Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Lully: Phaëton

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

This was one of the single most popular and enduring of the tragedies lyriques of Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-87). First produced in 1683 at the Paris Opera, it was so well liked it was referred to as "the Opera of the People." Phaëton was performed in many other European cities: Antwerp, Regensburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Ghent, and The Hague. This was unusual, because outside of France, opera of the French Baroque generally could not hold its own against the overwhelming international popularity of Italian opera. Following its premiere production, Phaëton was restaged in Lyon, and the Paris Opera revived it again and again throughout the first half of the eighteenth century. Phaëton was worthy of all its revivals because it is one of the most musically beautiful of Lully's operas; its grand stage spectacle was combined with tuneful vocal airs and choruses and plenty of sprightly dance numbers.

The story of the opera is taken from a classical source, Ovid's Metamorphoses, which tells of the rash youth, Apollo's son, who failed to manage the Sun God's chariot, and was consequently struck down by Jupiter's thunderbolt. Lully's librettist, Quinault, embellished the legend with amorous and political subplots. Mark Minkowski and his period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre put in a splendid interpretation of Phaëton for the French record label Erato. I broadcast the two-CD Erato set on Sunday, April 23, 1995.

Phaëton has been recorded anew for another French record label Aparte. Their 2012 release on two silver discs gives us Christophe Rousset's treatment of the Lullian masterwork. Rousset directs his own period-instrument group Les Talens Lyriques, augmented by the Chamber Choir of Namur. Phaëton was recorded live in concert performance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.