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Lully: Proserpine

Salomé Haller (Proserpine), Bénédicte Tauran (La Paix), Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Cérès), Hjördis Thébault (La Victoire), Blandine Staskiewicz (Aréthuse, Cyané), Cyril Auvity (Alphée), François-Nicolas Geslot (Mercure), Benoît Arnould (Ascalaphe), Marc Labonnette (Jupiter, Crinise), Pierre-Yves Pruvot...

Hervé Niquet directs a superb ensemble performance in excellent recorded sound. — BBC Music Magazine, October 2008, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Sep 2008
Catalogue No: GCD921615
Label: Glossa
Length: 2 hours 31 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Lully: Proserpine

Work length2:31:42

$57.00

$74.10

Stéphanie d'Oustrac (mezzo-soprano), Hjordis Thebault (mezzo-soprano), Pierre-Yves Pruvot (baritone), Francois-Nicolas Geslot (haute-contre), Benoit Arnould (baritone), Blandine Staskiewicz (mezzo-soprano), Joao Fernandes (bass), Salome Haller (soprano), Benedicte Tauran (soprano), Marc Labonnette (baritone), Cyril Auvity (countertenor)
Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet

Overture

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Prologue: Heros, dont la valeur etonne l'univers …

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Prologue: Air

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Prologue: Soupirez, triste Paix, malheureuse captive …

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Prologue: Bruit de trompettes - Ce bruit que la Victoire …

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Prologue: Air pour les Trompettes - Venez, aimable Paix, le Vainqueur vous appelle …

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Prologue: Orgueilleuse Victoire …

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Prologue: O! cruel esclavage …

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Prologue: Prelude - Le Vainqueur est comble de gloire …

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Prologue: Gavotte

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Prologue: Menuet - Il est temps que l'amour nous enchaine …

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Prologue: On a quitte les armes …

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Prologue: Overture

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Act I Scene 1: Goutons dans ces aimables lieux …

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Act I Scene 2: Ritournelle - Mercure, quel dessein …

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Act I Scene 3: La Phrygie a besoin de mes dons precieux …

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Act I Scene 4: Ritournelle - Vaine Fierte …

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Act I Scene 5: Arretez, Nymphe trop severe …

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Act I Scene 6: Prelude - Ceres va nous oter …

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Act I Scene 7: Ritournelle - Vous qui voulez …

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Act I Scene 8: Celebrons la victoire …

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Act I Scene 8: Air

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Act I Scene 8: Prelude - Ce Palais va tomber; o dieux! …

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Act II Scene 1: Ritournelle - Jupiter a dompte …

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Act II Scene 2: Venez gouter icy le doux air qu'on respire …

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Act II Scene 3: Ritournelle - Amants qui n'etes point …

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Act II Scene 4: Ritournelle - Ingrate, ecoutez-moy, …

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Act II Scene 5: Est-il vray que mon coeur …

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Act II Scene 6: Demeurez Arethuse; Alphee, eloignez-vous …

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Act II Scene 7: Ritournelle - J'ay peine a concevoir …

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Act II Scene 8: Les beaux jours et la paix …

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Act II Scene 8: Premier Air - Que notre vie … - Belles fleurs …

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Act II Scene 8: Deuxieme Air - Quand un coeur est trop sensible …

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Act II Scene 8: Premier Air - Nous reverrons bien-tot Ceres dans ces beaux lieux …

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Act II Scene 8: Ritournelle

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Act II Scene 9: Infernales Divinitez secondez mon amour …

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Act III Scene 1: Proserpine, repondez-nous …

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Act III Scene 2: N'aurois-je point innocemment …

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Act III Scene 3: Ceres revient, ah! quelle peine …

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Act III Scene 4: Prelude - Je vais revoir ma fille … - Ritournelle - J'ai rendu les Humains heureux …

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Act III Scene 5: Ma fille n'est pas avec vous …

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Act III Scene 6: Je ressens vos ennuis, et j'en suis trop …

