Judith van Wanroij reviews
Rameau: Dardanus
Cyrille Dubois, Judith van Wanroij, Chantal Santon Jeffery; Purcell Choir; Orfeo Orchestra/György Vashegyi (Glossa)
Boismortier: Les voyages de l'Amour
Katherine Watson, et al; Purcell Choir; Orfeo Orchestra/György Vashegyi (Glossa)
Lemoyne: Phèdre
Judith van Wanroij, Julien Behr et al; Orfeo Orchestra/György Vashegyi (BruZane)
Judith Van Wanroij sings Lully's Alceste
Loosely based on Euripides’s drama Alcestis, Lully’s tragédie en musique spans the gamut of human emotion, from high tragedy to frothy comedy. Love in its many guises – passionate, flirtatious, noble and selfless – is the driving force of the opera. The work’s ultimate hero is Alcide (Hercules), a thinly disguised allusion to Louis XIV, whom Lully celebrates in the fawning Prologue and with bellicose and triumphant music.