The rediscovery of music theatre from the period of Louis XIV perfectly matches the current climate of a new kind of theatre practice and state of research, where the aesthetic interrelation of festivities at the court of the Sun King and the court ballet, comédie-ballet and the tragédie en musique is being intensively studied. The inclusion of landscape gardens, architecture, stage sets, costumes, poetic language, music and dance, together with the interaction of comedy, tragedy, court ballet and Italian and French music offer great opportunities for modern-day performances.
”Armide”, Lully’s last tragédie en musique (ed. Lois Rosow) was published in the critical Lully Complete Edition in 2003; full score, parts and vocal score were issued. Following performances in Washington, a new production is planned for autumn 2008 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, with Les Arts Florissants under the direction of William Christie. The performing materials for the tragédie en musique, Thésée, which was also performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in February 2008, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm in the production by Jean-Louis Martinoty, are currently in production. The edition is edited by Pascal Denéchau. The work has a particularly complex history of transmission of sources, reflected in the critical edition of the libretto and the score. The performing material of the critical edition of ”Thésée” will be available towards the end of 2008.In the series of ”Comédies-ballets”, two volumes have already been published, and a further volume is ready for print in the format of a performing score and parts; a fourth volume in this series is being edited and will be ready for production very soon. The tragédie-ballet ”Psyché” (ed. John S. Powell and Herbert Schneider) was published at the end of 2007; the vocal score is being set and the parts are in preparation. Three of the most renowned theatre authors of French classicism were involved in the libretto of this last collaboration between Molière and Lully; the superb dialogues in the work were by Molière and Pierre Corneille, and the sung texts by Philippe Quinault, who went on to become Lully’s main librettist. As with the comédies-ballets Monsieur de Pourceaugnac and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (published in the complete edition in 2006, ed. Jérôme de La Gorce and H. Schneider), a performance of Psyché requires actors; in ”Psyché”, they are required to recite alexandrine verse. Musically, in its prologue and the five intermedii, the work offers vocal and dance music which is amongst the best Lully composed. For example, an Italian lamentation scene with vocal and instrumental passages, glorious choruses in the prologue and the finale of the fifth act, ensembles and solo songs. Amongst the dances, menuets and punchy pantomimic dances (cyclops, dances of the furies, military and comic dances) stand out. Psyché is a work of great contrasts, ranging from deep grief to military spectacle. Many of its numbers were amongst the hits of their day.
Turning to the ”Divertissement Royal” ”Les Amants magnifiques” (ed. Bruce Gustafson), a comédie-ballet by Molière with a mythological plot, a performing score and parts are already available. The first act is preceded by an intermedio in which Louis XIV played the role of Neptune, and in the sixth act, played Apollo. Both these intermedii served as the operatic prologues of homage to the sun-king and for royal propaganda. The third intermedio, the most extensive, is a pastorale, whilst the fourth consists of pantomimes, and in the last, Delphic games are performed. For the play scenes actors are required (prose dialogue), and for the intermedii, singers, a choir and ballet.
Editorial work will begin soon on two further extremely successful comédie-ballets by Molière and Lully, ”George Dandin” and ”Les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée” (ed. Catherine Cessac), and should be complete by 2009; these also promise to be successful in contemporary revivals. ”George Dandin” is interesting for its contrast between the biting social criticism of its comedy and the elevated pastoral-mythological world of the intermedii, to which ”George Dandin” proves to be indifferent. Carlo Vigarani designed magnificent stage sets for the performance which, together with Lully’s music, dances, choruses and solo arias, lend the work a particular magic.
The first volume of sacred music including the famous ”Te Deum”, scored with trumpets and drums, and Lully’s first ”grand motet” ”Jubilate Deo” (ed. John H. Heyer) will be published in summer 2008.
The orchestral scores of works published in the Lully Complete Edition reflect practical performing conditions, as encountered by Lully in the performances which he directed. It is known that the basso continuo instruments did not play in the instrumental and dance movements. For this reason, continuo figuring appears only in the vocal scores of the Lully Complete Edition. The figuring is taken from the manuscript sources of the work and particularly the posthumously-published printed editions, and has been critically appraised. That is, for performances in which basso continuo instruments are required in dances or instrumental movements to strengthen the bass line figuring is provided; this can be said to have a certain authenticity, as it dates from a period close to the composition of the work and derives from the French performance tradition. The parts have been prepared in line with the requirements for historically-informed performance practice: the sung text is also included in all the instrumental parts, so that each instrumentalist can follow the dramatic development and, particularly important, the linguistic accentuation of the vocal numbers can be followed and absorbed.
Herbert Schneider
(translation: Elizabeth Robinson)
(from: takte 1/2008)
All the Pomp of Versailles. News from the Lully Complete Edition
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Œuvres completes. Georg Olms Verlag, www.olms.de
For all published works, the following materials are available: full score (with scholarly introduction, notes on performance practice, libretto with introduction and critical commentary), vocal score, parts, libretto in electronic form and in the near future also orchestral suites for concert performance by chamber orchestra. Performance material is available on hire from Alkor-Edition Kassel.
Bild oben: ”Thésêe" im Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Premiere 20.2.2008, Orchestre et Chœur Le Concert d'Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm (Photo: Alvaro Yanez)