Marais, M: Sémélé

This may not be Marais’s masterpiece but it’s lovingly coaxed back into life by Hervé Niquet. And if there’s more drama in the music than the libretto, singers and players give it their all. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 8th Dec 2017
Catalogue No: GCD921631
Label: Glossa

Presto Editor's Choice

December 2017

This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched.

Marais, M: Sémélé

Shannon Mercer, Benedicte Tauran, Jael Azzaretti, Hjordis Thebault, Anders J. Dahlin, Thomas Dolie, Lisandro Abadie, Marc Labonnette
Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet

About
Reviews
Explore

About

For this 2007 recording with Le Concert Spirituel which we now reissue with a new presentation, Hervé Niquet revived Sémélé by Marin Marais. Known above all for his compositions for the viola da gamba, Marais the composer was at the same time the author of a number of tragedies lyriques which he wrote for the Academie royale de Musique. Sémélé, first performed in 1709, is the final opera by one of the leading composers from the reign of Louis XIV and contains a sparkling prologue honouring Bacchus, a set of arias with a freshly-minted appeal, a marvellously inventive diabolical scene, divertissements rich in character; all this leading up to an earthquake scene memorably anticipating the later work of Rameau. For all lovers of glorious Baroque music, here is now the opportunity to re-discover and enjoy a masterpiece which had lain in the shadows for three centuries.

Reviews

August 2018

This may not be Marais’s masterpiece but it’s lovingly coaxed back into life by Hervé Niquet. And if there’s more drama in the music than the libretto, singers and players give it their all.

14th January 2018

It’s full of arresting, colourful music, much of it — not least the thrillingly vivid closing earthquake scene — worthy of Rameau, writing three decades on.

Marais, M: Sémélé

2 CDs

Contents

Download queue