Boismortier: Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse

Boismortier: Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse

ACD2 2860 (ATMA Classique, CD)

FIRST RELEASE (16 February 2024)
Tracks: 28
Booklet pages: 28
℗ 2024 Ensemble Caprice, under exclusive license to ATMA Records Inc
© 2024 ATMA Records Inc
Main country of recording: Canada
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Boismortier: Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse published on 27 February 2024

Arthur Tanguay-Labrosse, tenor (Don Quixotte)
Dominique Côté, baritone (Sancho Pança)
Catherine St-Arnaud, soprano (Altisidora)
Geoffroy Salvas, baritone (Merlin and Montesinos)
Dorothéa Ventura, soprano (une paysanne, une amante enchantée)
Claudine Ledoux, alto (une amante enchantée)
Ensemble Caprice
Matthias Maute, director

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755):

Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, Op 97 (opera/ballet comique, with libretto by Charles-Simon Favart, 1710-1792)

Act I
1 Ouverture

Scene 1
2 Au secours, au secours, au secours

Scene 3
3 Je suis de mes exploits
4 D'un riche azur

Scene 4
5 Marche et chœur des pâtres
6 Menuets I et II
7 Du passé point de souvenir
8 Tambourins I et II

Scene 5
9 Scène de la paysanne

Scenes 6-7
10 Merlin l'enchanteur

Act II
Scenes 1-2
11 Séjour funeste

Scenes 3-4
12 Air pour charmer

Scene 5
13 Air pour le désenchantement
14 Don Quichotte est vainqueur
15 Air pour les amants désenchantés
16 Divertissement

Scene 6
17 Air des démons
18 Dieux, quelle violence

Act III
Scenes 1-2
19 Le gentil sapajou

Scene 3
20 Quel vain scrupule

Scene 5
21 Air pour l'arrivée de Merlin
22 Fidèle amant
23 Calmons aussi le trouble de Sancho
24 Habitants du Japon

Scene 6
25 Chœur des Japonais
26 Entrée des Japonais
27 Vole amour
28 Chaconne

Ensemble Caprice under the direction of Matthias Maute presents Joseph de Boismortier's baroque opera-ballet Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, featuring singers Arthur Tanguay-Labrosse (Don Quixotte), Dominique Cote (Sancho Panza), Catherine St-Arnaud (Altisidora) and Geoffroy Salvas (Merlin and Montesinos). Charles-Simon Favart's 1743 libretto brings to life the characters of Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece: glory-loving Don Quixote, who wants to live like a valiant knight guided by the noblest ideals, but with no sense of reality, and his inseparable 'squire' Sancho Panza. The dramatic plot offers a series of intrigues as wild as those of Cervantes. The score of Don Quichotte chez la duchesse used for this recording was transcribed from Boismortier's manuscript by violinist Olivier Brault, member of Ensemble Caprice and Sonate 1704. This is the manuscript score prior to the performances of the time, preserved at the Bibliotheque nationale de France; the commonly used engraved edition dates from after the first performance and includes changes that were introduced following the initial performances.

Recorded 3-5 March 2022 at Église Saint-Augustin, Mirabel, Québec, Canada. (The soloists sing the chorus parts.)