Patricia Petibon / Philippe Jaroussky / Freiburger Barockorchester / Andrea Marcon HANDEL Alcina (Video)

ALCINA

 

Formato: mp4

Subtítulos: Italiano, Inglés, Francés, Alemán

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Daniel Harding CARL ORFF Carmina Burana

CARMINA BURANA

 

Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset N. JOMMELLI Armida Abbandonata

ARMIDA ABBANDONATA

Cappella Coloniensis / Corona Coloniensis / William Christie MÉHUL Stratonice

STRATONICE

Les Arts Florissants / William Christie CHARPENTIER La Descente D'Orphée aux Enfers

LA DESCENTE D'ORPHÉE AUX ENFERS

Patricia Petibon / Susan Manoff L'AMOUR, LA MORT, LA MER

                                                    L'AMOUR, LA MORT, LA MER

Le Concert d'Astrée / Emmanuelle Haïm UNE FÊTE BAROQUE!

This "fête Baroque" occurred in December 2011 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, marking the tenth anniversary of the ensemble Le Concert d'Astrée under founder and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm. The concert was a benefit for a French cancer research facility, and it attracted a galaxy of guest stars. Le Concert d'Astrée is one of the very best Baroque vocal ensembles, and this release never descends to a low common denominator. Haïm's trademark expressive phrasing is everywhere in evidence, but the biggest attraction is the selection of singers, with several figures from the mainstream showing up alongside established Baroque specialists. You might not think that tenor Rolando Villazón has quite the right voice for an aria from Handel's Tamerlano, HWV 18, but he's clearly wrestling with the problem, and he gets an appreciative roar from the Parisian crowd (who are given full voice on the recording). Right after that comes a delicious duet from mainstreamer Anne Sofie von Otter and countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in the Cornelia-Sesto duet from the second act of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, a pure feast of sensuous singing. Established Baroque vocalists like Natalie Dessay and Sara Mingardo are on hand, as well as a few up-and-comers who seized the chance to put their names and voices in front of a well-heeled crowd. Rather than try to cover the entire range of Baroque opera, Haïm wisely chooses to focus on three composers: Rameau, Lully, and Handel, whose vocal riches occupy the entire second CD. The sound picks up unadulterated audience noise, but nothing interferes with the spontaneity the musicians bring to the event. (James Manheim)

Christian-Pierre La Marca / Les Ambassadeurs / Alexis Kossenko CANTUS

If you are going to substitute the singing voice for an instrument what do you get? The warm and lyrical voice of the cello of course!

Christian-Pierre La Marca’s Cantus ticks all boxes when it comes to originality, having interpreted famous sacred pieces into a single-instruments voice - the cello. What is left is an understanding of the musical emotion displayed in these famous pieces, with his repertoire including the titles Mass, Stabat Mater and Agnus Dei.

Tackling on classics by Mozart, Bach and Pergolesi is a stupendous task, however Christian-Pierre successfully reveals the intensity of these melodies. In turn his album acts as a message, reinforcing the eighteenth century idea that music, by its power of proposition and submission, goes beyond words to express the unspeakable, often with clarity and extent.

If you admire the organ, viola and theorbo of sacred music than Cantus is for you, with Christian-Pierre’s repertoire covering the most important names in sacred music from the sixteenth to twenty-first century. Although you will not find me listening to Cantus I can still very much appreciate the depth of artistic expression and understanding that has gone into this album. (Taylor  Woodward)

