JeanBaptiste Lully Paul O039Dette Stephen Stubbs - JeanBaptiste Lully Psych +Album Reviews

O'Dette & Stubbs strike gold once again.

wolfgang731 | 08/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just like they did with last year's Thesee, O'Dette, Stubbs and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra & Chorus strike gold once more with Lully's PSYCHE. Though hardly as well known as some of Lully's later successes, it is, nevertheless, first rate Lully. And even though the cast is comprised largely of American and British (with a smattering of French-Canadian) singers, they, for the most part, imbue their singing with not only period sensibilities but also a Gallic refinement, with more than respectable French pronunciation. No doubt a native French speaker would disagree with me, but as someone who speaks the language, I found it an honorable effort on everyone's part. O'Dette and Stubbs direction is really fantastic, with an unerring attention to dynamics and phrasing. The music ebbs and flows with just the right amount of urgency and delicacy. The percussion and trumpets were appropriately regal and bold without overwhelming the woodwinds and strings. Carolyn Sampson is, not surprisingly, outstanding in the principal role of Psyche, but she is not, by any means, the only stellar singer here. My one complaint would have to be Jose Lemos's Silene. His countertenor voice is not the purest I've heard, with a distinct vibrato and somewhat "white" tone that I found to be a bit grating, though his tasteful musicality more than compensates for the lack of tonal vocal quality. This is really too minor a thing to even take into serious consideration. I mention it strictly in passing. If you love baroque opera, or more specifically French baroque opera, you will find little to gripe about here. I've already listened to it three times and could very easily listen to it just as many times again."

A feast for gods and mortals too

F. A. Harrington | Boston MA | 08/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Psyché was not only the highlight of last year's Boston Early Music Festival but one of the highlights of Boston's year in music altogether. This was a very ambitious production with dozens of singers, dancers and musicians, with dozens more behind the scenes to produce an elaborate historically minded production. Although you mat be drawn to the star singers and music directors this recording demonstrates the highest level of musicianship from top to bottom. Karina Gauvin and Carolyn Sampson, the two star sopranos in question, certainly deliver in the lead roles but all the singers excel, and the chorus too.

The orchestra, led by the lutenist team of Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs, along with Richard Mealy from the King's Noyse, is just fantastic. Lully's bright and festive music is given a detailed but never fussy or clinical treatment. The festival itself was called "A Feast of the Gods" and there is plenty for you mere mortals to feast on here.

Fans of Lully and the French Baroque in general will know what to expect and explorers will be well rewarded. Very highly recommended, along with the other BEMF recordings.Johann Georg Conradi: AriadneLully - Thésée

"

Another performance with Stubbs and O'Dette worth getting

Zaida | Bremerton, WA | 08/13/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After the many disappointing recordings of Baroque and Classical operas by American groups, I had reservations about buying this, or the earlier recording of Thésée. Anyway, I went to a local record shop (Silver Platters, if you happen to be from Seattle), to look for this recording of Psyché. They were sold out, and I ended up getting Thésée instead. This was a year after that recording was released, and, as it turns out, I shouldn't have waited that long to get it, for my fears were in vain. Anyway, I bought this one not long after, and it is just as well performed. The only problem it has is the fact that as far as plot, it ranks near the bottom of Lully's output, for the libretto is a hash of certain parts by Corneille, some from Lully's earlier ballet by the same name, some by Lully's usual librettist, Quinault. Perhaps the best parts are the prologue and the Italian lament in the first act. But, like Isis, that other less than dramatic Lully opera (and the reason why this one doesn't have a libretto by Quinault), it has excellent music throughout, as you would expect from Lully."

Lully's Psyche

Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 07/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although the operas of the father of French Baroque opera, Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 -- 1687), were for long periods rarely performed, they have been experiencing a well-merited revival. The Boston Early Music Festival deserves a great deal of praise for the interest in Lully. It is a period instrument ensemble which has now produced two outstanding CDs of rare Lully. In odd-numbered years, the group conducts a festival early in June. (The 2009 festival, unfortunately, just ended.) In 2005, the group performed Lully's Thesee at the festival and released a CD of the performance in 2007 to wide acclaim. In 2007, the Boston Early Music Festival performed Lully's even rarer opera Psyche, and released this CD of the opera in 2008. As far as I can tell, this is the first complete recorded version of the opera. A mixture of spectacle, drama, and ballet, Psyche is unified by Lully's music. Paul O'Dette and Stephen Stubbs direct the performance.

