Programme
Circé
Tragédie en musique in a Prologue and Five Acts (1694)
Music by Henry Desmarest (1661-1741)
Libretto by Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Sainctonge (1650-1718)
The Boston Early Music Festival’s theme this year is A Celebration of Women and will feature Circé, Desmarest’s tragédie lyrique. The score will be published in the CMBV’s Monumentales collection for the occasion.
From 4th – 11th June 2023, the Boston Early Music Festival, CMBV partners for over fifteen years, will present a new stage production of one of Henry Desmarest’s finest scores, a tragédie lyrique from 1694 intitled Circé. Desmaret is admired today for grands motets but during his lifetime he was best known for his operas. Falling from favour, he left Paris for Spain then Lorraine, which stalled his career as a composer of operas. However, in 1694 performances of Circé at the Académie Royale de Musique confirmed the hopes raised since following the premiere of Didon the previous year. Desmarest was a follower of Lully and paved the way towards a new type of French opera, his scores permeated with drama and poignancy. The CMBV has published the composer’s entire works and prepared the score of Circé for this revival production. It will also be released on the CPO record label (long-established partners of the Boston Early Music Festival).
