October 1st saw the reveal of the winners of the 10 recording categories of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2019. The critically acclaimed recording of 'La Reine de Chypre' (Bru Zane, 2018) featuring the Vlaams Radiokoor, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris and conductor Hervé Niquet, is winner in the Opera Category.
opéra français • la reine de chypre
Vlaams Radiokoor • Hervé Niquet • Orchestre de chambre de Paris • Véronique Gens • Cyrille Dubois • Étienne Dupuis • Éric Huchet • Christophoros Stamboglis • Artavazd Sargsyan • Tomislav Lavoien
Although Fromental Halévy’s name entered the annals of the history of French music thanks to the success of La Juive (The Jewess) in 1835, many have argued that La Reine de Chypre (The Queen of Cyprus), written six years later, deserves to be considered his masterpiece. Wagner in particular found the music of the latter opera “noble, moving, even new and elevating” – so much so that in an article he provided a complete analysis of the work.
The story of La Reine de Chypre takes the audience along on a voyage from the palaces of Venice to those of Cyprus. Always ready to try something new, the publisher Maurice Schlesinger invested the enormous sum of 30,000 francs to acquire the rights to the opera. Alas, despite the initial successes, which led to various translations and arrangements, the work has since disappeared from the European stages and has not been performed in the last century and a half. In 2018, Palazzetto Bru Zane resurrected the forgotten masterpiece with a release in the critically acclaimed 'opéra français' series.
This recording has previously been awarded a CHOC de Classica and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (PdSK) 2018 3/4.