Royal Hunt
In 1983 we got a televised Met performance
A decade later Charles Dutoit and the Symphonique de Montreal through their hat in the ring with an excellent, if slightly uneven recording
Davis struck first
This matinee radio broadcast of February 22, 2003, the document of that new production, was first released as part of the Levine 40th Anniversary box set. Now the Met has finally decided to start selling these DVDs and CDs separately. This album
From the beginning the commitment from the orchestra and chorus is almost unparalleled. The sensitivity from the Met Orchestra far surpasses any other of their competitors on the other sets. The clarity of the playing in all of Berlioz’s moments of contrapuntal contrasts, which can come off sounding completely amateurish in the wrong hands, is especially well handled.
The ballet music is very gala in this recording, as well. “The Royal Hunt and Storm” is almost a complete performance in itself with great balance from the offstage chorus. The three-part Pas d’esclaves Nubiennes that follows, also delightful, leads directly into one of the trickiest parts of the score with the little solo by Iopas, segueing into the quintet “O pudeur! …tout conspire” which grows into the longer, hushed, ensemble that preludes to the duet for Didon and Énée, “Nuit d’ivresse” and the finale of IV. Here one is constantly aware of how Levine supports Berlioz’s musical structures, tempi, and his inventive orchestrations.
The Met chorus, under the direction of Chorus Master Raymond Hughes, cover themselves with glory. No where is this more apparent than their Act I hymn, “Dieux protecteurs” which shows them at their mightiest both vocally and interpretively.
The cast could hardly be equaled then or now for that matter. Deborah Voigt who made an exciting, but faceless, Cassandre on the Dutiot set actually knows what her words mean here and proves it. If some of her colleagues get more juice out of the French I still can’t fault her for trying. She’s especially good in the duet in Act I with Chorèbe, Dwayne Croft who is similarly inspired and gives as good as he gets. There’s a small part of me that wishes Ms. Voigt had done a bit more with her parlando phrases in the mass suicide at the end of Act II but it’s quibbling with vocalism this secure and pointed.
When it comes to a tenor who even attempts to sing Énée, many are called but few are chosen. His entrance in Act I is pure vocal hell it’s so ungainly written. I don’t know whom Berlioz had in mind to sing this role when he wrote it but his eventual genetic successor only seems to appear every couple of decades. Heppner makes the concession of losing that flicked at high B in his last act aria and chooses a lower alternative. I forgive him.
I wouldn’t mistake Mr. Heppner for a native French speaker either but he’s correct and he rings out with so many moments of real heroic strength to say nothing of some seriously poetic soft singing in the role that we should be grateful to have this document of his mature interpretation.
The supporting cast is completely gala as well. If Elena Zaremba, as Anna, sounds like Didon’s much older sister and sings with an overly fruity tone she makes up for it by being very strong in the ensembles as does Robert Llloyd as Narbal. I looked at the packaging to see who was the uncommonly, sweet voiced tenor Iopas and was surprised to see Matthew Polenzani that early in his career.
I’ve saved the controversial member of this cast for last. Initially the Didon was to have been Olga Borodina but she had to withdraw as she was in a state of expectation, as they say. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson strictly speaking had no business taking on Berlioz’s doomed queen of Carthage at the Met, as the voice is a whole size too small for this part. However, I think it would be a very rare person who appreciates this work and who wouldn’t be moved to the very of core of their being by her performance.
Yes, there’s a flutter on the very top when she’s really pushing for volume. But, I forgive her too. She’s fleet and fluid in her phrasing, a function of her immaculate musicianship. She sings like an instrumentalist and her imbues every utterance with equal amounts of feeling and precision. Her French is sovereign. She’s not only correct, she’s regal. Ms. Hunt Lieberson is so connected to the text she is the text. Her depth of emotional focus is so preternatural in the last scenes that her performance takes on a messianic quality. I have no higher praise.
