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Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020) [Hi-Res]

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020) [Hi-Res]
  • Title: Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion
  • Year Of Release: 2020
  • Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles
  • Genre: Classical
  • Quality: FLAC (tracks) / 24bit-88.2kHz FLAC (tracks+booklet)
  • Total Time: 01:13:03
  • Total Size: 369 MB / 1.31 GB
  • WebSite:
Tracklist:

1. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: I. Ouverture et Introduction (1:24)
2. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: II. Un peu plus vite, "Chantons célébrons ce bon ménage" (2:01)
3. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: III. Plus lent, "Comment ! C'est demain que le vieux Mathurin..." (3:16)
4. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: IV. Air de Blondel, "La danse n'est pas ce que j'aime" (2:52)
5. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: V. Air, "Ô Richard, Ô mon Roi !" (3:10)
6. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: VI. Morceau d'ensemble, "Quoi, de la part du gouverneur" (7:31)
7. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: VII. Air de Laurette, "Je crains de lui parler la" (3:51)
8. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: VIII. Chanson, "Un bandeau couvre les yeux du dieu" (3:51)
9. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: IX. Orchestre (1:15)
10. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte I: X. Chanson, "Que le sultan Saladin rassemble dans son jardin" (4:42)
11. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte II: I. Ronde de Nuit (1:57)
12. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte II: II. Air de Richard, "Si l'univers entier m'oublie" (5:55)
13. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte II: III. Duo, "Une fièvre brûlante un jour me terrassait" (2:10)
14. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte II: IV. Chœur de Soldats, "Sais-tu, connais-tu" (4:15)
15. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte II: V. Final, "Ah ! Monseigneur" (1:55)
16. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: I. Trio, "Il faut il faut que je lui parle" (4:09)
17. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: II. Morceau d'ensemble, "Oui chevalier, oui ce rempart tient prisonnier le roi Richard" (6:01)
18. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: III. Trio, "A Florestan pendant la danse" (2:36)
19. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: IV. Ronde et Chœur, "Et zic et zic et fric et froc" (1:05)
20. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: V. On danse, Ballet (1:02)
21. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: VI. Contredanse et Air très vif pour valser (1:41)
22. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: VII. Chœur, "Que Richard à l'instant soit remis dans nos mains" (0:30)
23. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: VIII. Combat (1:45)
24. Richard Cœur de lion, Acte III: IX. Marche noblement (4:25)

To say that André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry's 1784 comic opera, Richard Coeur de Lion, has a lot to answer for is something of an understatement, when it was its popular Act I air, “O Richard, O my King”, which in 1789 accidentally brought about one of the defining moments of the French Revolution: the air is sung by the imprisoned King Richard's knights who want to free him, and one night in 1789 it became the song French officers chose to sing to King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette under house arrest at Versailles after the couple turned up to greet the officers at a banquet thrown in the Royal Opera House; which in turn got interpreted by the Paris press as an anti-revolutionary act, leading to the palace being stormed and the royal couple taken away, never to return.

Add the fact that Grétry was none other than Marie-Antoinette's favourite composer, and the opera was an obvious choice for the Royal Opera House's 250th anniversary season. Plus, the October 2019 production under the direction of Hervé Niquet was a wonderful one: fizzing with vivacious energy and fun, nailing its grandeur and intimacy in equal measure, all with just the right dose of heart-on-sleeve sentimentality, and from a no-exceptions superb cast of young talent - headed up by tenors Rémy Mathieu as Richard and Reinoud Van Mechelen as Blondel - supported by an on-fire Le Concert Spirituel. So, although with this live recording you don't get to enjoy the production's sumptuous late eighteenth century stage sets and concerts, the music making was of a level for it all still to be leaping out of the stereo regardless. What's more, the polished, immediate engineering has done a magnificent job of capturing the theatre's acoustics, meaning you really do feel as if you're sat there in the theatre's best seats.

Then, while one might imagine that non-French speakers may get less out of the audio alone, given that the opera's action moves forwards not via sung recitatives but instead spoken texts, the reality is that the vim and melodious tones with which those spoken lines are dispatched actually amounts to a sort of music in itself. In short, thank goodness they snuck this one in before Covid, because it's a life-affirming triumph. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz


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