L'Évasion de Louis XVI

French TV film - a docu-fiction - by Arnaud Sélignac, 90 mn, 2009.

This film recounts the day of June 21, 1791, when King Louis XVI and his family tried to flee France, and failed.

The critic of the film is good, telling that the film, conceived like a thriller, left aside all the clichés about Louis XVI and gives a faithful account of what happened on that very day.
Not really a surprise when we know the historical adviser was Jean-Christian Petitfils.

It'll be broadcast on February 24, by the French channel France 2.

Rameau - New Recordings

Rameau - Dardanus

A Pinchgut Opera (Sydney) production, recorded in 2005.
Featuring Paul Agnew, Paul Whelan, Kathryn McCusker,Stephen Bennett, Damian Whiteley and the Orchestra of the Antipodes under Antony Walker.

ABC Classics - 2CD
Find details on the production, the cast, the plot, MP3 samplers, on the Pinchgut Opera Site

Already available in some countries (at least, I guess, for I found it on the internet). It'll be released in France on March 12.
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Rameau - Que les mortels servent de modèle aux dieux...
Extracts from Zoroastre & Zaïs

Eugénie Warnier, Arnaud Richard, Ensemble Ausonia
Frédérick Haas

Alpha - 1CD

March 12, 2009

Sounds very promising...
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Rameau - Les Indes Galantes

Christophe Rousset

Ambroisie-La Cité de la Musique - 1CD
March 24, 2009

The recording is part of a series which aim is to introduce the Musée de la Musique prestigious historical instruments.
I haven't yet found any information about the recording, but it's likely to be the Suite des Indes Galantes recorded by Rousset on the Jean-Henry Hemsch harpsichord (1761, E.974.3.1) on January 21, 2001.

Coming next in the series :
Sandrine Chatron, Works from the time of Marie-Antoinette - Erard harp (1788).

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Reissue

Rameau - Anacréon & Le Berger fidèle

Originally released on Archiv (1996)

Véronique Gens - Annick Massis - Thierry Félix - Rodrigo del Pozo
Les Musiciens du Louvre - Marc Minkowski
Brilliant Classics: BRIL93930 - 5028421939308 - 1 CD
March 12, 2009

Marie-Antoinette

The Grand Palais Colonnade

I visited the Marie-Antoinette exhibition at the Grand Palais : I can't tell whether it was good or bad, because it was over-crowed which is enough to change any good exhibition into a nightmare. At the beginning I tried to make my way into the crowd, but the game soon became physically and mentally exhausting. So, what I have seen is a compact mass of people struggling for their cultural lives - an awful experience.

I wonder how the numerous tourists, whose only approach to Marie-Antoinette was Sofia Coppola's film, feel about the exhibition. Even if well staged, the thing looks antiquated compared with the glamorous girl shown by Coppola. And it looks antiquated because it IS antiquated. The real 18th century was not painted in Barbie pink.

There is a long way from dream to reality, and the distance might come as a shock to some people.

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Pictures by Horvallis