Patricia Petibon / Susan Manoff LA BELLE EXCENTRIQUE

The compact disc as a physical object, whether the music is classical or pop, is of interest to very few people nowadays. One response from musicians has been an adjustment to the new climate of downloadable single tracks and bite-sized clips that don’t suffer from being part of a shuffle. Patricia Petibon’s new disc does exactly the opposite. Her program happens to contain nearly thirty tracks, but they all go together as a single performance, and they need to be heard in the order in which she presents them. The program is at its core a song recital, but Petibon and pianist Susan Manoff have invited some off-the-cuff participation from a second pianist, a second vocalist, an accordion player and a percussionist. The structure is something of an after-dinner talent show, with relentless high spirits to start, a passing moment halfway through when everybody gets a little soupy and sentimental as the Pernod kicks in, a strategic regrouping for a few big numbers, and one sad song too many at the end to send everybody to the pile of coats on the bed. At times, there’s a deliberately amateurish quality. The second vocalist is Olivier Py, who is not quite a singer (he is quite a director, having mounted a production of Berg’s Lulu for Petibon), and the percussion parts give the illusion of improvisations that non-musicians might toss in from the sidelines. 

There are a few of the French repertoire’s greatest hits, by Fauré and Poulenc, but most of the music is unfamiliar. There’s a good deal of Satie, including two of the zippy Sports et Divertissements (piano only, without the sardonic words). If Petibon is perfectly capable of singing two un-ironic love songs, she nonetheless might separate them with a Satie can-can. But Satie can also have a side that is quietly aghast, and his brief “Désespoir agréable” makes a perfect piano transition into the set of downcast numbers that begins with Fauré’s “Spleen.” There is a particularly clever transition where Satie’s “Grande Ritournelle” for piano four-hands at first seems to be a gussied-up version of Poulenc’s song “Les gars qui vont à la fête,” but it is the real thing, and the real Poulenc song follows. Among the discoveries are Reynaldo Hahn’s “Pholoé,” a rare song about aging, and the music of Léo Ferré, who turns out to be right up there with Michel Legrand. 

Petibon is having such a good time managing to be loose and crazy even though this is a studio production that she disarms criticism. She can be dirty without being sleazy in the duets with Py. She can drip crocodile tears at the end of “Les gars” but then sing Poulenc’s “Voyage à Paris” without mocking it and deliver two of those quietly devastating Poulenc songs, “Hier” and “Aux Officiers de la Garde Blanche,” with equilibrium. It’s perhaps worth noting that a tiny Manuel Rosenthal song about a zoo elephant who wets his pants has been turned into something impossibly grand by the full company here, and it is funny. But Régine Crespin used to stop the show with this number by underplaying it. Times change, and I love this album. Twice, by the time Rosenthal songs came up, I felt that one piece too many had all that extra percussion. And then twice, just as I do when the cantina tune keeps coming back in Milhaud’s Le Boeuf sur le Toit, I succumbed unreservedly with a giggle. Madoff, among many virtues, totally gets the deadpan, unreadable quality of Satie’s accompaniments, and the idiomatic English translations of Susannah Howe and James Harding add immeasurably to the considerable enjoyment of this release. (William R. Braun)

Patricia Petibon MELANCOLÍA Spanish Arias and Songs

Spain, and its music and art, have long had a special appeal for Patricia Petibon: “From an early age I was intrigued and fascinated by Spanish culture, by the way the excessive and the subtle are inextricably linked. It glorifies emotions with pride and, at the same time, refinement. It’s a culture that comes from the earth, from the people. Everything about it appealed to me, and in my early recitals I liked to insert some Spanish songs into my American and French programmes. Then, when I went to Madrid to sing in Dialogues des Carmélites, I met the stage director Emilio Sagi, and that led to my opportunity to enter the world of zarzuela. It was Sagi who directed me in Torroba’s Luisa Fernanda in Vienna, where it was wonderful to be singing alongside Plácido Domingo. I found myself surrounded by performers from all kinds of Spanish-speaking backgrounds; they noticed how interested I was in their culture, and that’s how we made a connection, and I learned from real specialists. Spanish artists have a physical sense of the music: for them, it draws its strength from the body, and there I can’t resist making a connection with Baroque music, with dance, of course, and extreme characters – think of Médée or Armide. It also shares the same kind of quality of roughness, of rawness, and voices are used to express emotions, not just to make a lovely sound.”
“I spent a long time thinking about the programme for this disc, creating a mixture of music, and finally I settled on one unifying idea: the feeling of melancholy, which is a reflection of Spain itself. The disc is a journey through different styles, but through folk music as well, which has a strong presence on the disc. The theatrical element is very important, too, and at the centre is the character of Salud in Falla’s La vida breve. She embodies the melancholy of the title, the loss of hope. Melancholy is a balance in life, a sadness that binds us to death. Salud represents the darkest side of melancholy that tends toward tragedy. But this sort of melancholy can also depict the radiance of childhood, of joy and laughter. What I wanted to explore through this disc was the journey between these two poles.”

