Lully’s Proserpine with Le Concert Spirituel

Salomé Haller (soprano)
Bénédicte Tauran (soprano)
Stéphanie d’Oustrac (mezzo-soprano)
Blandine Staskiewicz (mezzo-soprano)
Hjördis Thébault (mezzo-soprano)
Cyril Auvity (tenor)
François-Nicolas Geslot (tenor)
Benoît Arnould (baritone)
Marc Labonette (baritone)
Pierre-Yves Pruvot(baritone)
João Fernandes (bass)
Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet (artistic leader)

First edition: Glossa GCD 921615 (2008)
This release: Glossa GCD 921635 (2025)

review by Lukáš M. Vytlačil

The turn of the 1670s and 1680s marked an important watershed in the work of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687). The composer of the French royal court, who by that time already held the reins of official court music firmly in his hands, brought to a close his period of experimentation and the search for a distinctive dramatic style with the première of Bellerophon in 1679. In the same year, however, the eminent dramatist and Lully’s favoured librettist Philippe Quinault (1635–1688), who had been out of favour with King Louis XIV since the performance of Isis in 1677, was also able to return to court. The restored creative partnership immediately resumed its work, and the première of Proserpine followed the very next year.

Quinault had first considered treating this subject as early as the 1660s, but only after his return to court did he succeed in winning Lully over to it. He adapted the classical myth of the abduction of Proserpine (Persephone) by Pluto, together with the love story of Jupiter and Ceres, Proserpine’s parents. Quinault further enriched the whole with a second subsidiary plot involving intrigues between the river god Alpheus and the nymph Arethusa. Lully thus obtained outstanding material, whose considerable dramatic potential he exploited masterfully. The work’s grandeur and wide-ranging dramatic expression, in both solo and choral numbers, are employed not only with extraordinary intuition, but above all within a perfectly conceived overall concept. Here Lully arrived at what was essentially the definitive form of representative French court opera, as well as his own operatic compositional style. Proserpine is therefore rightly regarded as a model work of the French operatic genre of tragédie lyrique.

The recording by the Baroque orchestra Le Concert Spirituel was made in September 2006 at the Palace of Versailles and in November 2007 at the theatre in Poissy, and was first released in 2008 by Glossa. The same label has now reissued the recording in 2025 (catalogue number GCD 921635). From the very first bars, the listener is left in no doubt that this is a performance of exceptional quality, and that this reissue is no accident. Hervé Niquet, the orchestra’s artistic director, approaches Proserpine unerringly as a profound and experienced connoisseur of French Baroque music. His interpretation is exceptionally precise and carefully thought through. The choice of soloists is excellent in itself: the sopranos Salomé Haller (Proserpine) and Bénédicte Tauran (La Paix); the mezzo-sopranos Stéphanie d’Oustrac (Cérès), Blandine Staskiewicz (Aréthuse, Cyané) and Hjördis Thébault (La Victoire); the tenors Cyril Auvity (Alphée) and François-Nicolas Geslot (Mercure); the baritones Benoît Arnould (Ascalaphe), Marc Labonette (Jupiter, Crinise) and Pierre-Yves Pruvot (La Discorde); and the bass João Fernandes (Pluton). Their performances are technically precise and at the same time musically and dramatically finely constructed. All place considerable emphasis on rich dynamic shading and careful pronunciation of the text, which is a fundamental element in operas of the Lullian type, since the composer works with declamation and the rhythm of the text in a highly deliberate and purposeful way. The ensemble numbers, too, are highly successful.

Exactly the same may readily be said of the chorus. Perfectly unified singing, declamatory precision, and the consistent use of the full dynamic spectrum — from impressive fortes to exceptionally fragile-sounding pianos — lend the performance as a whole extraordinary plasticity and expressive force. Le Concert Spirituel likewise offers a first-rate orchestral performance. The precise number of players is not given in the booklet, but the recording makes it clear that this is a large ensemble, close to the practice in which such works were performed at court and at the Paris Académie royale de musique. The orchestra is superbly balanced technically, with excellent intonation, and thanks to its rich dynamic work it draws a highly impressive effect both from the monumental tutti passages and from the more delicate sections featuring strings or alto recorders. Certain details of the interpretation would no doubt allow for still more refined modelling of some phrases; personally, however, I believe that Niquet’s interpretative approach captures very well Jean-Baptiste Lully’s original intention and aim: to create official court opera that would reflect the splendour of the court of Louis XIV and serve above all as a means of majestic representation before courtiers, foreign aristocrats and diplomats alike. In this recording, that aim has most certainly been achieved, and almost 350 years after its creation Lully’s Proserpine is still able to astonish and move us just as it did at the time of its first performance.

The Czech original of the text was published on polyharmonie.cz.

Links

• Disc set on the website of the British retailer Juno.
• Disc set on the website of the German retailer JPC.
• Lullyho Proserpine s Le Concert Spirituel. Recenze Lukáše M. Vytlačila.
  (The Czech original of the present review.)
• Lukáš M. Vytlačil on Wikipedia.