Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie - Padmore, Panzarella, Hunt, Naouri, James; William Christie/Les Arts Florissants - 1997.

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1638-1764)

Hippolyte et Aricie

Tragédie lyrique en cinq actes et un prologue

Libretto: Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin

Hippolyte ~~~ Mark PADMORE, tenor

Aricie ~~~ Anne-Maria PANZARELLA, soprano

Phèdre ~~~ Lorraine HUNT, mezzo-soprano

Thésée ~~~ Laurent NAOURI, bass

Diane ~~~ Eirian JAMES, mezzo-soprano

(Veirsion 1733 - Editions Gérard Billaudot)

Les Arts Florissants

WILLIAM CHRISTIE

et

Gaëlle Mechaly, Patricia Petibon, Mireille Delunsch, soprano

Katalin Károlyi, mezzo-soprano

Matthieu Lécroart, David Le mannier, baritone

Paul Agnew, Yann Beuron, François Piolino, Christopher Josey, tenor

Nathan Berg, Bertrand Bontoux, bass

CD01: (57:26):

Prologue - Ouverture - Acte I

CD02: (59:23):

Acte II - Acte III

CD03: (65:53):

Acte IV - Acte V

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"As William Christie writes in his booklet note, he has been obsessed with this opera since he first heard the mid-1960s Decca recording with Janet Baker. The intervening years of study, performance and experiment have clearly paid off and he is now a true "Ramiste", responding to the composer's genius with instinctive brilliance and energy. He understands the demands of a declamatory style without ever descending to bombast, for example. And he obviously delights in Rameau's scene-painting--the boiling seas in Act 4 are as violent as the sylvan warblings of Act 5 are gentle. The singers are uniformly superb: Lorraine Hunt's passionate account of the cruel, self-torturing Phèdre is remarkable --when she sings "Tremblez!" you can almost feel things shake--; Mark Padmore as Hyppolyte sings with a gorgeous light voice of breathtaking agility. And perhaps most importantly, the whole cast sings as an ensemble, responding to one another's inflections and moods. All in all, this is a vivid account of a great piece." --(Warwick Thompson; amazon.com)

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