Some of the music for ‘La Nuit’ is genuinely atmospheric and is sung with sustained tone and exquisite ornamentation by Lucile Richardot … The instrumental accompaniment is unfailingly funny attentive and often thrilling in this sumptuously presented, excellently recorded glimpse into the French court ballet before Lully became the dominant figure.

It’s obviously been a labour of love for [Dauce], reconstructing what he can of the various ballets from disparate sources, texts and composers, re-writing and re-composing the music where necessary...Highly conjectural of course but the lavish texts and illustrations in the book that surrounds these two CDs helps create context and bring the dawn of the Sun King to life.

Daucé invokes the privilege of creative licence with the interpolation of numerous extracts from operas by Italians invited to Paris by Cardinal Mazarin during the early years of the Sun King’s reign... A rotating team of up to 52 musicians traverse the musical spectrum from whispered intimacy to jovial ceremony.

[Daucé] has done a great job of musical archaeology to recreate the score as closely as possible to what might have been heard that night. It's so convincing and winning that you never question its authenticity…the band of instrumentalists in Ensemble Correspondances is fantastic…the choruses are a model of Gallic refinement…both fascinating and compelling, this is a release of equal musical and historical worth