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Act III Scene 7: Prelude - O malheureuse Mere … - Ritournelle - Ah! qu'elle injustice cruelle …

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Act III Scene 7: Ritournelle - Apres un si sensible outrage …

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Act III Scene 8: Air - Que tout se ressente de la fureur …

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Act IV Scene 1: Prelude - Loin d'icy, loin de nous …

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Act IV Scene 2: Ritournelle - Ma chere liberte …

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Act IV Scene 3: Est-ce une illusion dont le charme m'abuse …

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Act IV Scene 4: Prelude - Venez-vous contre moy deffendre …

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Act IV Scene 5: Que l'on suspende icy …

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Act IV Scene 5: Premier Air - Dans les Enfers …

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Act V Scene 1: Prelude - Vous qui reconnoissez …

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Act V Scene 2: Prelude - Deserts ecartez, sombres lieux …

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Act V Scene 3: Prelude - Quels abimes se sont ouverts …

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Act V Scene 4: Ne m'apprendrez-vous point ou ma Fille …

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Act V Scene 5: Ritournelle - Tous les Dieux …

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Act V Scene 6: Prelude - Ceres, que de vos pleurs le triste …

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About

2 CDs in slipcase, 132-page booklet.

Present as a singer in the chorus of Les Arts Florissants in 1987 when William Christie put on Lully's Atys, [recorded for harmonia mundi] Niquet formed his own ensemble, Le Concert Spirituel that same year. Since that time he has balanced his own endeavours to stage (and record) key French tragédies with his other musical interests. Niquet's latest incursion into French Baroque opera comes with Lully's prologue and five-act Proserpine, joining Destouches' Callirhoé and Marais' Sémélé: a group which Glossa has been releasing in elegant editions over the last three years.Additionally, the recordings have all followed performances of the works, especially at the Opéra de Montpellier where Le Concert Spirituel is currently in residence. Three centuries after the first performance in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel pay tribute to the genius of Lully with a new recording of Proserpine made just after stagings in both Paris and Versailles.Together with a cast of top soloists, well-versed in the demands of French Baroque, singing and with his incomparable Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet once more conjures up a dramatic feast.

Artists

Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet (direction)

Reviews

October 2008

Hervé Niquet directs a superb ensemble performance in excellent recorded sound.

2010

Lully's tragédie lyrique for 1680 tells the familiar tale of Proserpine's abduction by the underworld king Pluton, the upset it causes her mother Cérès, and of the compromise solution reached in which Proserpine must each year alternate six months above and below ground. It is not much action on which to base a five-act opera, and indeed Lully's librettist, the everexcellent Quinault, adds to it by building up Cérès and her love affair with Jupiter and adding a parallel pair of lovers, Aréthuse and Alphée, with a rival for the latter in Ascalaphe. There is also liberal use of stage effects (including an impulsive role for Mount Etna) which we CD listeners will have to imagine for ourselves. Surprisingly, what it is not padded out with are the kind of extended decorative set-piece sung-anddanced divertissements that form such a large part of Lully's earlier operas.
The opera is a flexible mixture of arioso, dance and chorus, and Niquet clearly enjoys the task of joining its separate elements into a coherent whole. Perhaps in doing so he can be a little hasty with its conversational element, but the way he steers the music around its corners with no bumps and awkward corners betokens considerable musical and dramatic involvement.
And as ever he is capable of generating an almost visceral excitement and urgency, not just in Lully's glorious and imaginative choral writing but in the sensual urgency of his orchestral textures.
The all-French-speaking cast does not contain stars but makes strong and convincing contributions throughout, with Salomé Haller, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Blandine Staskiewicz and Cyril Auvity giving special pleasure. Indeed, this is a model 'company' reading, one in which everyone performs as if it really matters.

December 2008

…Niquet… is capable of generating an almost visceral excitement and urgency, not just in Lully's glorious and imaginative choral writing but in the sensual urgency of his orchestral textures. The all-French speaking cast does not contain stars but makes strong and convincing contributions throughout.

Lully: Proserpine

2 CDs

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