Maestro Levine leads an extraordinarily light, for him, and propulsive reading and you can hear him loving every minute of this score and this performance. Digital mastering is excellent and it’s surprising how good the clarity and balance is between pit and stage with only a minimum of stage noise. Nifty, cardboard accordion packaging with photos on every panel. Seriously: 21 bucks ? I spend more than that at the gift shop at intermission.
I was lucky enough to have seen Lorraine Hunt Lieberson numerous times over eighteen years: onstage in most of her great roles: Sesto (both Handel’s and Mozart’s), Serse, Phedre, Medee, Didon, as well as Donna Elvira in both of Peter Sellars’s versions of Don Giovanni and in his staging of two Bach cantatas. I also heard her in an all-Handel concert with Orpheus at Carnegie, in a performance piece about Sor Juana de la Cruz by Mabou Mines, as well as in Mark Morris’s great dance piece L’Allegro.
Needless to say she was one of my favorite singers and this document of the wonderful Didon (which I saw twice) is a must, along with the recordings of the Rameau and Charpentier roles mentioned above, and the sublime DVD of Handel’s Theodora from Glyndebourne.
It shouldn’t suprise me that there are those who don’t “get” her. Part of it probably is the “you had to be there” phenomenon but any important artist inevitably elicits controversy and disagreement, no?
I seem to recall seeing LHL live once — a performance of Mark Morris’ “L’allegro, il moderato ed il penseroso”, or whatever that oratorio is called, at BAM (Brooklyn). LHL by then was not famous, and she sang the solo part. Unfort. I don’t recall the singing at all, but only the dancing. Did anyone else remember those?
I saw the TROYENS later in the Met run of 2003 when Michelle DeYoung had taken over. I thought DeYoung was exceptional (regal, amazonian, lovely and in beautiful voice) I remember saying to people around me that nothing much happens during Act Four except almost an hour of the most beautiful music ever written. Everyone agreed. My partner and I would rush up to NYC to see it again but not with Giordani — we wont even see the HD. That music needs a gorgeous voice.
I agree about Giordani. Part of what makes Enee so tricky is that it has high tessitura, requires a heroic sound, but also needs beauty of tone. Vocally speaking, I imagine Botha doing a beautiful job of it.
I think of Aenee as needing a Mozart singer with a Wagner steel and heft. Hence Heppner and Vickers as the greatest.
One of the problems with casting Aenee in the past has been the concept that it needs a heldentenor and then casting it with a baritonal Wagnerian. The French dramatic tenor for grand opera needs to have a bright, flexible voice with a brilliant top, something that will ride on or neatly slice through the orchestra, not bludgeon its way through. Edward Sooter had precisely the wrong kind of voice; anyone who has to strain up top rather than soar would have the wrong type of voice. Gedda had the right voice for it.
Georges Thill had the right voice for it but I am not sure he sang the role onstage:
Kaufmann is singing the Enee this summer in Covent Garden and though this is a role debut, would seem to be a good fit vocally for the role.
Out of curiosity: why do people think Enée (thus Berlioz) needs to sound like Mozart and Wagner?
Obviously, the French style is different than either Mozart or Wagner. But I think what OC was trying to say is that the heroic tenor roles of French grand opera need an almost Wagnerian heft combined with an elegance and ability to sing beautifully that one would associate with Mozart.
- Cassandre is a very difficult role to bring off, so I will stay away from that one; I will only say I saw a very good one (Shirley Verrett) as well as another idiomatically successful Cassandre (Françoise Pollet) BUT the only really great Cassandre I ever saw was Régine Crespin.
