brassens was also a highly acclaimed and much-beloved performer in his own right. Not only a brilliant manipulator of language and a feted poet in his own right, Brassens was also renowned for his subversive streak, satirizing religion, class, social conformity, and moral hypocrisy with a wicked glee. Yet beneath that surface was a compassionate concern for his fellow man, particularly the disadvantaged and desperate. His personal politics were forged during the Nazi occupation, and while his views on freedom bordered on anarchism, his songs expressed those convictions more subtly than those of his contemporary, Léo Ferré.

Hippolyte et Aricie was Rameau's first surviving lyric tragedy and is perhaps his most durable, though you wouldn't know it from the decades we had to wait for a modern recording. Now there are two: this one, conducted by Marc Minkowski, and William Christie's version on Erato. Choosing between the two is tough. Minkowski uses a smaller and probably more authentic orchestra, and with the resulting leaner sound, the performance has more of a quicksilver quality accentuated by Minkowski's penchant for swift tempos. His cast is excellent. The central lovers in the title are beautifully sung by two truly French voices, soprano Véronique Gens and especially the light, slightly nasal tenor of Jean-Paul Fourchécourt. In the pivotal role of the jealous Phèdre, Bernarda Fink is perfectly good but not in the exalted league of Christie's Lorraine Hunt. So there's no clear front-runner, but anyone interested in French Baroque opera must have at least one.