Michel Roux

Michel Roux, bass
Offenbach – Orphée aux enfers
Orchestre de l’Association des Concerts Lamoureux, Jules Gressier

Choeur Raymond Saint-Paul

Liliane Berton (soprano), Diane
Fréda Betti (soprano), L’Opinion Publique
Claudine Collart (soprano), Euridice
Deva Dassy (mezzo-soprano), Vénus & Junon
Claude Devos (tenor), Orphée
Aimé Doniat (baritone), Pluton-Aristée & Mercure
Pierre Germain (tenor), Mars
Andrée Grandjean (soprano), Cupidon
Huguette Prudhon (soprano), Minerve
Michel Roux (baritone), Jupiter
Georges Alès, solo violin

Mediafire link for abridged Orphée aux enfers – Gressier

(These are zip files – left click the link, download the files, then unzip when downloaded)

Pathé DTX 30143
Recorded 22nd to 24th December 1952, Paris

1 Introduction
2 Act I – Duo de Concerto (Ah! C’est ainsi… C’est déplorable, c’est affroyable)
3 Act II – Choeur du sommeil (Dormons, que notre somme) – Couplets (Je suis Cupidon, Je suis Vénus)
4 Act II – Le réveil des dieux (Par Saturne! Quel est ce bruit?)
5 Act II – Couplets de Diana (Quand Diane descend dans la plaine)
6 Act II – Rondeau des métamorphoses (Pour séduire Alcmène la fière)
7 Act II – Final (Il approche! Il s’avance)
8 Act III – Duo de la mouche (Il m’a semblé sur mon épaule)
9 Act IV – Choeur infernal et Hymne à Bacchus (Vive le vin! Vive Pluton!)
10 Act IV – Menuet et Galop Infernal (Maintenant, je veux… Ce bal est original)
11 Act IV – Final (Ne regarde pas en arrièrre)

Rousseau – Le Devin du Village
Orchestre de Chambre Louis de Froment, Louis de Froment
     Nicolai Gedda, tenor (Colin)
Janine Micheau, soprano (Colette)
Michel Roux, bass (Le Devin)
Choeurs Raymond Saint-Paul

Mediafire link for Rousseau – Le Devin du Village – de Froment (1956)

(This is a zip file – left click the link, download the file, then unzip when downloaded)

Columbia 33CX 1503
Matrices XPTX 394 21, 395 21 (M6 176329/30)
Recorded April 1956
Issued February 1958

Rousseau is better known as a philosopher, but fancied himself as something of a musician, and his “Le Devin du Village” was extremely influential in its day. It was later parodied by Mozart in “Bastien und Bastienne.” Rousseau was a proponent of Italian operatic style as exemplified by Pergolesi’s “La serva padrona,” and wrote articles supporting the Italian as opposed to the French style espoused by Rameau. Rousseau’s own amateur attempt at opera, though hugely popular at the time, sounds somewhat trite and pedestrian now, though it is given as good a performance as one could hope for in the recording below. Gedda is perhaps too strong for the role of Colin sometimes.

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