Mon Sang

French singer-songwriter who mixes jazzy styles, French variety, soul and acoustic. She is famous for her hit "Je veux", from her first album, Zaz, released on 10 May 2010…

‘One evening I paid a visit to the Opéra. There I saw Les Danaïdes, by Salieri. The gorgeous splendour of the spectacle, the rich fullness of the orchestra and the chorus, the wonderful voice and pathetic charm of Madame Branchu, Dérivis’s rugged power […] filled me with an excitement and enthusiasm that I cannot attempt to describe.’ Thus Berlioz related his encounter with one of the most revolutionary operas of the ancient régime, written by an eminent pupil of Gluck, Antonio Salieri. Feeling the stirrings of early Romanticism, the latter imbued the tragic fate of Hypermnestra with pathos and vehemence such as were rarely attained even by his teacher. The horrible plot fomented by Danaus with his daughters, the Danaids, takes us from palatial splendour to the sinister darkness of a secret temple, and finally to the Underworld itself, where a vulture, serpents, demons and the Furies avenge the mass murder of the sons of Ægyptus.

Phaeton was first produced not at the Palais-Royal Theatre in Paris but modestly at Versailles in January 1683. In the spring of that year it transferred to the Palais-Royal and was well enough thought of to enjoy revivals at regular intervals into the early 1740s. Indeed, rather as Atys became known as the ''King's opera'' and Isis as the musicians', Phaeton acquired its sobriquet, ''the opera of the people''. Among the many attractive airs ''Helas! Une chaine si belle'' (Act 5) was apparently a favourite duet of Parisian audiences, while ''Que mon sort serait doux'' (Act 2), another duet, was highly rated by Lully himself. In 1688 Phaeton was chosen to inaugurate the new Royal Academy of Music at Lyon where, as Jerome de la Gorce remarks in his excellent introduction, it was so successful ''that people came to see it from forty leagues around''. The present recording is a co-production between Erato and Radio France, set up to mark the occasion of the opening of the new Opera House at Lyon.

The music of French folk troubadour Hugues Aufray existed in stark opposition to the prevailing yé-yé sound that dominated pop charts in the mid-'60s. A disciple of Bob Dylan who regularly adapted his hero's songs into French, Aufray nevertheless proved a popular favorite whose own compositions, most notably "Santiano" and "Celine," quickly entered the mainstream vernacular.

If today no one questions the greatness of Mozart, the most famous composer in Europe at the end of the 18th century was probably Antonio Salieri. For many years court composer of the Austrian Emperor, Salieri wrote an enormous amount of music, some of the best of which remains that composed for the theatre. Les Danaïdes was premièred at Paris’s Opéra on 26th April 1784 and met with a triumphant success. The present recording, qualitatively very high also from a technical point of view, dates from 1983 and features an extraordinary Montserrat Caballé in great vocal form. Gianluigi Gelmetti conducts the renowned RAI Orchestra.

Jules Massenet - Werther
Rolando Villazon / Sophie Koch / Covent Garden Orchestra / Antonio Pappano
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 600 MB | Full Artwork: 308 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Grammophon # 477 9340 | Country/Year: Europe 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Opera

". . . [there are numerous times] when subtlety and beauty of his vocal effects take the breath away: the dazzling light and rapid fade, for instance, during the syllables of the word "lumière" [in act one] . . . Sophie Koch puts her best tonsils forward singing the agonized Charlotte of act three, while Eri Nakamura is suitably bubbly [as Sophie] . . . Villazón's ardour finds its match in Antonio Pappano's conducting. He never shrinks from the luscious ache in Massenet's music or its dramatic bustle. Nocturnal sighs; bucolic whooping; dark melodramatics: the Royal Opera House orchestra takes care of them all." ~The Times

Johnny Hallyday was France's first and only full-fledged rock star. Other French artists may have been influenced by rock & roll, but none was as beholden to the original sources, or as enduringly successful, as Hallyday. He was a distinctly French phenomenon, never achieving recognition in the U.S. or U.K.; certainly, part of the reason was that a good chunk of his repertoire consisted of French-language covers of early American rock hits.