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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.)