Rousseau

COMPOSERS: Rousseau
LABELS: CPO
WORKS: Le devin du village
PERFORMER: Janine Micheau, Nicolai Gedda, Michel Roux; Raymond Saint-Paul Choir, Louis de Froment CO/Louis de Froment
CATALOGUE NO: 999 559-2 ADD
Though Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s name is a byword of 18th-century philosophy and aesthetics, he himself regarded composition as his primary vocation, despite his scanty musical training. He composed this one-act intermezzo as an attempt at a French form of Italian opera buffa to counter the elaborate artifice of French opera. Though a great success in 1752, the 20th century has best known it as a historical footnote. This idiomatic 1956 recording makes a fine case for the work. As the pastoral lovers Colette and Colin Micheau sings with characteristic plum-toned charm and Gedda lightens his voice for the high tessitura. Michel Roux makes a benignly grave soothsayer. Froment conducts with graceful affection for the music. Though there is no libretto, the synopsis is presented in detail. Barrymore Laurence Scherer