MARIN MARAIS
Alcione. Tragédie lyrique
Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations
32,99€
The last great “tragedy in music” of the reign of Louis XIV, Alcione, is a total spectacle at the crossroads of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, from which it takes the mythological source, its praise of the sovereign’s glory, and the literary requirement to combine choreography and stage movements. Jordi Savall, rediscoverer of Marais’ work, brings this creative freedom back to life for Alcione’s first stage production in Paris since 1771.
An all-round spectacle
The last great tragédie en musique or “musical tragedy” of the reign of Louis XIV, Alcyone (Alcione, as the title appears in the 1706 edition) is an all-round spectacle poised between the 17th and 18th centuries. From the 17th century it takes its mythological source, its prologue in praise of the king, its high literary quality and its vocation for spectacle, combining choreography and changes of scenery. In the depth of the emotions experienced by its protagonists, more sensitive than heroic, as well as in the expressiveness of the orchestra which envelopes them in a true sound décor, it ushers in the 18th century.
Structured, like all musical tragedies, in the form of a prologue and five acts, Alcyone was conceived by a successful young librettist, Antoine Houdar de La Motte, and Marin Marais, the most famous violist of his day. The magnificent portrait of Marais by André Bouys was widely distributed at the time in the form of an engraving. At about the age of fifty, Marais had just been appointed to the prestigious position of batteur de mesure (in modern terms, conductor of the orchestra) of the Royal Academy of Music at the Paris Opéra. Alcyone’s premiere on 18th February, 1706, was a major event, both for the composer and for the institution itself, which since 1673 had been installed in the Théàtre du Palais-Royal, at that time the residence of the Duke of Orléans, in what is now the Conseil d’État or Constitutional Council, and which was roughly the same size as the present-day Salle Favart, home to the Théâtre National de l’Opéra Comique.
+ information in the CD booklet
AGNÈS TERRIER
Opéra Comique, Paris, April 2017
Translated by Jacqueline Minett
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