- Thank you so very much Patrick Mack: you are as complimentary to me as you are to the singers in this live CD performance -> I qualify as that ‘very rare person who appreciates this work and who wouldn’t be moved to the very of core of their being by her [Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's] performance.’ I am not going to argue with academic nor self-proclaimed experts over the matter: the mediahype gushingly supported Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (may she rest in peace) to the point where I was given the impression that she was the greatest American musical phenomenon since Louise Homer. Her Dido in Les Troyens was the only time I witnessed a complete performance from her; although I heard her on several radio broadcasts, unfortunately I had to turn them off from sheer boredom with her monochormatic colourless tone. As far as this Met Dido (and I say this with all due respect to her and the promoters who publicized her) Mme. Lieberson’s interpretation was the most mediocre I have ever witnessed -- but that may be because of my lack of intelligence, education and experience: I only saw a small handful of ladies attempt the role of Dido live inhouse: Ludwig, Verrett, Crespin, Norman, Troyanos, Veasey and Ewing.
It surprises me to remember how many performances of ‘Les troyens’ I have seen -- I think there was a spell in the UK in the 80′s, when the piece was being discovered as more than just a one-off gala event -- when people realized it was not as monstrous or as long as legend had built it up to be.
But I recall a one off concert performance at the UK Portsmouth festival (of all places) with Roger Norrington, with John Mitchinson coping, and Eiddwen Harrhy -- a Welsh National Opera soprano -- quite wrong -- as Dido. Or a complete Proms outing, over 2 nights with la Jessye as both Cassandra and Dido, with improvised conducting from Gennady Rozhdestvensky -- of all people. I vividly remember la Jessonda coming out for the bow, gesturing dismissively at him and even appearing to chew gum (I kid not!) and refusing to acknowledge him -- apparently there had been blood streaming down the walls in rehearsal. I remember that the performance was chaotic. Then Scottish Opera toured a production to Covent Garden, about 1990 I think -- conducted by the prosaic John Mauceri (not a phrase in earshot) redeemed by a rapt and subtle Dido from Kathryn Harries, better in the earlier scenes, a bit melodramatic later. Incidentally, Mauceri once cruised me very blatantly at the luggage claim at Heathrow airport (this was some time ago when I was younger) and i remember being highly mixed up as he was there with a woman and a horde of children -- but that’s by the by…….
Colin Davis did an earlier series of LSO concert performances than the one that is currently on CD -- it was about the same time as the Dutoit recording -- can’t remember the Aeneas, but Jane Henschel was a boring, hectoring (no pun intended) Cassandra, and the Dido, who had exquisite presence and real gravitas was Markella Hatziano (whatever happened to her?). I saw a recent ENO production d. Richard Jones and have absolutely no memory of the singing.
But I agree the record companies were caught napping when they could have had -- if not idiomatic French singers like Crespin, who would have been ideal -- then Jessye, Verrett, Ludwig, or more. I don’t like the early Davis recording because the women have neither the style or the grandezza required. I always found Veasey a joyless singer. I haven’t seen the JE Gardiner DVD with Anna Caterina Antonacci -- and is it Anne Sofie von Otter? Any good? It’s also a tragedy that, at the time that Beecham recorded the de los Angeles ‘Carmen’, in the late 50′s he was due to do ‘Troyens’ but it was postponed and he was too old and frail……apparently he wanted Callas for Cassandre………
Did Rita Gorr ever sing Didon?
ps -- Phoenix -- that is quite a roster of Didos! I would have given my eye teeth to have seen that crowd!
You are right -- whatever else went wrong with my life (and plenty did), now I know how very fortunate I was to have seen these great artists. I may yet still have to give up my eye teeth (I’ve already lost 6 teeth) but my eye teeth are still there.
- At that time she was still a soprano and I was of the opinion (and I wasn’t in the minority in this opinion) that Crespin’s Cassandre had a greater impact than her somewhat more subtle lyrically regal Dido — but nowadays, Crepin’s Dido of almost 50 years ago would probably be an unmatched revelation.