Patricia Petibon ROSSO Italian Baroque Arias

One of the great pleasures of attending the theatre is to see a singer come out onstage when the curtain rises and to know that the mere fact of her appearing will put you in a good mood, even if you can already sense from the orchestra that she will be singing something som- bre, moving or emotionally charged. Strange though it may seem, sadness, too, can be a source of pleasure in this way. And that pleasure increases as soon as the singer opens her mouth. Life’s difficulties are all swept away and forgotten. Patricia Petibon achieves this marvellous feat: she makes you happy even when what she is singing brings tears to your eyes. But the most astonishing thing of all about the present programme is the exceptionally close correlation between her own very special qualities and the music that she performs. Patricia Petibon sings all kinds of music from Lully and Handel to Mozart, Debussy and Bernstein but is particularly fond of Baroque music. Even so, it was not with this that she began her career. “When I arrived at the Paris Conservatoire and studied with Rachel Yakar,” she recalls, “I worked on all sorts of music with her. At that time I also sang Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. I continue to love all kinds of music: to sing the part of a nun in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites is as moving as lending my voice to all the lovers I’ve recorded.” As for the Baroque period, it was her meet- ing with William Christie which, as she herself acknowl- edges, “pointed me in the right direction”. The music that Patricia Petibon sings on this new recording is a distillation of early opera, a genre that began in Italy before spreading to the rest of Europe. Baroque sensibilities, coupled with the tastes and pleasures of the time, could hardly be satisfied with a style of musical declamation that contemporaries de- scribed as “spianata” – plain and simple. They needed an element of surprise: they needed emotion and wonderment. Composers, audiences and, above all, singers wanted a sense of the marvellous, a magical aspect that even suggested folly: in short, a style described as “fiorito”. The poetry became the servant of the music, which sought to characterize the affetti, or affections, giving rise to a new, closed form, the da capo aria, which allowed the emotions to find lyrical expression, whether that expression was dramatic or more light- weight, and allowed the singer to develop that emotion through his or her vocal virtuosity. Emotion was in this way combined with wonderment. The Baroque world is deliberately located in a world of unreality, vocal mar- vels reflecting a staging filled with apparitions, flying machines and clouds. It echoes the lyricism of Bernini’s Saint Teresa, just as the architectural virtuosity of Francesco Borromini showcased that of the singers in the churches that he designed. As Patricia Petibon says, she tries to “act out what the music says”. The Handel arias that she has recorded here are in themselves enough to provide a cross-section of all the musical and emotional possibilities of Italianate opera of this period. (Excerpts from the booklet text accompanying the album)

Patricia Petibon / Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris / Paavo Järvi POULENC Stabat Mater - Gloria - Litanies à la Vierge noire

