The 75 greatest opera __ recordings of allristie Lully Atys. Prologue ~ Bernard Deletré (bass) Le Temps; Monique Zanetti (sop) Flore; Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (bass) Gilles Ragon (Gen) Zephirs, Arlette Steyer (sop) Melpomene; Agnés Melon (sop) Iris; Tragéi Iyique ~ Guy de Mey (Gen) Atys; Agnts Mellon (Sop) Sangaride; Guillemette Laurens (mez) Cybele; Frangoise Somellaz (op) Doris; Jacques Bona (bass) das: Nomi Rime (sop) Mélise; ean-Frangois Gardeil (bass) (Célénus; Gilles Ragon (ten) Le sommeil; Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (ten) Morphée, Trio; Bernard Deletré (bass) Phobétor, Sangar; Michel Laplénie (ten) Phantase; Stephan Maciejewski (bass) Un songe funeste: Isabelle Desrochers op) Trio; Véronique Trio; Les Arts Fl and Orchestra J Wil . Harmonia Mundi © HMC90 1257/9 (three discs: 170 minutes: DDD). Notes, text and translation included. Producer Michel Bernard Engineer Alain Ducherin venue Studio 103, Radio France, Paris ate January 1987 ys was Lully’ fourth tragédie lyrique ‘and it-was first staged in 1676 by the “Académie Royale de Musique” at the residence at Saint-Germain-Laye. Louis XIV is said to have preferred ‘Arys to ll other of Lully’s operas and his opinion seems to have been shared, up toa point, both in and perhaps out- side France. Telemann, in a letter to Carl Heinrich Graun once remarked that French ars had replaced the vogue for Italian cantatas in Germany. Indeed, Telemann claimed, “I have known Germans, Englishmen, Russians, Poles and even Jews who knew by heart passages fiom Lully’s ‘operas Bellerophon and Atys”. Five recently discovered letters, all relating to a greater or lesser extent to the preparation and performance of Atys, and reproduced in the accompanying booklet to this recording, add further witness to the esteem in which the work be gen the was eld. “But Arps will not be am ‘opera, any more than Thésée was”, reads a letter of August 1675; Tagine, rather, a stage with machin- ery, dances and obbligato_music: Simosta copy ofthe antique, The pro- Togue is the introduction, a preamble Tie rest is a story, a play, which we leave fora moment from time to times for an ephemeral landscape, an enchanted or terrifying dvertisement Lully claims that he i able 10-40 ‘cthout the orchestra and choir during the entie main body of the drama, in ‘order to obtain a contrast, lighting effets, breaks during the divrtisse= ‘ments where there willbea debauch, 2 foray of voices and instruments, The entire drama wil evolve inthis way. in hal-tints;noimpresiveshowpieces for the singers,nobigairs butsmall aide cour and recitatves, all with continuo _Llly’s librettist, Quinault, turned to Ovid's. Fasti for his. subject matter. ‘Ovid's design was to interpret the cal cendar in the light of annals, to record events commemorated oneach day and ‘examine the origins of the various rites. ‘There was to have been one book of clegiacs for each month ofthe year but ‘Ovid only got halfway. The story of ‘Atys isin the fourth book: he was a Phrygian deity who in this version of the story, loves Sangaride, Sangaride loves Atys, in return, yet is all set to ‘marry Célénus, King of Phrygia. But ‘Avys, very unfortunately for him, as it ‘urns out, is secretly loved by the god- ess Cybele; her arrival for the forth- coming marriage of Célénus and Sangaride is but a pretext for seeing ‘Atys and revealing to him her love. Courtly or Godly propriety, however, prevents her from openly declaring her feeling so, instead, she causes Atys to fall into a deep sleep intending to let him know of her love in a dream. The dream turns into something of a night- mare and when he wakes from it Cybéle learns that Atys and Sangaride Jove one another. The two lovers swear sternal faith while Cybale and Célénus are left licking their wounds. Cybéle determines upon a terrible revenge. By application of her magic she makes ‘Atys believe that he sees a horrible ‘monster; he stabs it to death only then to discover that it is his beloved Sangaride, Broken , Atys stabs himset but is prevented from @ normal death by Cybéle who turns him into a pine tuee. Deeply regretting her immorta ity, which gives her no respite from hex suffering, Cybale is left mourning ov aa love that has for ever been snatchai away from her. The work is unusu amongst Lully’s operas in not having ‘happy ending. In this mew recording from Harmonia Mundi William Christe has ‘used the sume musical resources that he drew upon for his highly successful and illuminating performances atthe Salle Favart in Paris earlier this year. His orchestra is a large one roughly corre sponding with the size and disposition of the kind of ensemble which Lully himself, had at his disposal; and the continuo group, the Petit Choeur, fo the main body of the orchestra in fun: tional terms, consists of players roughly but not precisely correspon ing with documentary evidence of hs arly eighteenth