Several French groups have taken up English Baroque opera in the early 2020s, and a new voice on the scene in 2022 was the group
Les Argonautes
and its director,
Jonas Descotte
. Here, in its debut release, it offers two works by
Henry Purcell
, one quite familiar and one much less so. The latter may be sufficient impetus for listeners here; the incidental music for
Circe, Z. 575
, which includes vocal numbers and isn't so different from an opera of the period other than that the total length is short, is rarely performed and includes several numbers that are real gems. Sample the duet and chorus "Lovers, Who to their first embraces go," near the end, a slow counterpart to
Dido & Aeneas
' famed "When I am laid in earth"; it reaches back into the early 17th century in its quasi-declamatory ornamentations of its vocal line. This will also give one an idea of the singers here, who occasionally sing in accented English but have an idea of what they are singing about and put across the sense of each number.
Descotte
's one-instrument-per-part ensemble (debatable, but certainly defensible music that may have been written for a girls' school) is exceptionally lively, and there is an X factor in the way
holds together; it doesn't always. One awaits further recordings from this ensemble, whether of English music or otherwise. ~ James Manheim