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Houston grand opera faust3/24/2023 ![]() ![]() In fact, Christophe had expected that theirs would be shorter than the well known version, but so much music has been discovered that their recording presents a longer Faust! And that is true here, the Faust they recorded is not the opera that everyone knows. This idea of re-creation is something that he likes to do with Les Talens Lyrique, to explore something which is new for the ensemble and the audience. ![]() All this meant that the recording presents a different view of the piece, including the comic aspects which are absent from the grand opera version which is familiar, giving a very different flavour to the work. Also, they reverted to the use of spoken dialogue rather than the recitative which was introduced after the works first performances. The recent researches on Gounod's opera had found a lot of earlier material, which whilst not essential to the work was still new music by Gounod. Because they performed so much new music, it was effectively a re-discovery of a new piece. He feels that this enjoyment is apparent in the recording, which is full of enthusiasm and not at all routine. So he accepted the challenge, and admits that he enjoyed the experience a lot. He opened the score and found his own way through a work he regards as a masterpiece, he did have something to say. So Christophe had already experimented with 19th century aesthetics, but when he was asked about the Faust project, there was the question 'should he do it?'. But Christophe and Les Talens Lyrique had already explored some of the 19th century repertoire thanks their Tragediennes series with Veronique Gens, discs which explore music written for great women French singers from Rameau to Lully to Gluck to Berlioz to Meyerbeer to Saint-Saens. ![]() My review of Christophe's recent recording) came from Palazzetto Bru Zane. The idea of a recording of Gounod's Faust and exploring the earlier surviving versions of the opera (it had quite a complex genesis, see ![]() Whilst Christophe was in London recently, I was lucky enough to be able to meet up with him again to chat about Gounod and exploration of the 19th century repertoire, but also, of course, the French Baroque as Christophe's cycle of recordings of Lully's opera reaches Isis, as well his explorations of rarities such as operas by Salieri and Legrenzi. ![]()
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