“I have the faith of a country priest,” Francis Poulenc confessed a few days before his sudden death in January 1963. The “bad boy” of French music was also – from the time of the Litanies à la Vierge noire to the late Sept Répons des ténèbres – a masterly exponent of 20th-century sacred music. Poulenc drifted away from religion for a period of some 15 years, only to return to the fold in the wake of the death of the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud, who was killed in a car crash on 17 August 1936. “The appalling way in which this musician, who was so full of vitality, was wrenched away from us left me utterly stupefied,” Poulenc later explained. “Thinking of how little our human husk weighs, I felt once again drawn to the spiritual life.” Five days after the tragic event, Poulenc visited the sanctuary at Rocamadour, “a place of extraordinary peace” that sheltered the statue of a black Madonna. Deeply impressed, he began work on his Litanies à la Vierge noire that same evening, completing the score within a week. In the opening, marked “calm”, the female chorus alternates with the instrumental part – an organ in the original version of the work. The lines are simple, almost archaic, the conjunct motifs repeated obsessively and studded with harsh dissonances. The score bears the words “humble and fervent”, admirably summing up the composer’s conception of religion throughout his entire life. “It is very special, humble and, I think, gripping,” Poulenc wrote to Nadia Boulanger, who conducted the first performance of the piece for the BBC in London on 17 November 1936. With this “miracle work”, as pure as it is poignant, Poulenc in a moment of great psychological distress expressed his dismay in the face of death and begged the Virgin to grant him the strength to believe in God once again – after all, Mary herself never gave up hope even when her son died on the Cross. In September 1947 Poulenc arranged the organ part for strings and timpani, producing the lesser-known version heard here. It was the death of another artist that inspired Poulenc to write his powerful Stabat Mater for soprano solo, mixed choir and orchestra. In this case the death was that of Christian Bérard, who died in February 1949 at the age of 46. A painter and stage designer, Bérard had worked for Marcel Achard, George Balanchine, Jean Cocteau, Jean Giraudoux, Louis Jouvet and others. Soon after his death, Poulenc wrote: “When Bébé died I was in London, thus missing those horrible days with the funeral arrangements. I can think of him as if he was off on a trip round the world. [...] Dear Bébé, I think of you as a sweet, invisible presence and not, thank God, as a ghost.” In writing a Stabat Mater, Poulenc hoped to commit his friend’s soul to Notre-Dame de Rocamadour. Once again, he felt that in invoking the sufferings of the Virgin at the time of her son’s crucifixion, he might be able to offer the best possible homage – even more so than with a requiem, which would have been too “bombastic” and would have “had the air of a funeral service”. (Excerpts from the booklet text accompanying the album)

Patricia Petibon AMOUREUSES Mozart / Haydn / Gluck

Barbarina and Susanna, Armida and Zaide, Giunia and Iphigénie: these complex portraits of several different kinds of women provide the theme for French soprano Patricia Petibon’s debut recital for Deutsche Grammophon. Above all, however, they are portraits of women in love. The range of emotions and situations could hardly be greater, extending from the first innocent thrill of love to despair and feminine guile to the end of love, attended by anger and even hatred. “It’s a musical and vocal approach”, she explains, “but also a theatrical and dramaturgical one. Amoureuses depicts various characters who may in fact represent no more than facets of a single figure. On the one hand, we have Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, a character of great purity who could even be described as angelic, while on the other hand we have the Queen of Night in Die Zauberflöte, a mature woman who once knew love but who has now lost her way and who loves only herself and power.” It goes without saying that such contrasts, emotions and passions demand a response that goes far beyond mere beautiful singing. Patricia Petibon uses vocal colours and shadings, risking extremes of expression and emotion and exploiting her voice’s fullest potential in order to reveal the countless facets of these roles. “If the text demands a certain sharpness, harshness or roughness, then vocally, too, I choose to go down this particular path. What I do not want is aesthetic homogeneity and superficial beauty”, she describes her approach to the music. She owes this search for the artistic truth to two great conductors above all. “I come from two different schools: those of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and William Christie; both have strongly influenced me and have taught me to interpret music in my own, highly distinctive way and to be true to myself and to others.” (Excerpts from the booklet text accompanying the album)

Patricia Petibon / Michael Boder / Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu ALBAN BERG Lulu (mkv / 320 kbps)

ALBAN BERG (1885-1935) : LULU (2DVD)

Opera in three acts, after the tragedies Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box by Frank Wedekin. Orchestration of the third act completed by Friederich Cerha.

