Scylla et Glaucus

Description

Jean-Marie Leclair, a true product of the 18th century, stood at the crossroads of styles, cultivating a virtuosic art blending French melodies and the Italian virtuosity of Corelli and Vivaldi. It was at the age of 49 that he undertook his first (and only) lyric tragedy: Scylla et Glaucus. In the greatest French tradition, this work combines sumptuous numbers of sentimental outpouring with dreadful scenes of fury and terror, in which the orchestra, with its muscular lines, plays a dazzling role. A true masterpiece - marked by the obvious influence of Rameau - Scylla et Glaucus left a strong mark on French opera. Created at the Académie Royale de Musique in 1746, this opera, which had 17 performances and great success, was not rediscovered until the 1980s (by JE Gardiner in Lyon). For this recording made at the Opéra Royal and released in the Alpha/Château de Versailles collection, Sébastien d'Hérin, a fine connoisseur of Rameau and his era, surrounds himself with great performers, including the promising lovers' duo of Anders Dahlin and Emöke Barath, for a resurrection of what the great musicologist Cuthbert Girdlestone considers “probably, along with those of Rameau and Gluck, the best French opera of the century.”