Marais
Ariane et Bacchus
Véronique Gens, David Tricou, Mathias Vidal, Judith van Wanroij; Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles; Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet
Alpha Classics ALPHA 926 126:25 mins (2 discs)
Now remembered mainly as a master player and composer of viol music (and as a pupil of Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe – as depicted in the 1991 film Tous les Matins du Monde), Marin Marais was also a serious opera composer. He first learned his trade as one of Lully’s composition pupils, and then as the older composer’s music assistant.
Lully’s influence is strongly evident in this world-premiere recording of Marais’s 1696 , . Urgent tempos, glowing choruses and spirited dance sections are all there. So are languorous recitatives, some shapeless arias and long stretches of perfunctory orchestral writing. The meandering libretto by Saint-Jean doesn’t help, and the work is saddled with a plodding and sycophanticdream sequence and an astonishing mad scene for Ariane.
