シャルパンティエ: ダヴィデとヨナタン

シャルパンティエの創作の絶頂期に書かれた
ダヴィデとヨナタン
ヴェルサイユ・バロック音楽センターのプロダクション

シャルパンティエの宗教的悲劇「ダヴィデとヨナタン」。シャルパンティエというと宗教作品が多く録音されておりますが、モリエールやコルネイユといったパリの人気劇作家達の音楽を担当し、数々の劇音楽作品を残しています。この作品は、1688年、イエズス会の大学の学生のために書かれました。ダヴィデとヨナタンの友愛と、残酷な権力争いに翻弄されてゆく姿を描いています。プロローグにはおきまりの王や貴族への讃美はなく、レチタティーヴォやデヴェルティスマンもほぼ見られません。登場人物が織りなすドラマや心理描写のために対位法技法が見事に用いられ、ハーモニーの洗練もあいまって、シャルパンティエの創作の絶頂のひとつといえます。

これまでにもクリスティら、名録音が存在はしておりますがこの録音は、フランスのバロック音楽を研究し普及させるための組織ヴェルサイユ・バロック音楽センターの肝いりのプロジェクトであることと、当時のイエズス会の状況をふまえて、男声(ヨナタンは女性ソプラノ)と児童合唱で歌唱陣を構成しているという点で、他とはまた一線を画した特別なものとなっております。
キングインターナショナル

Marc-Antoine Charpentiers David et Jonathas, setting the action-packed biblical story of Saul, has not often been recorded. William Christie and Les Arts Florissants fired the first shot in the late 90s, and there have been a few other attempts, but the work crosses categories -- not really an oratorio, with a limited role for the chorus, but not an opera in the conventional sense -- and this may have hurt it at the box office. The Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles specializes in music of this period, and Charpentier is certainly right up this outfits alley. The recording was made at Versailles, but its strength is actually that it reproduces the circumstances of its origin, which occurred elsewhere, at a Jesuit school in Paris. The music was intended to alternate with scenes from a play; here, conductor Olivier Schneebeli opts for declaimed readings from poetry by the 17th century writer Antoine Godeau. The work was written for young singers, not only in the childrens choir but also a child in the lead role of Jonathas, and Natacha Boucher has a great deal of flair here, certainly sounding like a future star. All the singers are either children or male adults. The music is continuous, and Charpentiers writing sometimes falls into melody or recitative but is most often somewhere in between, shifting naturally with the text. Some of it is quite vocally spectacular, however; sample "Quelle importune voix vient importune mon repos," Act I, scene 4, with its bass line descending to Russian-liturgical depths. Although the opera has five acts and a prologue, it goes by quickly; no doubt with the original use in mind, Charpentiers concept is compact. What is most attractive about the work is how opposite it is to the splendor and formality of Lully; the role of the chorus is limited, and the focus is squarely on the characters. Baroque opera lovers will find something new and intriguing here. ~ James Manheim