Bellérophon

Lully's opera Bellérophon was revived this year in the occasion of the Festival de Beaune. It had been created in 1679 in Paris (Palais Royal) and hadn't been performed since the XVIIIth century.
Some audio samples of the opera (the prologue and the beginning of the second act) are on display here (at the end of the article).

Althought it was not Lully's first opera, it was the first of Lully's opera scores to be printed.
A copy of the original edition by Christophe Ballard can be found at the UNT Digital library.
(The UNT Digital Library is a great ressource for anyone interested in the history of music).

Isis & Atys

A word about two books released recently, the english translation and adaptation of two librettos by Philippe Quinault (1635-1688) : Isis and Atys.
The translator is Frank J. Morlock who also translated many other French plays. All the books are available on Amazon. Have a look at them and you'll be amazed at the authors, the themes, and at the wealth of French plays now available in English thanks to Frank and his publishers.

Jean-Batiste Lully's arms & monogram

The French description is :

"d'azur avec une épée d'argent à poignée d'or posée en pal, la pointe en bas, autour de laquelle est entortillé un serpent de sinople, et une bande d'or, chargée à son extrémité de deux roses".

The symbols, displayed on a sky-blue background, are a silver sword with a golden hilt, a red snake, and a golden string with two roses.

Revival of Lully's 'Atys'

Now, it's sure : we shall have a revival of Atys with the 'historical' 1987 staging by Jean-Marie Villégier !
It will be performed by William Christie and LAF, and the opera will be given in Paris (salle Favart), Caen, Bordeaux, Versailles and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music...
And that's not all : a DVD is planned.
All this was made possible thanks to Ronald P. Stanton who sponsored the production.

Lully - 'Bellerophon' World Premiere

Bellérophon (1679), stage decoration by Carlo Vigarani

The world premiere of Lully's Bellerophon will take place in July during the Festival de Beaune, under the baton of Christophe Rousset.

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The author of the libretto was Thomas (de Lisle) Corneille who, in that occasion, learned how hard it was to write an opera, especially an opera for Lully. At that time, Philippe Quinault, Lully's favourite librettist, was in exile because of Madame de Montespan's reaction to their opera Isis. She had got him banned from the court because she thought he had voluntarily ridiculed her by portraying her as the jealous and vindictive Juno.

Lecerf de la Vieville wrote about Corneille's experience : "Lully was constantly driving him to desesperation. For a 500- or 600-verse play, monsieur de Lisle had to write 2000 verses..." Corneille later stated that he'd rather write ten tragedies than an opera.

Actually, Corneille couldn't manage to write the libretto on his own and asked Fontelle and Boileau for their help. It took three authors, time, and lots of arguments with Lully to replace Quinault.

The libretto was good, but, after that difficult experience, and pressured by Lully, the king found wiser to get Quinault back for the next productions.

Bellerophon was performed for the first time at the Palais Royal (Paris), on January 31, 1679, and met with huge success.

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Other Lully related program in Beaune : L'exotisme à la Cour de Louis XIV (Exoticism at the Court of Louis XIV), arias and musics by Lully, Cavalli & Moulinie, performed by Le Poeme Harmonique under Vincent Dumestre.

Old Opera Productions Revived

Platée staged by Laurent Pelly

- Jean-Philippe RAMEAU, Platée - Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski - staging, Laurent Pelly
Opéra de Paris December 02-30, 2009.
Both Paul Agnew and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt will be Platée, so you can make your choice or, better, buy two tickets and enjoy both of them.
Opéra de Paris

- Jean-Baptiste LULLY, Atys, Les Arts Florissants/William Christie, in the mythical 1987 production staged by Jean-Marie Villégier - 2011 (not sure, yet - the project is still under discussion).

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The revival of old famous productions seems to be the new trend in the operatic wold. La Monnaie in Brussels recently revived Herbert Wernicke's staging of La Calisto.

Cavalli - Ercole Amante

Ercole... (sigh...)

Ercole Amante staged by David Alden,
or how to turn a drama into a buffoonery
Amsterdam, January 2009

It's obvious the contemporary stage directors feel ill at ease when it comes to staging ancient operas. If they can read the libretto and have a brain, it's the only way I can explain their insistence in turning all the dramas into lousy comedies. As Bergson theorised it, laughter is most of the time a sign of embarrassment rather than of fun.

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Ercole Amante was commissionned by Mazarin to celebrate the mariage of Louis XIV and Maria Teresa of Austria, and was first performed on February 7, 1662, in the new salle des Machines built in the Tuileries. The ballet, Hercule amoureux, performed between the acts to please the French public, was Lully's first great success.