As an instrument from Italy, one that was exotic and evocative of Mediterranean atmospheres, the mandolin was very much in fashion in France until the end of the Century of Enlightenment: a fact also confirmed by many iconographic and musical sources. Pizzicar Galante, an ensemble that stands today as a benchmark for the interpretation of the galant literature for mandolin and continuo, has been acclaimed for the "finesse, creativity and spirit" (Olivier Fourés, Diapason) and "communicative energy" of it's performances (Sébastien Llinares, France Musique).

This hugely successful opera, heard and admired by Mozart during his sojourn in France, began a new kind of French musical drama. Glorious orchestral colours and wickedly witty ensemble pieces reveal striking musical and dramatic ideas, embracing the daring new ideals of the Enlightenment, while laying bare the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters in a way that would inspire Mozart’s partnership with his librettist da Ponte. Mistaken identity, mysterious strangers, true love, duels and a happy ending!

Raymond Leppard, CBE (born 11 August 1927, London, England - died 22 October 2019, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) was an English-American conductor, harpsichordist, composer & editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music. he was appointed Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1987 (a position which he held for fourteen years).

André Grétry's Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionhearted, lay neglected until 2019 when a production by the Opéra Royal de Versailles was mounted. This album is taken from that performance, and it's very well recorded indeed. The opera was quite well known in its time and was even performed in the young U.S. (in Boston, in 1796), and it's a great find, a real crowd-pleaser as much today as at the end of the 18th century. The story is based on a probably imaginary tale of an episode during Richard's return from the Crusades, when he was imprisoned in Linz, Austria.

Premiered in 1784 at the Académie Royale de Musique, where it ensured the institution’s fortune, La Caravane du Caire was one of Grétry’s most famous operas, its popularity continuing into the 19th century. After the recording made under the direction of Marc Minkowski in 1991, Guy Van Waas proposes an energetic new version that enables us to discover a few variants in relation to the previous version. This production, realized by the Palazzetto Bru Zane of Venice, benefits from a fascinating musicological presentation by Alexandre and Benoît Dratwicki. The libretto is typical of the oriental subjects that were so highly prized in the late 18th century. Here, the beautiful Zélime, sold as a slave to a pasha, is rescued from the seraglio thanks to the courage of her beloved Saint-Phar and the loyalty of another Frenchman, Florestan. The work is peppered with comical situations, tender or bravura arias (including a pastiche of Italian-style coloratura) and embellished with numerous ballets, some of which contribute an original note of exoticism.

Le Jugement de Midas (The Judgement of Midas) is a French comédie mêlée d'ariettes (a kind of opéra comique), in three acts by André Grétry dedicated to . It was first performed, with amateur singers, on 28 March 1778 in the private little theatre set up by Madame de Montesson in the apartments of her secret husband Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans at the Palais-Royal in Paris. Libretto is by the Irish playwright Thomas Hales (also known by the French name Thomas d'Hèle) with additional contributions by Louis Anseaume. It was based on the burlesque opera Midas (1760) by Kane O'Hara. The public premiere at the Comédie-Italienne took place on 27 June 1778.

André Grétry's Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionhearted, lay neglected until 2019 when a production by the Opéra Royal de Versailles was mounted. This album is taken from that performance, and it's very well recorded indeed. The opera was quite well known in its time and was even performed in the young U.S. (in Boston, in 1796), and it's a great find, a real crowd-pleaser as much today as at the end of the 18th century. The story is based on a probably imaginary tale of an episode during Richard's return from the Crusades, when he was imprisoned in Linz, Austria. A trouvère singer named Blondel who serves the king realizes his predicament, sneaks into the prison disguised as a blind fiddler, and touches off an action-packed sequence of events with a romance involving the prison governor, a grand party, and a visiting Flemish countess whose troops rescue Richard in the end.

The Haydn series continues with the Paris Symphony no 87. Julien Chauvin and his orchestra keep shaking us up with historical instruments listening Haydn’s works and several other forgotten scores from the same period. All of them were commissioned for the Concert de la Loge Olympique - ancestor and model for Julien Chauvin and his musicians - and all of them sank into oblivion during the 19th century, except for Haydn’s symphonies. The release offers an opportunity to experience some rare works of Grétry, Lemoyne and Ragué and to revive the success that they once knew.

André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry was the greatest French composer of opéra-comique in the eighteenth century. His librettist for Le Magnifique, Jean-Michel Sedaine, took a tale by La Fontaine and fashioned it into a compelling libretto. Grétry responded with an outstanding score, including one of the first programmatic overtures in musical history. His expressive love music, and extended preludes and postludes, add to the theatrical variety of this important and varied opera.

Gretry's "Richard Coeur De Lion" (1784), a rousing tale about the rescue of the crusader king Richard the Lionheart by his faithful troubadour Blondel, is a minor masterpiece, the greatest French opera comique of the Ancien Regime. Gretry wasn't an eighteenth century composer of the calibre of Mozart, Rameau or his contemporary Gluck, but his music seduced audiences with its charm and tunefulness and in this opera he provided a great deal more. Blondel's stirring aria of loyalty to his king, "O Richard, oh mon roi", was so powerful it was used as an anthem by the royalists in the 1790s and promptly banned by the revolutionary authorities.

Working in collaboration with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles and the Palazzetto Bru Zane (Centre de Musique Romantique Française), Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel carry on with their journey of rediscovering forgotten operatic works, this time pitting themselves against music from the close of the Age of Enlightenment, in Andromaque (1778), the single tragédie lyrique written by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741- 1813). Known above all for his light opéras- comiques, at the end of his career the composer turned towards an increasingly heroic style in the vein of Méhul and Cherubini.

The success of his first opéra comique Le Huron (1769) won André-Modeste Grétry the high esteem and personal friendship of the Dauphine, after which the French court opened its doors to him and several of his works were performed there in succession. Official confirmation of his status came in 1773, when Louis XV and his court commissioned him to write a large-scale work for a special occasion: this was to be Céphale et Procris.

Canadian ensemble Notturna offers a charming instrumental version of the opera L'Amant jaloux (the jealous lover) by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741-1813). This anonymous arrangement for flute, oboe, violin, viola, and bass was found in the Biblioteca Estense di Modena. Though undated, it was likely transcribed in 1778, the year Grétry composed the opera. Founded in 2006 and directed by oboist Christopher Palameta, Notturna is a chamber collective whose spirited and sensitive playing (Early Music America) draws on the transparency and expressiveness of early wind instruments to paint fresh pictures of an unexplored historical repertoire.

Peter the Great was staged to celebrate the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. In order to understand the needs and sorrows of his people the young and dashing Tsar Peter decides to live and work incognito among the working classes. He falls in love with Catherine, a commoner's daughter and, still preserving his real identity, wants to marry her. Gretry's opera, premiered in Paris 1790, is one of the first operas about Russian emporor Peter I. Despite the fact that there are real historical characters in the comic opera, it remains a fairytale. There are no negative characters here; no one performs improper deeds; Virtue, Friendship and Sincerity are glorified.

Soprano Sandrine Piau's new project is dedicated to French baroque repertoire, offering a wide range of very beautiful arias by Rameau, Lully, Campra etc in a 100-year journey that mixes very famous music with little-know pieces, such as arias by Grétry or Sacchini > Sandrine Piau and Jérôme Correas, a former singer, founder and music director of Les Paladins, have worked together on a regular basis since their early careers, especially with William Christie.