The comprehensive booklet which accompanies this CD includes a timeline which gives much information about Lully. Lully was born in Florence but moved to France in 1645. In 1653, he became attached to the young Louis XIV and became music master to the royal family in 1662. From 1663-1671, Lully worked with the great French dramatist Moliere. But he became most famous for his series of tragedie lyriques that he wrote from 1673 -- 1686 in collaboration with his librettist, Phillipe Quinault.

The theme of Psyche is the centrality of love to life -- a theme which is broader than the philandering of Louis XIV which precipitated the score.Psyche has a complex history. It was originally written in 1671 as a ballet in collaboration with Moliere. The opera dates from 1678 to a libretto by Thomas Corneille. Lully used his 1671 score and also used textual material that Quinault had written.

The opera's two major characters are Psyche, sung by soprano Carol Sampson and Venus, sung by soprano Karen Gauvin. The story is about Venus's jealousy of the beauty of Psyche, a mortal woman. As a result of her jealousy, Venus tries to have Psyche killed by a large serpent, but Psyche is rescued by Amor (Cupid), Venus's son. This exacerbates her jealousy, as Venus tries to end the romance by tricking Psyche into seeing the shape of Amor as a god -- something forbidden to mortals. Venus then sends Psyche to Hades. Act IV of the opera takes place in Hades in a scene that has similarities to Orpheo and many other early operas. Finally, Jupiter intervenes and assuages the anger of Venus by making Psyche immortal. This allows the marriage between Amor and Psyche to proceed. The finale of the opera, to Quinault's text, is a long elaborate wedding scene, in which Mars, Baccus, and Mome(the god of satire) sing of the power of love.

The opera is a spectacle with many elaborate scene changes and effects -- it includes the destruction of a palace, a scene in Hades with demons and terrors, and a scene with the gods on Olympus. As with all French Baroque opera it is also full of dances. The ballets and the effects must be left to the imagination while enjoying this music. French barouqe opera is much more oriented to the written text than the Italian opera of the day. In addition, the French baroque tends not to include either flamboyant arias and vocal displays or long sections of recitivs. The line between aria and recitive tends not to be sharply drawn. The music is elegant, carefully ornamented, and strongly rhythmical, with a distinctly French pattern known as notes inegales.

Psyche begins with a Prologue written to set the stage and to flatter the king and it is followed by five acts. The musical highlights include the long finale, the stylized but angry signing of Venus, and the innocent voice of Psyche. Soprano Yulia Van Doren sings an almost show-stopping aria in the Prologue titled "Flora's minuet." There is a lovely melancholy piece for three recorders titled "Italian Lament" and much elaborate dance music and royal fanfare. Many of the vocal solos are accompanied by an instrument called a theorbo, a large lute-like instrument, or by a baroque guitar. Much of the emotion of the opera is carried by the dance. By operatic standards the singing is restrained but still carries feeling.

The booklet accompanying the CD includes the full text and translation, extensive and useful essays of the opera and its background, photographs of the 2007 live production, and the timeline of Lully's life that I mentioned earlier. This is an essential recording for those who love the French Baroque.

Robin Friedman"

Psyche great

Peter J. O'Malley | Sydney Australia | 08/27/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love Lully and after Thesee had to have this one. Beautiful. I love the Boston group and next time I'm in the US hope to see them. They never get to Australia so I have to go there. The recording is A1 as is the performance. The music of course is lovely and beautifully done in period performance. If you don't have it and you love Versailles operas this is one to get. The price is terrific too."

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	Jean-Baptiste Lully, Paul O'Dette, Stephen Stubbs Jean-Baptiste Lully: Psyché Genre: Classical
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