United States Charpentier, Lully, Rameau: Ana Vieira Leite (soprano), Rebecca Leggett, Juliette May (mezzo-sopranos), Richard Pittsinger, Bastien Rimondi (tenors), Matthieu Walendzik (baritone), Les Arts Florissants / William Christie (artistic director and conductor). Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, 28.1.2025. (RP)

Charpentier – Selections from Médée
Lully -Selections from Atys
Rameau – Selections from Pigmalion, Les fêtes d’Hébé, Les Indes galantes; ‘Formons les plus brillants concerts … Aux langueurs d’Apollon’ from Platée; ‘Qu’ai-je appris … Puissant maître des flots … Que ce rivage retentisse’ from Hippolyte et Aricie
William Christie returned to Carnegie Hall with Les Arts Florissants to celebrate his eightieth birthday. The conductor and harpsichordist was born in Buffalo, New York, but has long made his home in France. Since founding Les Arts Florissants in 1979, his name has been synonymous with Baroque music, especially from the glittering French courts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
While New York may not lay claim to Christie, it has embraced him since he brought a fully staged production of Lully’s Atys to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1989. The courtly spectacle combining music, dance and lavish costumes ignited an enduring interest in Baroque opera in the city and in the rest of America. This legacy was celebrated here with music by French Baroque opera composers Christie championed throughout his career – Charpentier, Lully and Rameau.
The music was composed over seventy years. The earliest, Lully’s Atys, premiered in 1676 during the reign of Louis XIV at the royal palace of Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Rameau’s Platée was staged in 1745 at Versailles as part of the celebrations for the wedding of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XV, to the Infanta María Teresa Rafaela of Spain. It was a period when opera was not only aristocratic entertainment but also served as a vehicle for soft diplomacy, projecting the wealth and sophistication of France.
The operatic excerpts demonstrated the long shadow cast by Lully over the genre. Atys typifies the conventions of the primacy of the text and clarity of drama in the tragédie en musique. Charpentier would break with tradition by incorporating the lyrical sensibilities and dissonances of Italian opera, as would Rameau with his even greater focus on melody and daring instrumentation to generate emotion.
One of Christie’s strengths is that such subtle stylistic differences are probed and highlighted to a remarkable depth and are readily discernible to the listener. This concert of operatic arias and scenes did not follow a chronological arc but rather a dramatic one. That element was chiefly supplied by the six singers as equally versed and skilled in French Baroque style as the instrumentalists
In the selections from Charpentier’s Médée, Rebecca Leggett had madness in her eyes and daring in her voice as she gave vent to the enchantress’s rage before which fire-breathing bulls recoiled. Bastien Rimondi, as the title character in Rameau’s Pigmalion, impressed with sunbursts of ornamentation and long runs adorned with beguiling colors and shadings. singing of the sculptor’s happy fate that the statue he carved and loves has been brought to life by Love’s divine touch.
Platée was Rameau’s first foray into comic opera and remains one of his greatest successes. The plot revolves around an unattractive water nymph who believes that Jupiter, the king of the gods, is in love with her. As La Folie, Ana Viera Leite performed the story of Apollo and Daphne as a cautionary tale for Platée, advising her not to pursue Jupiter. With a voice as dazzling as her silver dress, Leite displayed a mix of sauciness and defiance, executing coloratura runs that spanned from the depths of her range to its very peak with ease.
The dynamic baritone Matthieu Walendzik shifted between defiance, supplication and anger while portraying Thésée in Hippolyte et Aricie, Rameau’s first opera. As Walendzik sang about the waves surging furiously, the strings churned with equal ferocity for a spectacular effect.
As Iphise in Rameau’s Les fêtes d’Hébé, Juliette May sang of the Spartan princess’s impending marriage to Tyrtaeus in a rich voice that throbbed with intensity. As with the other singers, May was a master at employing ornamentation and vocal colors to depict Iphise’s mercurial emotions.
Richard Pittsinger beckoned all to sleep with his dramatic flair and refined tenor as Le Sommeil in Atys. In L’Oracle’s brief pronouncement on the fate of the Messenian soldiers in Les fêtes d’Hébé, Pittsinger expressed sadness and resignation in delicate vocal ornaments and lighter-than-air trills.

Seated with the other instrumentalists, Christie alternated between harpsichord and portative organ. The musical preparation had all been done beforehand and little was required from him except the occasional nod of his head. To the extent that direction was needed, it was provided by concertmaster Emmanuel Resche-Caserta.
As an encore, all joined in ‘Tendre amour’ from Les Indes galantes. Resche-Caserta then announced a special ending to cap the birthday celebration. With that, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato walked onto the stage in a brilliant red dress.
DiDonato first collaborated with Christie in 2004 as Déjanire in Handel’s Hercules. After briefly reminiscing about Christie’s exacting demands regarding dynamics and expression, DiDonato delivered a captivating and intimate rendition of ‘As with rosy steps the morn’ from Handel’s Theodora. It was the perfect gift for a man who introduced so many to such an array of musical pleasures over so many years.
Rick Perdian
Such quality in music must make up for lack of quality in other fields these days.
Perhaps no other fields are so demanding cause the notes are already written. Music alone shall live (not mine but heard).