Mondonville - Les Fêtes de Paphos / Gens, Piau, Mellon, Fouchécourt, Lalouette, Harvey, Les talens lyriques, Rousset

Jean Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (Composer), Christophe Rousset (Conductor), Les talens lyriques (Orchestra), Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (Performer), Véronique Gens (Performer), Sandrine Piau (Performer), Olivier Lallouette (Performer), Peter Harvey (Performer), Agnès Mellon (Performer), Accentus (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, Olivier Lallouette, Peter Harvey, et al.
• Orchestra: Les talens lyriques
• Conductor: Christophe Rousset
• Composer: Jean Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
• Audio CD (July 15, 1997)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: L'Oiseau-Lyre
• ASIN: B000004CYX
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,787 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Un: Venus et Adonis - Ouverture

2. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Un: Venus et Adonis - Scene 1 - Marche

3. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Un: Venus et Adonis - Scene 1 - Vous qu a mes pas echaine la victoire

4. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Un: Venus et Adonis - Scene 1 - Prelude, fanfare - Ce bruit annonce sa presence - Mars

5. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Un: Venus et Adonis - Scene 2 - Fanfare - Que ces forets offrent d'attraits - Adonis, Chasseurs et Chasseresses - Deux Menuets

6. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Un: Venus et Adonis - Scene 2 - Fanfare - Que ces forets offrent d'attraits - Adonis, Chasseurs et Chasseresses - Qu'il est doux apres la victoire - Adonis

See all 28 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Deux: Bacchus et Erigone - Scene 1 - Dieu des Amans recoi les voeux - Erigone

2. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Deux: Bacchus et Erigone - Scene 2 - Belle Nymphe, esperez le sort le plus heureux - Mercure Erigone

3. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Deux: Bacchus et Erigone - Scene 3 - Air pour les Sylvains

4. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Deux: Bacchus et Erigone - Scene 3 - Air pour les Corybantes, ou Prestres de Bacchus

5. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Deux: Bacchus et Erigone - Scene 3 - Cher Bacchus, c'est assez repandre les allarmes - Comus

6. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Deux: Bacchus et Erigone - Scene 3 - Air pour les Bacchantes et les Sylvains

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Trois: L'Amour et Psyche - Scene 1 - Ritournelle

2. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Trois: L'Amour et Psyche - Scene 1 - O Venus, n'as-tu pas epuise ta vengeance? - Psyche, Tisiphone

3. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Trois: L'Amour et Psyche - Scene 2 - (Prelude)

4. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Trois: L'Amour et Psyche - Scene 2 - De tes attraits, l'Amour va perdre la memoire - Tisiphone, Psyche, Suite de l'Inconstance

5. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Trois: L'Amour et Psyche - Scene 2 - Gavotte

6. Les Fetes de Paphos: Acte Trois: L'Amour et Psyche - Scene 2 - Mais l'Amour va paraitre, il faut suivre mes pas - Tisiphone

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful surprise., August 28, 2003

By 

Sir Cecil (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mondonville - Les Fêtes de Paphos / Gens, Piau, Mellon, Fouchécourt, Lalouette, Harvey, Les talens lyriques, Rousset (Audio CD)

Rousset's instrumental forces display plenty of verve and the vocalists are top notch. The surprise is the wonderful music itself, by the rarely-recorded Mondonville. Admirers of Rameau will undoubtedly appreciate much that is to be heard here. Though Mondonville is very much his own man. there are plenty of choruses and other lively flourishes that Rameau would have been proud of. Spread over three discs, the set does run a little too long for its own good, but there is enough fine music here to justify a 5-star rating.
The sound quality is first class.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute joy from start to finish, February 11, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Mondonville - Les Fêtes de Paphos / Gens, Piau, Mellon, Fouchécourt, Lalouette, Harvey, Les talens lyriques, Rousset (Audio CD)

A wonderful French Baroque opera from one of Rameau's younger contemporaries. Like Rameau's Les Indes Galantes or Les Fêtes d'Hébé, Les Fêtes de Paphos is an opera-ballet consisting of a collection of entrées. The music is rich and colourful, although, unlike similar works of Rameau, it doesn't feature any local colour.

The cast consists of some very familiar and fine singers - Sandrine Piau, Véronique Gens, Agnès Mellon, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Olivier Lallouette, Peter Harvey and James Oxley [the only one not known to me]. Les Talens Lyrique plays this music with great style and pizzazz, only Les Arts Florissants or Les Musiciens du Louvre seriously rival them in this musical genre. Note that the beautiful and talented Emmanuelle Haïm plays the harpsichord continuo in this recording. I don't she'd taken up conducting when this recording was made (1997) - she was still working with Les Talens Lyriques and Les Arts Florissants as a continuo player at that time, I think. To be sure, Christophe Rousset was only just starting to make a name for himself as a musical director in the mid '90s.

If you're a lover of the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau, and, let's face it, who isn't!, then Les Fêtes de Paphos will delight you. Let us hope that further operas by Jean Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville are recorded in the near future. I'd love a DVD of Les Fêtes de Paphos.