Latest releases reviewed.
RAMEAU: LES BOREADES
Soloists: Barbara Bonney, Paul Anew, Toby Spencer, Stephane Degout, Laurent Naouri. Opera National de Paris. Les Arts Florissants. Conductor: William Christie Opus Arte
*****
The revival of baroque opera has brought many forgotten masterpieces back before the public, and in France the work of William Christie in reinterpreting the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau has given a new generation a chance to enjoy these vivid scores. Rameau, France's leading composer in the 18th century, combined music, arias and dance to spectacular effect in his operas, and Christie places the drama in a modern setting with considerable originality.
Les Boreades, a love story of the queen Alphise, who would rather abdicate her crown than marry without love, has some of his finest mature music; Barbara Bonney in the main part is very impressive, combining determination with vulnerability. With imaginative staging and settings, this performance fairly fizzes along and should serve as an appropriate introduction to the operas of this great composer. www.opusarte.com - Colman Morrissey
JOHN MARTYN
Live at the BBC Universal
***
Making "difficult" music palatable and accessible came very easy to John Martyn, the Scottish singer-songwriter (now resident in Ireland) whose love of the good life and whose uncompromising attitudes towards just about everything stymied his chances of commercial mainstream success. These days, unhealthily overweight and wheelchair bound, Martyn cuts something of a durable if fragile figure whose influence is heard in the likes of too many singer-songwriters you care to mention (although Ray LaMontagne is, perhaps, the most obvious acolyte). This revelatory (if self-explanatory) DVD highlights a slimmer, healthier man who knew how to string together some excellent jazz-inflected folk-rock without being hemmed in by genre definitions. Most of the BBC sessions are from 1978 and 1980; extras include various Old Grey Whistle Test appearances between 1975 and 1982. Tony Clayton-Lea
