LULLY : ATYS

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 11th of September 2011 at 3.03 - 6.15 pm

LULLY: Atys, an opera in a prologue and five acts

Atys.............................. Bernard Richter
Cybèle.......................... Stéphanie d'Oustrac
Sangaride...................... Emmanuelle de Negri
Célénus......................... Nicolas Rivenq
Idas.............................. Marc Mauillon
Doris............................. Sophie Daneman
Mélisse......................... Jaël Azzaretti
Le Sommeil................... Paul Agnew
Morphée....................... Cyril Auvity
Le Temps, Le Fleuve..... Bernard Deletré
Flore............................. Elodie Fonnard
Iris................................ Rachel Redmond
Melpomène................... Anna Reinhold
Zéphir........................... Francisco Rueda
Zéphir........................... Reinoud van Mechelen
Phobétor....................... Callum Thorpe
Les Arts Florissants Chorus & Orch/William Christie
(recorded in the Opéra Comique, Paris by Radio France

INTRODUCTION 
COMPOSER
PREVIEW
REVIEW
RECORDING

When William Christie's recording of Lully's Atys came out in 1987, GRAMOPHONE magazine featured it on the front cover of the July issue; inside was an article on Lully (157-158) and a review of the recording (215-216), both by Nicholas Anderson. He gave it a resounding bravo! and audiences at this revival were saying Magnifique! Extraordinaire! I have all three of those pieces from the magazine, neatly folded and tucked into the compact-disc box with the libretto (which has the original print of the text; fortunately I have studied French literature ancient and modern so I can handle it). I acquired the box-set second-hand at Slow Boat Records in Wellington, also the source of countless operas on 12-inch records in my collection. (Amazon can sell you one, as noted under "recording" above.)

The work is a "tragédie lyrique", and concerns a love affair of a shepherd (Atys) with a goddess (Cybèle); she wants him badly; but he prefers a nymph (Sangaride); she deceitfully causes him to kill his beloved and then turns him into a pine tree.

The cast is dressed in costumes of the 17th century, the time of Louis XIV (oui, le Roi Soleil), for whom the opera was composed, and who loved it.

Lully was Italian but he composed in a French style. He worked closely with his librettist Quinault to ensure that their eleven operas (1673-1686) matched the quality of the classical dramas of Racine and Corneille; but he also collaborated with Molière on Le bourgois gentilhomme (1670). So it was just like Gilbert and Sullivan, first Cox and Box without Gilbert, then all the Savoy operas. Quinault and Lully for ever.