- Verrett was the most dramatically intense & believable of them all. It was a perfect fit for Norman, all of the music lied within reach of the best parts of her voice; although I didn’t like her seemingly constantly covered tone, Norman, like Crespin, was an excellent singer & could be very subtle and lyrical as Dido. The role of Dido, along with Blanche de la Force, were my favorite Ewing performances (I thought Salome was her worst). Veasey was a very gifted singer and her French diction was excellent. Trojanos was the most romantically vulnerable of them all, a very important quality of Dido that singers often do not emphasize enough. The greatest assumption of the role that I have witnessed so far at the Met was Christa Ludwig -- the most personal interpretation I have ever witnessed of the role; it was as if you were right there onstage with her listening to her tell you the story. She was not as regal as Crespin nor as dramatically 3-dimensional as Verrett, but the sheer humanity in Ludwig’s beautiful voice -- her incredible interpretation was very much like her Kundry -- all Dido’s thoughts were transparently clear, traceable in her tone constantly all throughout the performance; she had a bright tone very well supported from below which through modulation successfully enabled her to give the impression of the greatest intimacy of communication; most astounding was the desperation and anxiety vocally she conveyed in the final scenes -- more so than anyone else I ever heard. Too bad the Met didn’t put out a CD (or at least a Sirius rebroadcast) of Ludwig’s Dido with Vickers & Verrett, but the conductor was Kubelik, not Levine… and it wouldn’t bode well with the powers that be at the Met… Kubelik’s Trojens was far superior to the CD reviewed at the top of this thread.
- I regret that I did not see Michelle de Young. She is superb on the 2nd Colin Davis recoding from London. My late best friend went to see her Dido at the Met and told me she was one of the greats.
I was at this evening of “entertainment” which consisted of two hours of intermissions arranged around about 50 minutes of music.
Metropolitan Opera House
May 11, 2000
Pension Fund Benefit
MILLENNIUM CELEBRATION
ANDREA CHÉNIER: Act II
Maddalena……………Daniela Dessì
Andrea Chénier……….Plácido Domingo
Carlo Gérard…………Nikolai Putilin
Bersi……………….Wendy White
Mathieu……………..Paul Plishka
Incredibile………….Anthony Laciura
Roucher……………..Kim Josephson
Conductor……………James Levine
CARMEN: Act IV
Carmen………………Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
Don José…………….José Carreras
Escamillo……………Gino Quilico
Frasquita……………Emily Pulley
Mercédès…………….Jill Grove
Zuniga………………Richard Vernon
Dancer………………Maria Benitez
Conductor……………James Levine
P
TURANDOT: Act III
Turandot…………….Jane Eaglen
Liù…………………Patricia Racette
Calàf……………….Luciano Pavarotti
Timur……………….Roberto Scandiuzzi
Ping………………..Haijing Fu
Pang………………..Michael Forest
Pong………………..Richard Fracker
Conductor……………James Levine
The only thing I can remember about the evening is that Carrerras got a huge hand on his entrance after a 13 year absence from the Met, and that a few minutes later in the Carmen scene Hunt Lieberson gave him not a very hard shove per the stage directions and he completely lost his balance and nearly fell over.
These Volpe mystery meat evenings were low points even in his tenure.