century. The eve nature and augmentation ofthe instr ‘mentation of Lully’s scores, however remains a complex problem to the ‘modem performer. What did Lol mean, forexample, when he refered instruments champestresin the liv o Ais? The livrets, which contain «ix ture of text and specific performance information, often gave details ofthe instrumentalists appearing on stage that produced for Anys in 1676, fr example, three crumhorns are tisved along with five oboes for the “Ent des Zéphirs” (Act 2 scene 4) Christ's ‘orchestra provides a full complemtt ‘of the Iatter instruments but omis ‘erumborns altogether; an undersa% able omission perhaps since the may have embraced a variety of instruments including larger men’ ‘of the oboe family. An absence I Ammusette, too, perhaps is someth ‘4 surprise for this would alles‘. tainly have been included amo) instruments champestres. Ti"/Monteve ' Nikolaus Harnoncourt Hoes make up the chorus in addition Toacast of 16 soloists. IFew lovers of baroque opera will be Gisappointed with this recording by William Christie and Les Arts HMorissants. The orchestral playing and Hbechoral singing have moved towards (Healer technical sophistication since their recording of Charpenti CMédle, released in 1984 (Harmonia Mindi); and 1 whilst 1 found little in Iesolo singing that was outstanding, he general level of accomplishment, both declamatory and musical, is high Guy de Mey, who takes th PALOF Atys, isexccllent for most of the dime asis Aenés Mellon as the hapless Singaride. Her voice is a perennial Havourite of mine and there are several Beasions here where she aflectingly Esplttes the pathos in Lully’s airs. Th Hole of Cybéle is sung by Guillemetic Hairens: her strong clear voice suites Be par though her intonation is weak Hipices, Jean-Francois Gardeil makes iiauthoritative Celénus and his reso- BML voice has an appropriately com- Manding ring to it. Amongst several Staller roles I was particularly struck Bthesoprano voice of Noémi Rimeas Mls, confidante of Cybéle, and the Soprano, Francoise Semellaz there is nothing musically as Memorable in Arys as, for instance, in Gharpentier’s Mfédée, or indeed per IAteverdi L"Incoronazione di Poppea. Helen Donath (oP) Poppeca- Flicabeth Soderstrom (sop haps in Lully’s own Armide there is no shortage of affecting airs and ensembles of varying sizes. From amongst them | would single out a duet of Atys and Sangaride (Act 4 scene 4) and an ani ‘mated scene between them (Act | scene 6). Duets are the most frequently oceur- ring small ensembles in Lully's operas but Atys has some delightful trio and quartets too, such as the quartet with Atys, Sangaride and their respective confidantes, Idas, a bass role, and Doris, a soprano one (Act 1 scene 3); and the trio of Sangaride, Doris and das, “Qu’une premigre amour belle! (Act 4 scene I. The most striking and Third Act where Lully treats his aud ence to one of his undoubted special tes see scene ofthe kind that he ffcively into Annie The muse ful of drowsy. utterances of Sommel Morphee, and Phobstor, on the one hand and the harsh, siden warnings ofthe “Songes Funestes” onthe other gestion ofthe omic element which had payed a favger part in Lly’s earir. opeas, ese in alcste but which viral) appeared in the later ones. Christie caer organ as an acompenng en t otherwise detailed joccursiin the introduced ten years later Here, too, there is a jg made of it in the di Poppea_is L'Incoronazione sate onteverdi’s masterpiece Morne also that itis one ofthe great “Pa isi ceived canara list of instruments included inthe booklet Wha uocess ofthis pere formance as anything is Christie’ lively rhythmic sense, and his informed handling of French music of this period. He Keeps the recitative moving with admirable flexibility and vitality and makes the frequent shifts between three and four time, often within the same musical phrase, so much a part of Lully’ style, with ease and conviction, Much of the rect ensures the: as_ much ive and it requires sen treatment from both from singers and players alike. The successs with which Christie and hhis ensemble interpret it may be measured by the hi interest which they generate in scenes of extended recitative such as that at ch level of ning of Act 2 To sum up, this is a major achieve ‘ment which will do much to improve Lilly's somewhat lacklustre reputation somposer. There will doubtless be scepties, but only adversely prejudice hearts will remain unsoftened by a soene such as that where Atys murders aride (Act 5 scene 3), which com- his beloved San observed by the chorus ments in a poignant refrain, somewhat in the manner of Greek tragedy. A clear, recording acoustic. Full texts in French, English and German. Bravo! Nicholas Anderson July 1287 di L’Incoronazione di Poppea in the 1920s, which differs in quite @ large number of respects from the Venetian one, a fact usually accounted for by the assumption that it was made