Psyché by Ambroise Thomas - Interview with Hélène Guilmette

‘Psyché’ by Ambroise Thomas
‘French opera’ series | volume 45 | 2025 | Bru Zane Label
Bilingual CD-book in French and English
2 CDs / book: 192 pages

Opéra-comique in three acts on a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 26 January 1857, and revised as a four-act opera, premiered at the same venue on 21 May 1878.
First version from 1857 with inserts from 1878.

György Vashegyi conductor
HUNGARIAN NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
HUNGARIAN NATIONAL CHOIR
With Hélène Guilmette, Antoinette Dennefeld, Tassis Christoyannis, Mercedes Arcuri, Anna Dowsley, Artavazd Sargsyan, Philippe Estèphe, Christian Helmer

Premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 26 January 1857, Ambroise Thomas’s Psyché tells the story of the ill-starred love between Eros and Psyche, who are manipulated by the cynical Mercury and envied by Daphne and Berenice, the heroine’s own sisters. The style of the work represents the nec plus ultra of mid-nineteenth-century French opéra-comique, notably in the Italianate influence of Rossini, which gives the singers of the two leading roles – one of which, Eros, is a breeches part for mezzo-soprano – a chance to glitter amid torrents of coloratura poured forth in impressive, passionate love duets.

The librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré achieved an inspired blend of comedy and tragedy by contrasting a quartet of cruel and grotesque characters (Psyche’s sisters and their suitors) with the noble hero and heroine. Ambroise Thomas’s music does not merely foreshadow the future triumphs of Mignon and Hamlet: it is worthy to stand beside them at the pinnacle of his operatic legacy, as his obituarists declared. This recording confirms their judgment.

Recorded from 10 to 12 February 2025 at the Béla Bartok National Concert Hall in Müpa, Budapest (Hungary).
Palazzetto Bru Zane musical editions

👉 https://bit.ly/_Psyché

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