Do they still give those Pension Fund Galas at the Met nowadays? In addition to the Pension Fund Galas, if memory serves me correctly Volpe seemed to put on more of these variety show celebratory galas during his tenure than his predecessors did. My memory is failing me in old age, but I distinctly remember two Pension Fund Galas, many years apart, that I did enjoy very much:
Metropolitan Opera House
March 1, 1975
Benefit sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild
for the Benevolent and Retirement Funds
GALA PERFORMANCE
Un Ballo in Maschera: Act II, Scene 1
Amelia………………Elinor Ross
Riccardo…………….Luciano Pavarotti
Renato………………Louis Quilico
Samuel………………Paul Plishka
Tom…………………James Morris
Conductor……………Henry Lewis
Production…………..Günther Rennert
Designer…………….Ita Maximowna
In Concert
La Favorita: Act IV
Baldassare…………..James Morris
Fernando…………….Luciano Pavarotti
Leonora……………..Mignon Dunn [best performance I ever heard from her]
Conductor……………Henry Lewis
La Bohème: Act I
Mimì………………..Pilar Lorengar
Rodolfo……………..Luciano Pavarotti
Marcello…………….Robert Goodloe
Schaunard……………Gene Boucher
Colline……………..Paul Plishka
Benoit………………Richard Best
Conductor……………Henry Lewis
Stage Director……….Patrick Tavernia
Designer…………….Rolf Gérard
The other gala was one of the Volpe nights:
Metropolitan Opera House
March 24, 1991
Benefit for the Metropolitan Opera Pension Fund
sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild
In celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversaries of
Mirella Freni, Alfredo Kraus and Nicolai Ghiaurov
GALA PERFORMANCE
Faust: Act III
Faust……………….Alfredo Kraus
Marguerite…………..Mirella Freni
Méphistophélès……….Nicolai Ghiaurov
Siebel………………Frederica von Stade
Marthe………………Loretta Di Franco
Conductor……………James Levine
Production………….Harold Prince
Stage Director……….Max Charruyer
Designer…………….Rolf Langenfass
Lighting designer…….Gil Wechsler
Don Carlo: Act IV, Scene 1
Elizabeth of Valois…..Mirella Freni
Rodrigo……………..Vladimir Chernov [First appearance]
Princess Eboli……….Giovanna Casolla
Philip II……………Nicolai Ghiaurov
Grand Inquisitor……..Samuel Ramey
Count of Lerma……….Charles Anthony
Conductor……………James Levine
Production…………..John Dexter
Stage Director……….Paul Mills
Set designer…………David Reppa
Costume designer……..Ray Diffen
Lighting designer…….Gil Wechsler
Madama Butterfly: Act III
Cio-Cio-San………….Mirella Freni
Pinkerton……………Plácido Domingo
Suzuki………………Wendy White
Sharpless……………Vladimir Chernov
Dolore………………Christopher Laciura [Only appearance]
Kate………………..Sondra Kelly
Conductor……………James Levine
Production…………..Yoshio Aoyama
Stage Director……….Fabrizio Melano
Designer…………….Motohiro Nagasaka
Presentation
Joseph Volpe
In theory, these evenings of one-acters could work but they rarely seem to. When you think about it, the ingredients are there for great entertainment — lots of stars, choice parts of favourite operas, and a sense of occasion. But I’m guessing that there isn’t a whole lot of rehearsal time allotted, so the performances never take off dramatically.
One exception in my memory is the Met’s 25th anniversary at Lincoln Centre. Domingo, Freni and Diaz really created something in Act III of Otello. I must admit that I was still quite new to opera when I watched this gala on TV. I don’t think I owned a recording of Otello yet so watching my VHS tape of the broadcast was how I got to know that act.
Hunt was a superb Jocasta for Peter Sellars. A small part, but her scenes are all I remember from that performance. I also heard her in recital once, in Ann Arbor, Debussy, Brahms, and spirituals. She had a hippy dress on, and wore sandals. Very cool.
Jocasta is what I like to call a “thankful role” (as opposed to those thankless roles). She doesn’t come in until halfway through the piece, has a third of the music that Oedipus has to sing, but if she is strong enough, she can claim the performance as her own.
“Je suis reine et j’ordonne. Laissez-moi seule, Anna.”
I’m sorry (am I?) to be part of the hagiography but this phrase has it all for me, in LHL’s performance. Besides the sheer tonal beauty, the lovely French, the RIGHTNESS (to my instincts) of the phrasing, this is completely believable as an entity. I BELIEVE her regal authority, i GET her desparation, I FEAR for the forthcoming outburst, once she’s alone.
I think I understand why some people have issues with her. Technically and aesthetically, she came into fame via the HIP movement, and her voice production and legato line are essentially modelled on woodwind aesthetics (despite her training as a violist). Traditional 20th century legato is more inspired by the seamless string tone and line -- not bel epoque singing, sample any Melba (or Patti or Sembrich or Schumann-Heink) coloratura for that matter.
Technical issues of volume, occasional flatness and ‘pushing’ the top. I hear all of that, and many great singers where not totally blameless in the second and third respects, and in my opinion she was a great singer, a great artist, communicator, whatever.
