Lully - Acis & Galatée / Fouchécourt, Gens, Naouri, Crook, Delunsch, Felix, Masset, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski

Jean-Baptiste Lully (Composer), Marc Minkowski (Conductor), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Orchestra), Jean-Paul Fouchecourt (Performer), Veronique Gens (Performer), Mireille Delunsch (Performer), Laurent Naouri (Performer), Howard Crook (Performer), Françoise Masset (Performer), Thierry Félix (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Veronique Gens, Mireille Delunsch, Laurent Naouri, Howard Crook, et al.
• Orchestra: Les Musiciens du Louvre
• Conductor: Marc Minkowski
• Composer: Jean-Baptiste Lully
• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Archiv Produktion
• ASIN: B00000C2ER
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,407 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, cold Lully-fricassee, July 13, 2000

By 

Dr. Peter J. Glidden "KingFox" (Gli Angeli, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lully - Acis & Galatée / Fouchécourt, Gens, Naouri, Crook, Delunsch, Felix, Masset, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski (Audio CD)

Jean-Baptiste Lully (né Giovanni Baptista,1632-1687) has the honor of belonging to the vast group of non-French who, for their time, set the very idiom of "French" music (Eric Satie is a more current example). Lully, and his party of "Lullistes," advocated a priority of text over music, or let us say rather than the one was not permitted to obfuscate the other. Minkowski's recording -himself no slouch as a conductor of music of sumptuous vocality -has put together an expert cast that allows this slightly frothy pastoral romp a dignity and pathos less apparent in Handel's version of this story. Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, who along with Veronique Gens incarnated the titular heroes of the "anti-Lully" Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (also under Minkowski's baton), are the tragic lovers whose distinctly French articulations of the drama are sure bets. I welcome the long-awaited return of Howard Crook (Apollo), as the well as the participation of the déliceuse Mireille Delunsch (Vénus) with equal joy. With period instruments, masterfully played by Les Musiciens du Louvre.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Surprise, July 23, 2007

By 

David J. Gering "davegering" (Phoenix, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lully - Acis & Galatée / Fouchécourt, Gens, Naouri, Crook, Delunsch, Felix, Masset, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski (Audio CD)

For me Lully had always been the answer to a trivia question - What baroque composer killed himself by smashing his toe with his conducting stick? Listening to this recording opened my eyes to the composer. It is consistently delightful and full of invention, and I would rank it near the top of baroque opera along with Handel's Julius Caesar and Monteverdi's Orfeo. By the way, if you are wondering how he could have died from a blow to the toe, gangrene set in and finished him off.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Colourful and delightful, September 10, 2008

By 

Steven Guy (Croydon, South Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lully - Acis & Galatée / Fouchécourt, Gens, Naouri, Crook, Delunsch, Felix, Masset, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski (Audio CD)

This work is an entertainment and as such, it works very well. The cast is perfect and one could hardly ask for more from the orchestra and conductor.

Featured in the cast are Véronique Gens, Mireille Delunsch, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Howard Crook, Laurent Naouri, Thierry Félix and a young Rodrigo del Pozo (who sings both alto and tenor roles in his recordings).

The orchestra, playing at a' = 392 Hz, features strings, piccolo flutes, flutes, recorders, panpipe, oboes, bassoon, percussion, theorbos and basso continuo.

The work features some very tuneful and memorable music and the pace of the work is brisk.

I only wish that a DVD was available of this production.