Patricia Petibon is Lulu to the life.

She sings Berg’s taxing music with easy, tonal beauty; the roles numerous acuti pose no problem. As The Weekend Australian observed: “Her top register, in particular, has a rich, luminous quality ... that she exploits to great effect”.

Lulu is opera’s rawest exposition of the fatal risks of untamed erotic power. No man who meets Lulu does not want her − but, like the wind, she cannot be possessed. As happens to the heroine herself, the men who attempt to subdue her, and the one woman who also adores her, are destroyed by the flip side of the life force that pours through Lulu: death.

This is one of the most remarkable productions of the 21st century – matched by the remarkable Patricia Petibon. Acclaim for this Lulu: “Using her light, supple voice like a musical instrument, Petibon slithers into each successive skin with which Olivier Py sheathes this timeless mythic character” (Le Figaro). “The French director presents a terrifying tragedy, with a colourful human circus ... Petibon has the right degree of sensuality and a highly charged style...” (Opera).

This live DVD of the Liceu’s 2010 hit production by Olivier Py also stars Franz Grundheber and Julia Juon. Michael Boder’s conducting brings out the sensuality and psychological disequilibrium of Berg’s 12-tone score.

The New York Times praised Petibon’s “earthy rawness”.

Interpreters

Patricia Petibon . Julia Juon . Paul Groves

Ashley Holland . Will Hartmann . Robert Worle

Franz Grundheber . Andreas Hörl . Silvia de la Muela

Symphony Orchesttra of the Gran Teatre de Liceu

Michael Boder

Format: mkv (Part I: 2 files / Part II: 3 files)

Language : German

Subtitles: German (Original Language), English, French, Spanish, Catalan

A co-production of the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Directed for television and video by François Roussillon. Recording : Liceu, Barcelona, 2010

2011 Deutsche Grammophon

Patricia Petibon NOUVEAU MONDE Baroque Arias and Songs

With Christopher Columbus (yes, him from 1492) joining Harnoncourt, William Christie and Savall on the dedicatees’ list, Petibon’s new release explodes like an alt-folk concept album. As Basle’s La Cetra, plus certain South American obbligato instruments, Baroque and baroll behind the French soprano, it can get loud – José de Nebra’s opening zarzuela aria (1744) sounds like an attempt at all four Handel Coronation Anthems in less than six minutes while Petibon’s contribution mixes a tale of shipwrecked love with yelping early salsa-style vocalises. For contrast there’s a serene ‘Greensleeves’ and a wonderful, painfully impassioned (if exotically pronounced) ‘When I am laid in earth’ – with most imposing continuo – to vary the emotional dynamic. Then the mocking demons in Charpentier’s Médée and their grungy accompaniment (the effect accentuated by the timbre of the ancient instruments) sound like evident contemporaries of Purcell’s witches and sailors. Andrea Marcon’s band rightly get a break of their own, a dance actually, in further Charpentier before their whistles and thundersheets kick up the storm that nearly overwhelms heroine Emilie in Les Indes galantes. We may be on the way to a ‘new world’ – Petibon’s booklet interview links up influences which include Brazilian rock radio, Michael Haneke’s Don Giovanni and Cortés’s Conquistadors – and we reach it eventually at Purcell’s ‘Fairest isle’ (the English again rather special) but there’s sure plenty of well-acted vocal heartbreak on the way. And folk rock – try the version of the traditional ‘J’ai vu le loup’ or the Peruvian ‘Tornada La Lata’.

Like her equally Spanish-tinged ‘Melancolia’ album – but with totally other colours – ‘Nouveau monde’ is a tightly thought-through and arranged and compelling programme, a tour de force for its performer/ compiler, most atmospherically recorded (Rainer Maillard) in Basle’s Martinskirche. Compulsive, repeatable listening.

(Mike Ashman)