Luogo e data di registrazione		Basilique de Saint-Maximin de Provence (France) - 1966
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Recording Supervision		Dr. Gallia | Dr. Krings
	Engineer		Sonart
	Prima Edizione LP		Harmonia Mundi | HMS 30 822 | 1 LP - durata 31' 39" | (p) 1966
	Edizione CD		Deutsche Harmonia Mundi | LC 0761 | 74321 32332 2 | 1 CD - durata 77' 38" | (c) 1995 | ADD
	Cover Art		Concert donné à l'honneur du Dauphin (Pannini) - mit freundl. Genehm,, Giraudon, Paris
	Note		-

This recording of the "Fêtes Vémitiennes" was made in Provence, the home of the brilliant André Campra, under the radiant sun of this land which combines the clarity of the French with the warmth of the South. The composer was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1660. His father came from Turin, his mother from Aix. This origin seems to have committed him to his later ideal, to marry the "délicatesse de la musique françoise" with the "vivacité dela musique italienne". On June 17th 1710 Campra's ballet-opera "Les fêtes Vénitiennes" was performed for the first time at the Paris Académie Royale de Musique. It was based on a text by Danchet. The piece remained in the repertoire until 1762; we read of the 34th performance very early on, and some years later of the 54th. The "Fêtes Vénitiennes" became so popular that parodies soon followed, the first, as to be expected, was "Les Fêtes Parisiennes". Not only the Venetians were allowed to have festivals. The ballet-opera is a typically French invention, its original creator an Italian, Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer at the court of Louis XIV, the sun-king. We can thank his cooperation with the great poets of the time, Molière and Racine, for the unusual mixture of recitative and arioso, which underlines the artistic verse form of French poetry. The style of the French speech is copied by the mannered rhythms of the music. Not only arias, ensembles and choir but also dance movements adopt this style. Dances were less dispensable than arias and choir in French opera, since Louis XIV and indeed his descendants danced themselves during the festive performances at Versailles. Even tragedies were enhanced by numerous inserted ballets, and like all opera in France, ended with the Chaconne which was danced. André Campra came to the full-bodied spectacular style with Lully started through his Italian tendencies. His origin called upon him to attempt a "réunion des gouts", to reconcile French and Italian music with each other. The melody, long oppressed in the scheme of French rhythmics reveals a leaning towards simple, almost popular bearing in the dances of the "Fêtes Vénitiennes". As the Venetian subject provided enough pretexts, short cheerful dances are made up of exuberant villanelles, musettes and Bohemian dances. Even the Chaconne, the hallmark of French opera art, loses its weightly pathos. Only an "aur de Léandre" and the outside movments of the "air des jouers" enhance the freedom of the beautiful French style with their pensive tone. All the dances are so picturesque that it only requires a little fantasy to imagine the many-coloured procession of comediennes in their strange masks dancing by.