In baroque operas and cantatas mythological characters play key
roles. One of the most famous is certainly Orpheus, but Medea,
who is the central character in this recording, also regularly
appeared in vocal music of the 17th and 18th century. The fascination
with this character persisted after the end of the baroque era,
as Cherubini's opera Médée testifies.
Medea appears in a play by the Greek author Euripides. From this we
know that she was the princess of Colchis and the granddaughter
of the sun. She is married to Jason, whom she helped to steal
the Golden Fleece. But Jason leaves her for Glauce, and this
leads to Medea's fury which is so often portrayed in operas
and cantatas. That is also the case in the compositions chosen
for the programme by the ensemble Amarillis. It is a combination
of rather well-known pieces - in particular Clérambault's cantata
has been recorded a number of times - and unknown material.
To the last category belongs 'Medea in Atene', an opera by the
Venetian composer Giovanni Antonio Giannettini (or, as the tracklist
says, Gianettini). Also recorded for the first time is the cantata
Médée by Nicolas Bernier. The combination of Italian
and French music may seem a bit strange, but let us not forget
Lully was Italian by birth, and Bernier had studied in Italy.
Just like Clérambault, he was strongly influenced by the Italian
style.
As interesting as the concept of this disc may be, the way it has been
worked out is not very convincing, nor are the performances
really satisfying. I have reviewed several recordings by this
ensemble recently, and in most cases I was not won over. There
are several reasons for this.
As I have already indicated I am not happy with the way the concept
has been worked out. There are many more cantatas about Medea
which could have been chosen in addition to the two performed
here. Instead arias from two operas are performed. This is rather
problematic, especially as in 17th-century operas - in particular
French - the mostly rather short 'arias' are much more integrated
in the drama as a whole than arias in, for instance, Handel's
operas. Taking arias out of their context doesn't do them a
great deal of justice. Another problem here is that the singer
is accompanied by two melody instruments, which can't replace
an orchestra, especially in the most dramatic arias.
This leads to another issue of all recordings of Amarillis: the scoring.
As I have written in my previous reviews of the ensemble's recordings:
performers of baroque music have quite a lot of freedom in this
respect. Composers often left the choice of instruments to the
performers, and even when an instrument is indicated this doesn't
necessarily exclude other instruments. But that freedom isn't
unlimited. Here, for instance, the use of a recorder in some
of Domenico Gabrielli's pieces is very questionable, as Gabrielli
was a cellist by profession, and his Balletti opus 1 are scored
for strings. Simply wrong from a historical point of view is
the use of an oboe in extracts from Giannettini's opera: this
work had its premiere in 1675, but in Italy the oboe only gradually
started to be used in the last decade of the 17th century. Only
after the turn of the century did the instrument become more
fashionable in Italy.
It was in France that the oboe was playing an important role in the
time Lully wrote his operas and still when Clérambault composed
the cantata performed here. But that doesn't mean it can be
used indiscriminately. The choice to use the oboe in Clérambault's
cantata is debatable: it was mainly used in orchestral and chamber
music, but not in chamber cantatas. It was quite common to use
two instruments playing simultaneously or alternately, but the
most usual combination was the violin and the transverse flute.
Even stranger is the use of the recorder in this cantata: when
it was written the recorder had already been overshadowed by
the transverse flute, and it was certainly not used in chamber
cantatas.
In some of the instrumental pieces the scoring is problematic too.
Although Michel de La Barre was acting as a recorder player in
the early stages of his career, after about 1700 he almost exclusively
devoted his time to playing the transverse flute and composing
for this instrument. It is therefore debatable to use the oboe
and the recorder respectively alongside the violin in the instrumental
movements which precede and follow Bernier's cantata. Although
I can understand the decision to play some instrumental pieces
to bring some variety into the programme, it is very unlucky that
they are played in between the arias from Lully's and Giannettini's
operas.
As far as the interpretations are concerned, I wasn't very positive
about this ensemble on previous occasions, and I see no reason
to change my view that the musicians seem unable to bring real
life to the music they are performing. The instrumental performances
are mostly rather flat. That is the case in most of Clérambault's
cantata - Bernier's cantata fares better - but also in Giannettini's
arias. In particular the second of the three is quite expressive,
but the players make little of it. And Duphly's harpsichord
pieces are much more captivating than one would guess from how
they are played here.
In comparison Stéphanie d'Oustrac does better and gives some idea of
what this repertoire is like. But I am sure more can be made of
it, and I certainly don't like her frequent use of vibrato. Taking
everything into account I find it difficult to recommend this
disc. The only reason to do so is the unknown repertoire. Certainly
I would like to hear more of Giannettini; also Bernier's cantata
is a very nice piece. If only the performances had been better
...
Johan van Veen