Furthermore, there is the elusive question of eloquence, or declamation. I know ever so little about it, but my (perhaps wrong-headed) instincts tell me that LHL got that right. She collaborated a lot with Christie and he knows a thing or two about that lost art. Essentially, besides issues of articulation, I think that declamation necessitates that the consonants be pronounced, assisted by the throat muscles, what I call ‘low’ pronunciation. It is precarious, potentially harmful unless well supported, but gets the right style. Callas used this kind of consonant production in Italian music. That’s why I find her accompagnati so ‘right’. Nowadays Mireille Delunsch has this kind of rightness about her declamation (she also uses the ‘low’ consonant production. Hearing various contemporary singers, who mostly use frontal consonant production, such as von Otter, it sounds ‘wrong’ to my ears, although no doubt easier and healthier for the voice.
LHL may be one of the very few artists in the 20th-21st centuries to approach Berlioz from the baroque declamation style (Norman, having worked with Gardiner on Rameau, also had this ‘training’). I think Berlioz continues an unbroken chain (Lully, Charpentier, Rameau, Gretry, Cherubini, also occasionally Meyerbeer) of French tragedie lyrique writers and the roles of Cassandre and Didon in Troyens belong to this tradition. LHL understood that and performed the role in this way. That’s why I believe this recorded document to have some importance.
One might add Dame Janet.
Furthermore, I have uploaded LHL’s entire live Nuits d’ete with McGegan. It is most beautiful and touching (IMO perhaps the best of the lot) and I have posted it here a few months ago. Here is the first song and one may go on from here by oneself.
C/F: As always, your comments are illuminating and a pleasure to read. Thanks!
Speaking of Berlioz’s link back to tragedie lyrique, I am usually reminded of Cassandre’s first scene when I hear Diane appearance at the end of Gluck’s Iphigénie.
Thanks, Kashy, I knew I forgot somebody
I just listened carefully to the two clips of LHL’s Nuits d’ete and again found them beautifully sung, but felt nothing. I much prefer Crespin’s, Steber or even Baker’s versions. LHL’s singing of the songs is ever so correct and perfect, but something is missing, and i can’t put my finger on what that is. There is an overall dullness to her interpretation, imo. Maybe it’s just me.
Crespin:
Mia/o diletta/o Clitissima del Coro!
No, it is not you, it is me, too, about LHL, that is. I hear it the same way.
I am sorry to be an old stick-in-the-mud but let’s face it, Regine beats the pants off everyone.
Still at my Joan Crawford studies seminar on YouTube. Last night I discovered “SADIE MCKEE”, which has that cute song in it, “All I do is dream of you”. Also had a brief look at “The Damned Don’t Cry”—scary, and reminds me of Manon!
I think I like Joan best in her flapper daze, though. Just wonderful.
Love you,
Cammie McKee
One more thing -- I tend to disagree with the review above over the question of the chorus. I thought they were absolutely abominable and the ladies almost managed to ruin the 2nd act finale for me. The LSO chorus on the Davis II are absolutely fantastic, all the more so considering that they are amateurs. Monteverdis augmented on the Gardiner DVD are also very good, albeit obviously small in number and sound like it.
