Lully Psyché Ambroisine Bré, Deborah Cachet, Bénédicte Tauran, Cyril Auvity; Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset Château de Versailles CVS086 144:49 mins (2 discs)
In celebration of their 30th anniversary, Les Talens Lyriques made this dazzling recording of Lully’s opera Psyché. Rarely performed or recorded, this unwieldy ‘tragédie-comique’ offers 18 dramatis personae moving through a baggy plot with at times disjointed movements – one even in Italian (!). ‘Comic’ action can seem cruel: Venus, jealous of mortal Psyché’s beauty, is ultimately thwarted when her son Cupid falls in love with Psyché rather than aiding Venus’s plot to destroy her. Yet the score is mostly ravishing, and is here the launchpad for stunning performances.
Under harpsichordist-director Christophe Rousset, brisk instrumental movements are electrifying, laments wrenching and comic numbers hilarious. Rousset unerringly lands his vocalists where the poetic caesura does, while his artistic directorship alternates between fierce control and vast indulgence. Ambroisine Bré in the title role unleashes luminous colours and heightens tension by unexpectedly re-calibrating the pulse; Cyril Auvity’s Cupid croons and whispers his ardent desire; and the vocal power of mezzo-soprano Bénédicte Tauran’s Venus dominates when her anger erupts in Act IV.
Lully’s masterstrokes include the hypnotic tread of the Act I Italian-language chaconne, the airy melodic variations on the Act II finale melody ‘Air pour les petits amours et les zéphires’, and the onstage hammering of Cyclops embedded in the score – all coups de théâtre upon which Les Talens Lyriques impress their own virtuosity.
Berta Joncus
