Zoroastre : 1749

"Rameau's 'tragédie en musique' was first performed at the Paris Opera in 1749, but it is usually heard nowadays in the radical revision that the composer made for a revival there seven years later. Both of the previous CD recordings of Zoroastre ... used that 1756 score, but Alexis Kossenko opts for the original, in which three of the five acts are entirely different from the later version ... Individual characterisations are almost cartoonishly thin. It's the great musical set pieces, especially the occult rites that take up most of the fourth act in a dazzling sequence of choruses and dances, that are the most compelling parts of the score, and provide most of the moments when Kossenko's performance really catches fire. There are outstanding individual performances, too ... Even so, this is mainly a set for French baroque specialists".

Læs anmeldelse

"The chorus and line-up of soloists is first-rate, with a suitably menacing Abramane (Tassis Christoyannis) and a witchy Érinice (Véronique Gens) ... The instrumental numbers (notably the sarabands) are beautifully done, with the weather - lashings of thunder and lightning - forcefully dramatised throughout".