There are many recordings now …
1. Kubelík/Shuard/Thebom/Vickers, 1957, live in London, Testament
2. Kubelík/Rankin/Simionato/del Monaco, 1960, live in Milan, Myto
3. Lawrence/Steber/Resnik/Cassilly, 1960, live in New York, VAI
4. Davis-C/Lindholm/Veasey/Vickers, 1969, Philips
5. Davis-C/Silja/Baker/Vickers, 1969, live in London, Opera Depot
6. Prêtre/Horne/Verrett/Gedda, 1969, live in Rome, Opera d’Oro
7. Kubelík/Verrett/Ludwig/Vickers, 1974, live in New York, Opera Lovers
8. Albrecht/Dernesch/Ludwig/Chauvet, 1976, live in Vienna, Gala
9. Baudo/Denize/Zimmermann-M/Unruh, VIDEO 1980, Lyon, Lyric Distribution
10. Levine/Norman/Troyanos/Domingo, VIDEO 1983, New York, DG
11. Levine/Norman/Norman/Sooter, 1984, live in New York, Opera Lovers
12. Chung/Bumbry/Verrett/Gray, 1990, live in Paris, Premiere Opera
13. Dutoit/Voigt/Pollet/Lakes, 1993, Decca
14. Davis-C/Henschel/Hatziano/Bogachev, 1996, live in Milan, Lyric Distribution
15. Cambreling/Polaski/Polaski/Villars, VIDEO 2000, Salzburg, Arthaus
16. Davis-C/Lang/DeYoung/Heppner, 2000, live in London, LSO
17. Gardiner/Antonacci/Graham/Kunde, VIDEO 2003, Paris, Opus Arte
18. Levine/Patchell/DeYoung/Heppner, 2003, live in New York, House of Opera
19. Levine/Voigt/Hunt Lieberson/Heppner, 2003, live in New York, Met
20. Nelson/Antonacci/von Otter/Streit, 2007, live in Geneva, Premiere Opera
21. Gergiev/Matos/Barcellona/Ryan, VIDEO 2009, Valencia, C Major
22. Pappano/Antonacci/Westbroek/Kaufmann, 2012, live in London
23. Luisi/Voigt/Graham/Giordani, VIDEO 2013, New York
There’s also an abridged Beecham version
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/May10/Berlioz_trojans_Beecham26-8.htm
Andrew Powell, this is quite a list and you are to be commended, but
WHERE IS REGINE? Regine/Guy Chauvet?
Anja Silja, Jane Henschel, etc. as Cassandre but not the greatest of all??
Wasn’t that just a highlights disc?
I find this quite beautiful and moving. As I am entirely unfamiliar with this work, what is the action—well, obviously it is probably after some great tragic demouement, but what exactly?
Mrs. Hunt Lieberson as MEDEE, M.-A. Charpentier, 1993
Quel prix de mon amour, quel fruit de mes forfaits!
Il craint des pleurs qu’il m’oblige a rependre;
Insensible au son le plus tendre
Dont un coeur ait brule jamais,
Quand mes soupirs pouvent suspendre
l’injustice de ses projetsl
Il fuit pour ne les pas entendre.
Quel prix de mon amour! quel fruit de mes forfaits!
J’ay force devant lui cent Monstres a se rendre.
Dans mon coeur ou regnoit une tranquille paix,
Toujours promte a tout entreprendre,
J’ai sceu de la nature effacer tous les traits.
Les mouvements du sang ont voulu me surprendre,
J’ay fait gloire de me’en deffendre,
Et l’oubli des serments que cent fois il m’a faits,
L’engagement nouveau que l’amour lui fait prendre,
L’eloignement, l’exil, sont les tristes effets
De l’hommage eternel que j’en devois attendre?
Quel prix de mon amour! quel fruit de mes forfaits!
Argh -- premature submissions.
Act III, iii -- the Peripetie, Medee begins to realize that Jason may not Be All That Into Her.
… and yes, the work is definitely worth getting to know. More dramatic, more gut-wrenching than Lully. Charpentier could have done more in this vein, but helas, he was kept from the reins of power.
Why, merci mille et un fois, monsieur croche! Quelle surprise!
Truly appreciate this information as I feel this Medee is something to know better and this will nudge me in that direction.
Now, if you could only just get that Monsieur Croche app on the market in time for my husband’s birthday….
Oui, m. croche, as every woman -- at some point in her existence must realize -
that the truest object of her obscure and passionate desire does not reciprocate in any commensurate manner.
Love always goes like Chekhov or Turgenev describe it…A loves B loves C loves D loves A.
Camille, thanks for posting this. Beautiful performance by one of the most affecting artists I’ve ever seen.