There have been few attempts by singers of French music to replicate the success of Renée Fleming and others in singing French Baroque opera, and the reason is doubtless that, except for those who are already into them, the operas of Lully (and to a lesser extent Rameau) are encrusted with a great deal of conventional material. Véronique Gens and the Ensemble Les Surprises, with superb help from the Chantres du Musique Baroque de Versailles, attempt to get around this by creating an "imaginary opera," consisting of airs ...
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There have been few attempts by singers of French music to replicate the success of Renée Fleming and others in singing French Baroque opera, and the reason is doubtless that, except for those who are already into them, the operas of Lully (and to a lesser extent Rameau) are encrusted with a great deal of conventional material. Véronique Gens and the Ensemble Les Surprises, with superb help from the Chantres du Musique Baroque de Versailles, attempt to get around this by creating an "imaginary opera," consisting of airs from various Lully operas and from works by his successors, who flowered after Lully speared his foot with a baton, got gangrene, and died. In truth, even given the loose plot structures of French Baroque opera, the collection doesn't make much of an opera, and the performers don't emphasize this aspect in their materials, but it doesn't matter, for they succeed in their goal of creating a zippy program that includes music of various kinds within the bounds of a single CD. The musical...
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