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Charles-Simon Catel. Les Bayadères

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couverture les Bayadères CD-Book. Bru Zane Label. French Opera Collection n. 7.

An admirer of Mozart and a great reformer of music education at the recently opened Paris Conservatoire (1795), Charles-Simon Catel composed in 1810 Les Bayadères, an operatic masterpiece set in India, which competed successfully with Spontini's La Vestale, which was then at the height of its popularity. Tinged with orientalism, it turns the page on Classicism and uses new musical and dramatic structures to create emotion. In a work full of action and excitement, the heroine of the opera, the bayadère Laméa – a 'star' role (then a new concept) – shows remarkable presence. On his arrival in Paris in the 1820s, the young and very discerning Hector Berlioz was filled with enthusiasm by this work.

bru-zane.com

Content

Gérard Condé – Presentation of the work

Didier Talpain – Les Bayadères or exoticism between Classicism and Romanticism

François-Joseph Fétis – Catel through the eyes of a contemporary

José Pons – Caroline Branchu at the zenith of her career

Libretto

Related works

Les Bayadères

Charles-Simon CATEL

/

Étienne de JOUY

1810

Related persons

Composer

Charles-Simon CATEL

(1773 - 1830)

Librettist

Étienne de JOUY

(1764 - 1846)

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