Roland

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques recorded Lully's Persee a couple of years ago (for another label, Astree). Persee was good, but this new recording of Roland is even better--perhaps because Roland is the stronger work, both musically and dramatically. It was supposedly Lully's favorite among his own operas, and this performance shows why.

Despite its large cast and expansive format (a prologue plus five acts), the opera tells a simple, straightforward story (based, of course, on Ariosto's Orlando furioso). The hero Roland is obsessively in love with Angelique, who prefers Medor. When Roland just won't take "no" for an answer, Angelique finally agrees to meet him for a tryst in a secluded rural spot. Instead, she runs off with Medor. Roland shows up for the rendezvous, discovers that Angelique has betrayed him, and goes spectacularly mad (interestingly, his insanity is depicted more via the orchestra than vocally). In the last act, a "good fairy" named Logistille restores Roland's sanity; she, a personification of Glory, and a chorus of the Shades of Heroes of the past all urge Roland to dedicate himself to glory, rather than to love.

The music is always attractive, but it has isolated moments of almost supernatural beauty. One of these occurs at the end of Act 3, when Angelique has decided to marry Medor and run away with him. She leaves the stage to make the preparations, and her subjects (Angelique is the Queen of Cathay) hail Medor as their new king and congratulate him at length on his successful wooing of Angelique. This all takes place to a magnificent Chaconne, first played by the orchestra alone, then repeated by the chorus and various solo voices. The sequence lasts eleven minutes in this performance, during which "nothing happens on stage" (except for the dancing, which we can only imagine while listening to this recording)--and yet it is mesmerizing, because of the way Lully spins out and develops his melodies. Another wonderful sequence occurs in Act 5, when Roland's sanity is restored via sounds of ravishing beauty.

Rousset and his instrumentalists attack the score with immense enthusiasm. All of the singers, even though heard in bit parts, are excellent (as is usually the case in recordings of this repertory, there is some doubling and even tripling of roles). Because the French were not too keen about castrati, all of the male parts are written for natural male voices. Roland is a bass, and Nicolas Teste is superb in the part, sounding heroic, ardent, and demented by turns.

The recorded sound is also first-rate, detailed and immediate. The handsome booklet contains the libretto and translation, along with a lot of useful information about the work.

My one reservation concerns the packaging. Once you've removed the shrink wrap, you have, essentially, a long strip of cardboard with three plastic trays (containing the CDs) glued along it. This folds up to create the package. But the cardboard looks and feels flimsy; one suspects it could easily be soiled or damaged. You're supposed to tuck the (thick) booklet back inside the folded strip, but of course (once the shrink wrap is gone) there's nothing to prevent the booklet from falling out. Such a fine recording really deserves a more substantial presentation (I recommend the format that Harmonia Mundi sometimes uses for such multiple-CD sets: the same sort of cardboard folder for the CD trays, but placed inside a sturdy hinged box).

In short, this is a must-but for anyone who is interested in French Baroque opera.

Written in 1685, Lully's Roland is based on Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso. Roland is none other than `Orlando', a subject widely composed in the forms operas by different composers. The subject apparently was chosen by Louis XIV with a patriotic message of loyalty to one's country, where fighting battles is more important and noble than earthly love. It was a great hit and played on-and-off in France and other European countries until 1750.
The story is about Queen Angelique of Cathay's vacillating love for Médor, who is of "obscure lineage" and therefore beneath her station. Médor has wild undying love for Angelique, but Roland adores Angelique also, but while she admires his knightliness, she is otherwise not interested. After Médor threatens suicide, Angelique gives in; they marry amid great festivity (close of Act 3).
After that, in the last two acts, Roland enters centre stage. Roaming with his pal Astolfe, Astolfe tries to reason with him. Roland discovers some writings on the wall of a grotto celebrating the love of Angélique and Médor. Falling into despair, a village wedding party passes by and he was told the lovers' departure. Roland becomes enraged and then insane. In the last act, Astolfe summons Logistille, the wise fairy, who puts Roland to sleep. Logistille sends for the ghosts of dead heroes to urge Roland on to action, glory, and war; when he awakens he is sane and ashamed of his previous weakness. With the encouragement of Terror, Glory, and Fame he races toward his country to do battle as the ghosts sing "Today cast off forever/The shameful bonds of love".

This is a live recording made in Lausanne in January 2004. The performance is fully idiomatic, exciting and energetically led by Christophe Rousset. Perhaps the only cast member who is not French is Alexiev.

French Baroque opera is filled with dance music and odd mixtures of recitative, arioso, and brief aria. This format was bizarrely specific to its time and place and is not easy to sell off. Of course, its artifice is part and parcel of (and even most of) its appeal. Dances and purely orchestral interludes are woven into the drama but can also stand alone, like the glorious Chaconne that closes Act 3, in which the couple Angelique and Médor is praised and entertained. Also, the scene in the fourth act in which Roland comes upon the wedding party and learns of Angélique's elopement, pairs drama and divertissement most cleverly. They are as crucial as the occasional emotion-filled scene, usually a lengthy solo aria for an angry, bereft, vengeful, wicked, or insane character, of which Roland's Mad Scene at the end of Act 4 is typical. The way this scene begins, with its maniacal, dark, runaway-train continuo is unique and is Lully at his best.
Anna-Maria Panzarella's Angelique sings with a combination of elegance and plangency. The timbre is flexible and genuinely pretty. Angelique's uncertainty is vividly expressed to make the audience care. Her confidante, Témire is sung by Monique Zanetti . Zanetti's portrayal is both sympathetic and strong. Olivier Dumait sings Médor with conviction. Roland's role appears insignificant in the earlier Acts, but once he takes over in the fourth act he almost never stops--and his passion, disappointment, then anger and insanity, which give way in the last act to genuinely heroic utterance. All these are stunningly and truly heroically rendered by bass Nicolas Testé. Salome Haller's singing of Logistille's music is ravishing, and the rest of the cast is superb. However, highest praise goes to Rousset's Les Talens Lyrique and the Lausanne Opera chorus. The former plays with verve and true drama, with engertic strings punctuated by the rare entrance of oboes, flutes, bassoon, while the latter colours the score as effectively as the soloists.

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