Semele - extraits des oeuvres eponymes de marais

Description

Baroque music combines violence and sweetness, unity and plurality. This record dedicated to the myth of Semele and that of Icarus associates Marin Marais, André Cardinal Destouches, and Handel. The booklets are in French, English, and Italian. Emblematic of the baroque aesthetic, Iris with her multicolored scarf serves as a confidante to Juno, irritated by the infidelity of the fickle Jupiter. The violence is that of love: Semele wants to see her divine lover Jupiter in all his glory, and she perishes struck by lightning. But instead of screaming in terror, the Semele of Destouches sings a sublime aria: "Is there a happier fate / Than to lose life this way / When it is taken from us / By the ardor of these divine flames?" The sweetness is that of the soul melting into the heavenly fire. This union of the temporal and the spiritual also appears in the myth of Icarus: his father Daedalus is the great architect of the labyrinth; but he is just an imperfect creature; there is only one Daedalus, but a multitude of Icaruses. To the music that elevates our thoughts to God.