With Stéphanie d´Oustrac
PRESENTATION
This programFurious Medea was born from the desire of Amarillis and Stéphanie d'Oustrac to revive this passionate character, both endearing, because betrayed, but also cruel, through two cantatas by Nicolas Bernier and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault whose dramatic force eminently suggests this opposition between the loving Medea and the vengeful Medea, between the power of feeling and blind cruelty.
The two cantatas are associated with some airs of a Venetian composer, Giovanni Antonio Gianettini who made Medea the main character of one of his operas composed in 1675. These recorded tunes area world first to date and are compared with two extracts from the tragedy of Lully which also dates from 1675 and in which we find a Medea both endearing and diabolical.
This immersion in the universe of Medea allows us, thanks to some of these unpublished works put into perspective with Clérambault's best-known cantata , to give a new musical vision of this myth.
DISTINCTIONS
Telerama 4 FFFF
Diamant International Opera
Diapason * * * *
ClassicsToday France 9/10
WHAT THE PRESS SAYS
Telerama { 26 mars 2008 } Gilles Macassar Fury and bewitchment
“Second by a close instrumental guard, she adds to the extracts of Lully two great century jewels : the cantata of Cléranbault and that of Nicolas Bernier, musician in the service of the Duchess of Maine who spent her evenings listening to vocal music in her domain of Sceaux. Alternating short recitatives and collected airs, the French cantata is a pocket-sized lyrical tragedy. Stéphanie d'Oustrac easily puts us in hers. »
international opera { May 2008 } Medea of a Thousand Faces
“Stéphanie d’Oustrac reconnects with her first love through a disc judiciously arranged around vocal and instrumental pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries..
Among these last, with clearly defined climates, note the plaintive symphony taken from the suite in C minor by Gaultier de Marseille and the angular Medea from the third book for harpsichord by Duphly.
The vocal interpretation transports both by its ardor and its ease, especially in terms of diction. (…)Sometimes harsh and vindictive, sometimes vehement and cheerful, the singer pushes back her own limits with a wave of breath. »
ClassicsToday France Christophe Huss
« […] instrumental pieces, splendidly played by Amarillis (note the beauty of the harpsichord and the quality of Héloïse Gaillard on the oboe). In the high vocal deeds of this disc inhabited by this voice so effective and so well placed, there is Cantata Médée by Clérambault, as well as Medea by Bernier, with a sumptuous Ungrateful air, your cruel inconstancy”.
Gramophone { September 2008 } Richard Lawrence
The Medea myth in musical guises and a singer who can find all the drama.
« Stéphanie d’Oustrac is faultless in pathos and intensity. Short instrumental pieces, neatly played by the four-strong Amarillis, are scattered throughout. An enjoyable programme. »
Diapason { May 2008 }
“Stéphanie d’Oustrac has the color that the sensitive Agnès Mellon lacked (alpha), a strong character, manifest instinct and superlative vocalizations in the delicate Volés, demons. Nice instrumental quartet with her, less theatrical than chamber music and therefore especially remarkable in the three brief symphonies of Pierre Gaultier, said Gaultier of Marseilles, a contemporary of Lully whom Lionel de la Laurencie already held in high esteem a century ago. Exquisite Passacaglia by Michel de la Barre to finish: decidedly more affectionate than furious, our dear Medea. »
2008 release
Ambroisie-Naïve label
Distribution Harmonia Mundi
DISTRIBUTION
“A group of three young women passionate about early music
Stephanie d'Oustrac, mezzo soprano
AMARILLIS
Héloïse Gaillard recorders, baroque oboe
Violaine Cochard, harpsichord
Gilone Gaubert-Jacques, violin
Anne-Marie Lasla, viola da gamba