Dauvergne: Hercule mourant (Hercules Dying)

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Dauvergne: Hercule mourant (Hercules Dying)

Andrew Foster-Williams (Hercule), Véronique Gens (Déjanire), Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (Hilus), Edwin Crossley-Mercer (Philoctète), Julie Fuchs (Ïole), Jaël Azzaretti (Dircé), Alain Buet (La Jalousie, Jupiter), Jennifer Borghi (Junon) & Romain Champion (Le Grand Prêtre de Jupiter)

Les Chantres...

This is an enjoyable disc, and Christophe Rousset's accompaniment is mostly flawless. Andrew Foster-Williams (Hercules) has the measure of the drama in his role, even if his tone is occasionally... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 5th Nov 2012
Catalogue No: AP042
Label: Aparté
Length: 2 hours 18 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

12th November 2012

Dauvergne: Hercule mourant

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Ouverture

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Prestissimo

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Dircé, voici le jour où mon sort se décide

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Il vit pour l'univers ; il ne vit plus pour nous

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Acte I scène 2 : Mais que vois-je ? Mon fils !

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Tout en elle intéresse, enchante

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Acte I scène 3 : Victoire, victoire !

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Air pour les peuples

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Premier et deuxième menuets

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Triomphe aimable paix, enchaîne les héros

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Sarabande

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Première et deuxième gavottes

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Contredanse

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Peuple, c'est votre appui qui revient dans ces lieux

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Acte I scène 4 : n'es-tu qu'à moi seule fatale

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Non, non, dans la nature entière

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Va, répands dans son sein les feux qui me consument

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Acte II scène 1 : Quelle voix suspend mes alarmes ?

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Acte II scène 2 : Venez, fille des rois, il est temps de paraître

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Fille de Palénor, j'ai vu la flamme errante

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Le plaisir de mêler nos larmes n'adoucira plus nos malheurs

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Acte II scène 3 : Mon fils, que tes vaisseaux, avant la fin du jour

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Acte II scène 4 : De mon bonheur puis-je douter encore, Dircé ?

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Acte II scène 5 : Épouse d'un héros qui a des dieux sur l'image

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Air pour tous les captifs

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Air pour les Européens

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Premier et deuxième airs des Africains

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Je trouve mes dieux partout où l'on aime

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Premier air pour les Asiatiques

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Premier et deuxième rigaudons

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Princesse, au gré de la victoire

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Est-ce à vous de la retenir ?

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La honte, la douleur, le désespoir, la rage

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Air pour les Européens

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Acte III scène 1 : Trompeuse image de ma gloire

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Acte III scène 2 : Au pied du mont Olympe

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Annonce des jeux Olympiques (Solo – Marche)

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Acte III scène 3 : Arbitre des destins

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Prélude

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Chantons Alcide et ses combats

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Air des lutteurs

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Fanfare

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Amour, vole sur le char de la gloire

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Loure pour le prix de la danse

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Air en fanfare

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Peuples, que l'univers célèbre, à votre exemple

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Fanfare

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Acte III scène 4 : Quoi ! Mon fils de retour ?

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Acte IV scène 1 : Qu'ai-je fait ! Ô Nessus, ta fureur m'a trompée

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Acte IV scène 2 : Dieu, grand Dieu, sois sensible

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Premier air des prêtres de Jupiter

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Sarabande

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Première et deuxième gavottes

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Père d'Alcide à tes genoux pour lui, nos vœux se font entendre

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Premier et deuxième airs

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Le temple est ébranlé ! Quels éclats menaçants !

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Acte IV scène 3 : Ah, mon fils !

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Couvert de la robe fatale

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De mes transports jaloux ton père est la victime

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Air

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Acte V scène 1 : Alcide au tombeau va descendre

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Acte V scène 2 : Enfin je succombe à ma rage

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Acte V scène 3 : Approche

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Acte V scène 4 : Ô jour fatal ! Ô mort cruelle !

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Que dis-je ? Arrête, éloigne toi

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Au défaut de mes mains tremblantes

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Il expire dans les tourments

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Hilus, jure moi d'accomplir la volonté d'un père

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Tonnerre et embrasement du bûcher

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Descente de Jupiter et de la cour Céleste

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Acte V scène 5 : Viens mon fils

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Que tout l'univers soit ton temple

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Air pour les divinités célestes

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Premier et deuxième airs

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Peuples, recevez mes adieux

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Chaconne

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Recording of the Week, Rare baroque vocal delights

12th November 2012

Philippe Jaroussky and Max Cencic lead an all-male cast (featuring no fewer than five countertenors!) in the world premiere recording of Leonardo Vinci’s Artaserse, and Christophe Rousset & Company make a splendid case for Antoine Dauvergen’s Hercule mourant.

