un Pouvoir Implacable et Doux

This 20cd box set dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the music of versailles. The box set is beautifully packaged with complete english translations featuring distinguished baroque artists such as les arts florissant's with william christie, les musiciens du louvre with marc minkowski, les talens lyriques with christophe rousset, paul agnew, bernarda fink, veronique gens, patricia petibon and many more.

In October 2007, the Centre Musical de Baroque de Versailles celebrated its 20th anniversary, together with the best French musicians around. To complete this anniversary, they now present the release of a 20-CD box with numerous musical highlights, both of the anniversary concerts as well as releases from the previous 20 years. Thanks to this jubilee box, you can now witness this landmark of French Baroque music.

Trente ans après son mythique Temps des tribus, le grand sociologue de l'imaginaire lance une nouvelle annonce prophétique. Reprenant un à un les récents séismes qui ont ébranlé nos représentations, il montre comment l'avènement d'un totalitarisme doux marque, par réaction, l'Ère des révoltes. Un essai indispensable pour comprendre ce que sera notre monde demain. …

Gardiner illuminates Alceste's subtle colors and inflections, assisted by von Otter, whose perceptive performance as Alceste is one of emotional sincerity and spot-on vocal accuracy. Despite being a watershed between baroque and classical opera - and a major influence on Mozart, Berlioz and even Wagner -Gluck (1714-87) is still best known today for one opera. Orfeo ed Euridice might be a masterpiece but it's one that has tended to overshadow his other fine achievements.

Thus spake Shaw, writing about Gluck towards the end of the 19th century. Shaw went on to allege that the musical culture of his time had not fully caught up with this great master and reformer of opera, and the very thoughtful and instructive essay that Gardiner contributes here suggests to me that there may still, in the third millennium, be a little catching up to do. Whatever one thinks of Gluck, either as a composer or as a musical dramatist or as an operatic rationalist and reformer, it seems to me that he was very clear-headed in one basic respect - he knew the difference between musical drama and musical tableau. Classical drama has an inherent tendency towards tableau, with its statues, white-robed women, prophets, deities and heroes…