The recording features a crack team of soloists, who make an impeccable ensemble in both the sensual airs serieux and the vibrant, cheeky airs a boire. Equally excellent instrumentalists – single strings and director William Christie on harpsichord – join in the fun in Charpentier’s Intermedes nouveaux by adding their own boozy effects … Soprano Emmanuelle de Negri deserves a special mention for her incredibly sensitive singing

terrific … Marc-Antoine Charpentier in comic form, all dodgy intonation intentional!

even the obscure Honoré d’Ambruys contributes an exquisite gem, stylishly embellished by Marc Mauillon’s “basse-taille”. (We’d call him a tenor.) The men let their hair down in the raucous humour of Charpentier’s Ayant bu du vin clairet, in which “La vieille Proserpine” rhymes with “une déluge d’urine".