On March 12, baritone Philippe Sly and soprano Hélène Guilmette will release Les Amants Trahis, a collection of four cantatas by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Backing them up on this Analekta recording is an ensemble of period instrumental specialists led by harpsichordist Luc Beauséjour. CBC Music is giving you the opportunity to stream the full album in advance of its launch.
There's enormous buzz around Sly, who took top prize at the 2012 Montreal International Musical Competition and hasn't looked back. And Guilmette is no stranger to the success that a major competition win can bring. She took second prize at the 2004 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
Before you hear one note of music from this new recording, you may be struck by the gender-bending album cover art. In an email to CBC Classical, Sly explained the photo refers to Rameau's cantata, Les Amants Trahis, in which two friends have been dumped by their respective lovers. "Since Hélène's character is also a man, we thought it would be fun to make her look more masculine and me more feminine. And since the story is perfectly suited to friends of either sex, we felt an androgynous look was thematically appropriate and would also catch people's attention."
[embed duo cantata]Rameau: Les Amants Trahis, cantata for two voices.
Tircis: Guilmette, Damon: Sly
The photo is not the only striking element here. Rameau's cantatas have all the dramatic intensity of baroque opera, but use much smaller performing forces, often only one vocal soloist. He wrote his cantatas early in his career, before building a name as a composer, and it's in these works that he developed the craft that later emerged in his full-scale operatic works.
Guilmette, who wrote an email to CBC Classical describing Rameau's music as "theatrical, tender and exciting," says she approaches these cantatas as she would an opera. "The music is so well written, it was easy for us to imagine a mise en scène. The two characters each react differently to being dumped by their girlfriends. Philippe's character, Damon, is cavalier about it, saying the girl wasn't worth the effort, whereas my character, Tircis, takes it more seriously. In the end, Damon convinces Tircis that there are plenty of fish in the sea."
[embed Sly's first solo cantata]Rameau: Thétis, cantata for solo voice and instruments.
Sly, baritone
[embed Sly's second solo cantata]Rameau: Aquilon et Orithie, cantata for solo voice and instruments.
Sly, baritone
What should 21st-century audiences listen for in this music? Sly explains. "These cantatas are ripe with dramatic potential and perfectly suited to today's modern dramatic aesthetic. Rameau wrote Thétis and Aquillon et Orithie very early in his career and was deliberately experimenting with French and Italian styles. The Italianate fury arias are dramatic and relentless, whereas the French moral arias heard at the end of the cantatas are reflective and harmonically inventive."
[embed Guilmette's solo cantata]Rameau: Le Berger Fidèle, cantata for solo voice and instruments.
Guilmette, soprano
This project marks Guilmette's second collaboration with harpsichordist Luc Beauséjour. She admires his ability to bring together talented musicians who work well together. "Thanks to Luc, I have met some extraordinary colleagues," she says. "I consider him more a guide than a director, who gives us a lot of freedom and who is a tremendously attentive listener. Working with him is always an exchange of ideas. It's the best way to get the most out of everyone, and to serve the music."
Sly agrees with Rameau's famous assertion that a good musician should surrender himself to all the characters he wishes to portray. "Not only for depicting different characters, but for all music making," says Sly. "Music requires a vulnerability and openness that is both exhausting and exhilarating."
Watch Sly and the members of the instrumental ensemble in action at the recording sessions which took place at the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours in Old Montreal.
Related:
Listen to Philippe Sly sing Vaughan Williams's Songs of Travel with the Chamber Players of Canada