When Francoeur and Rebel took over as directors of the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) in 1757, they decided to promote some of the new generation of composers. Among them was Antoine Dauvergne, who appears to have enjoyed great favour at that time. Indeed, the 1760-61 season ended with his tragédie lyrique Canente, and the following season was due to open with 'Hercule mourant'. The première had to be postponed, however, because of the death of the Duke of Burgundy and so did not take place until 3 April 1762. It received 18 performances.

Rather than take up an old libretto, Dauvergne had decided to turn to the promising young poet Jean-François Marmontel (1723-1799). The latter had already worked with Rameau, but had not yet approached the tragédie lyrique genre. For 'Hercule mourant' Marmontel took inspiration from Sophocles, whose play 'Trachiniae' relates the death of Hercules, but also from 'Hercule mourant ou la Déjanira', a play also based on Sophocles and written in 1634 by Jean de Rotrou. As the chronicler for the Mercure de France pointed out, Marmontel extended the scope of French opera: he was ‘the first to have the courage to bring opera closer, in its subject matter and in the treatment thereof, to the great spectacles of ancient Greece’; furthermore, he proved beyond all doubt that opera was capable of ‘great tragic resources’.

The music, however, stirred up heated debate. Two opposing clans formed immediately and gained strength as the performances progressed. Never had Dauvergne had his skills called into question with such violence. Of course, his staunch supporters felt that Hercule was in line with his previous operas. ‘We have noted in Dauvergne’s operas, and especially in Hercule mourant, music that is as skilful, lively and virile as it is ingenious, light and stimulating in his opéra bouffon Les Troqueurs,’ Apparently later performances were more successful, Dauvergne having ‘altered the work with much good judgement and taste’.

Dauvergne’s score marked a milestone in his stylistic development. Indeed, inspired and guided by Marmontel’s libretto, he clearly aimed to take the genre in a completely new direction whilst at the same time giving one of the last tributes to the great French tragédie lyrique tradition inherited from Lully.

Artists

Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles & Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset

Reviews

April 2013

This is an enjoyable disc, and Christophe Rousset's accompaniment is mostly flawless. Andrew Foster-Williams (Hercules) has the measure of the drama in his role, even if his tone is occasionally a little rough. Very well recorded, this is a work to savour even if it doesn't pack the punch of Dauvergne's teachers, Rameau.

23rd February 2013

exquisitely prepared

March 2013

Rousset's theatrical pacing is spot-on; Les Talens Lyriques are on fine form in the lithe Ouverture; and dances are played with a keen sense of balletic movement. Véronique Gens's authoritative recitatives convey the swinging emotional fortunes of the anxious Déjanire...Hercules's bitter shame at his unworthy deceit of his wife at the start of Act 3 is sung commandingly by Andrew Foster-Williams.

February 2013

Hercule mourant could have no more persuasive performers...[Gens] is brilliantly able to bring to life late-French Baroque recitative, with its constantly shifting rhetorical-lyrical style and finding so many beauties in the smallest details...Top honours, though, go to bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams as Hercules himself...from his first sentence he imbues Marmontel's heightened lyrics and Dauvergne's commanding vocal phrases with ringing authority.

September 2013

the remorseful Dejanire is the real tragic figure here, and Veronique Gen’s commanding assumption conveys the anguish of a woman sick at heart. Singing multiple roles, Jael Azzaretti is heard to fine effect...Rousset and his choral and instrumental forces are on top form

12th November 2012

Andrew Foster-Williams is a nuanced, multi-faceted Hercules, and no-one does French Classical tragedy quite like Véronique Gens...One of the main pleasures of the disc for me, though, was the discovery of some wonderfully fresh new French voices: Jael Azzaretti’s unaffected, vernal soprano is delicious.

10th January 2013

The score is notable for an often drastic simplicity of utterance that lays bare the protagonists' psyches with unsparing veracity...We owe its rediscovery to Christophe Rousset, who conducts it with great finesse and subtlety. Andrew Foster-Williams and the great Véronique Gens play Hercules and Deianira with a passionate intensity that proves all the more remarkable for their avoidance of flashy histrionics.

Classical Music March 2013

Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques prove themselves ardent advocates of music that is sometimes touchingly expressive and almost engaging throughout. A strong vocal line-up, among whom Veronique Gens and Andrew Foster-Williams deserve special mention, sets the seal on a fine achievement

Dauvergne: Hercule mourant (Hercules Dying)

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Recording of the Week, Rare baroque vocal delights

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