Search
When the University of Hartford was incorporated just over 50 years ago by business and community leaders, they envisioned a center of education and culture for Greater Hartford. Read more...
Persons with disabilities who wish to access the WWUH Public File may contact John Ramsey at: ramsey@hartford.edu
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Campra: L'Europe Galante
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:
Andre Campra (1660-1744) was one of the most esteemed masters of the opera of the French baroque to follow in the footsteps of Lully, the founder of the genre of the tragédie en musique. In times long past I have presented two of Campra's eight lyric tragedies in their world premiere recordings: Tancrède (1702) on Sunday, March 3, 1991 and Idomenée (1712, rev. 1731) on Sunday, May 9, 1993.
The French opera-going public also wanted lighter weight lyric theatrical entertainment with plenty of dance divertissements. Campra was among the first composers in the new genre of the opéra-ballet. His L'Europe Galante (1697) remained enormously popular decades after its premiere well into the eighteenth century. Unlike the Lullian lyric tragedy, which tells one entire story over five acts, in this opera-ballet there are four acts telling four separate stories. All four vignettes set forth the concept of love in four different European countries: France, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. (The Turkish act became particularly popular on its own.)
There's an old historically informed recording of L'Europe Galante in abridged form made in 1973 with Gustav Leonhardt conducting La Petite Bande. In its 1990 reissue on compact disc it was paired with Lully's incidental music for Molière's comedy Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670). I have broadcast that Harmonia Mundi recording a couple of times along with Lully's music for the play. The HM release gave us less than an hour of Campra's music.
Today you get to hear the complete opéra-ballet: a tad more than two full hours of music presented on two Chateau de Versailles Spectacles CDs. Sebastien d'Hérin is one of a younger generation of conductors who specialize in the performance of the music of the French baroque. He leads the period instrumental forces of Les Nouveaux Charactères. This new L'Europe Galante was recorded in 2017 in the magnificent opera house of the Royal Palace at Versailles.