La comédie au cinéma n'a pas vocation qu'à faire rire, elle est aussi un subtil moyen d'exprimer des idées subversives. Car la censure baisse souvent la garde devant la comédie, qui peut se permettre d'attaquer tabous et interdits beaucoup plus efficacement. Cela nécessite un fin dosage : être suffisamment choquant pour provoquer rire et réflexion critique, mais ne pas l'être trop, pour ne pas susciter rejet ou censure. Le tout dicté par un impératif économique …
In 1724, Sébastien de Brossard hailed Jean-Baptiste Drouard de Bousset as ‘indisputably the best of our composer-authors’. Although, at the beginning of the 18th century, the Master of Music at the Académies des Sciences et des Inscriptions imposed himself as the unquestionable leader of the genre, his 875 airs sérieux are little known nowadays and deserve to be brought back into the light. Such is the desire of Elizabeth Dobbin and the ensemble Le Jardin Secret, who recreate with artistry and intelligence the ‘noble, pleasant and natural’ songs of the composer, described by Titon du Tillet in his Parnasse françois (1732). Reflecting the traditions of the 17th and 18th centuries, the musicians have included improvised passages in their performance of these airs and, in particular, chosen to accompany the voice with two theorbos and viola da gamba, instruments that Bousset owned when he died.
If music be the food of love…With this second volume of airs sérieux and airs à boire, William Christie continues his exploration of this vast repertory of song settings of lyric and pastoral poetry, here focussing on such masters of the genre as Boesset, Moulinié, Lambert, and Le Camus. Presented by his expert team of singers and instrumentalists, these exquisite miniatures – amongst which is ingeniously interspersed Charpentier’s charming Pastoraletta – reveal all the nuances of the being in love. A delightful compendium enhanced by the superb artistry of the performers.