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Charpentier: Orphée aux enfers
Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor), A Nocte Temporis, Philippe Froeliger, Déborah Cachet, Geoffroy Buffière, Stefanie True, Clara Coutouly, Raphael Höhn, A Vocte Temporis, Victoria Cassano, Zsuzsi Tóth, Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 17th January 2020
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BBC Music Magazine, March 2020, Opera Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
Van Mechelen is a seductive Orpheus – small wonder that his limpid, pliant, expressive voice and eloquent diction enchants both his nymph-bride Eurydice (brought to life here by the dewy-voiced...
Charpentier: Orphée aux enfers
Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor), A Nocte Temporis, Philippe Froeliger, Déborah Cachet, Geoffroy Buffière, Stefanie True, Clara Coutouly, Raphael Höhn, A Vocte Temporis, Victoria Cassano, Zsuzsi Tóth, Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
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Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 17th January 2020
-
BBC Music Magazine, March 2020, Opera Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
Van Mechelen is a seductive Orpheus – small wonder that his limpid, pliant, expressive voice and eloquent diction enchants both his nymph-bride Eurydice (brought to life here by the dewy-voiced...
About
The Orpheus myth was as important for the birth of opera in France as it had been in Italy. In 1684, Charpentier composed a work for three voices, Orphée descendant aux Enfers. With this piece, remarkable for its style and concision, he showed how well he had assimilated Carissimi's art. It is a dramatic scene, similar to the sacred histories of the Roman master. The text, by an unknown author, narrates Orpheus quest for his beloved in the Underworld. The hero's haute-contre gives him an elegiac timbre this was the vocal register in which Charpentier, himself a singer, excelled. In 1687 he created his second illustration of the myth, La Descente d Orphée aux Enfers. In its two acts can be discerned the outline of a possible complete opera the manuscript has reached us shorn of the third act in which Orpheus would presumably have lost Eurydice before being devoured by the Maenads. While La Descente d Orphée has already been recorded several times, the Orphée of 1684 is a rarity and a magnificent discovery. In these two roles that might have been written for him, Reinoud van Mechelen is at the peak of his artistry, while his ensemble A Nocte Temporis and Lionel Meunier's group Vox Luminis blend in perfect symbiosis.
Contents and tracklist
- Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor), A Nocte Temporis, Philippe Froeliger
- Lionel Meunier
- Déborah Cachet, Geoffroy Buffière, Stefanie True, Reinoud Van Mechelen (tenor), A Nocte Temporis, Philippe Froeliger, Clara Coutouly, Raphael Höhn, A Vocte Temporis, Victoria Cassano, Zsuzsi Tóth
- Vox Luminis
- Lionel Meunier
Spotlight on this release
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Reinoud Van Mechelen on Charpentier
28th Jan 2020
The Belgian tenor talks to David about his recent double-bill of Charpentier's settings of the Orpheus myth, with A Nocte Temporis and Vox Luminis.
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Charpentier from Vox Luminis, A Nocte Temporis and Reinoud Van Mechelen
17th Jan 2020
The two Belgian early music ensembles pool their resources for two very different works depicting Orpheus's descent to the underworld, with Van Mechelen on outstanding form as the intrepid hero in each case.
Awards and reviews
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Presto Recording of the Week17th January 2020
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BBC Music MagazineMarch 2020Opera Choice
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Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2020
March 2020
Van Mechelen is a seductive Orpheus – small wonder that his limpid, pliant, expressive voice and eloquent diction enchants both his nymph-bride Eurydice (brought to life here by the dewy-voiced Déborah Cachet) and the god Pluto (stylishly sung by Geoffroy Buffière)…The sensitive interplay of voices and instruments has all the intimacy of chamber music…Alpha Classics’s recording is luminous and detailed.
Jul/Aug 2020
As for the performance, it is uniformly excellent. There is a nice integrated flow between vocalists and orchestra throughout, done in keeping with the seamless style of the opera of the time...Charpentier’s music is uniformly charming and fluid.
March 2020
The music for the viols is simply ravishing, and it’s beautifully played. Van Mechelen sings powerfully, with more than a touch of desperation. The other instruments of A Nocte Temporis provide excellent support.
July 2020
Van Mechelen may in some ways be the best of all, his haute-contre being more intrinsically beautiful than the voices of his rivals, his phrasing and ornamentation also being near impeccable...The smaller roles are all more than capably sung, the cast, well used to singing together as Vox Luminis, combining in the choruses to deliver perfect tuning and balance.
17th January 2020
[Van Mechelen's] singing of both title-roles is so beguiling and emotionally engaging that it’s entirely understandable that the denizens of the underworld are heartbroken at his departure...It’s the relationship between the musician and the souls in torment (a distinctly more sympathetic bunch than Gluck’s Furies) which lies at the heart of both works, and the humanity with which this is conveyed here makes this a recording to treasure.
12th January 2020
Stylishly beguiling accounts of two of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s shorter music dramas...Van Mechelen, co-directing with Meunier, is a mellifluous, unhurried Orphée, unsurprisingly charming the damned souls.
