Milhaud: L'Orestie d'Eschyle University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra

• Darius Milhaud (1892-1974): The Oresteia of Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Op. 14
• 1 Agamemnon, Op. 14 11:12
• Les Choéphores
• 2 Vociferation funebre: On m'envoie et je viens de la maison (Chorus) 05:49
• 3 Libation: Allez, mes larmes, goutte a goutte (Chorus) 02:56
• 4 Incantation: O vous, grandes Parques de par Zeus! (Chorus, Orestes, Electra) 14:20
• 5 Presages: Que de fois la terre a enfante la terreur (A Choephore) 03:29
• 6 Exhortation: Je te supplie, o toi, le Pere Zeus (A Choephore) 02:49
• 7 La Justice et La Lumiere: Elle est venue aux Priamides en son temps (The Choephores) 04:31
• 8 Conclusion: Ainsi sur le palais de nos Rois (A Choephore) 00:49
• Les Euménides
• 9 Act I: Premierement la priere (Pythia) 02:40
• 10 Act I: Une chose affreuse a dire (Pythia) 04:35
• 11 Act I: Je ne te trahirai pas (Apollo) 02:28
• 12 Act I: Seigneur Apollon (Orestes) 00:59
• 13 Act I: Rappelle-toi (Orestes) 01:13
• 14 Act I: Vous dormez la-dedans (Ghost of Clytemnestra, Chorus, Clytemnestra) 04:14
• 15 Act I: Eveille, eveille-toi (Chorus, Apollo) 02:11
• 16 Act I: Sortez de ces demeures (Apollo, Chorus) 03:09
• 17 Act II: Dame Athena (Orestes) 02:10
• 18 Act II: Ca va (Chorus) 01:00
• 19 Act II: Le voici donc derechef qui a trouve recours (Chorus) 01:39
• 20 Act II: Mes malheurs m'ont instruit (Orestes) 02:26
• 21 Act II: Ni Apollon ni la Dame d'Athenes (Chorus) 01:20
• 22 Act II: Formons, lions, un choeur (Hymn) 02:19
• 23 Act II: Autour, tout autour de ce veau pour notre table (Hymn) 05:43
• 24 Act II: De la-bas ou j'etais (Athena, Chorus) 04:02
• 25 Act II: Dame Athena (Orestes) 02:02
• 26 Act II: Si l'on estime que cette cause (Athena) 02:13
• 27 Act II: Voici la loi nouvelle (Chorus, Sopranos, Contraltos) 01:46
• 28 Act III: Ouverture 06:39
• 29 Act III: Crie, crieur, a gorge deployee (Athena) 01:27
• 30 Act III: Seigneur Apollon (Chorus, Apollo) 01:31
• 31 Act III: A vous autres la parole (Athena, Chorus, Orestes) 01:45
• 32 Act III: Juges de la grande Cour d'Athenaia (Apollo, Chorus) 04:44
• 33 Act III: Ordonnerai-je a ceux-ci (Athena, Chorus) 00:44
• 34 Act III: Juges, vous nous avez entendus (Apollo) 00:27
• 35 Act III: Ecoutez cependant mon ordonnance (Athena) 02:58
• 36 Act III: Voici pour votre terre (Chorus, Apollo, Athena, Orestes) 04:34
• 37 Act III: Cet homme est acquitte du crime de sang (Athena) 00:28
• 38 Act III: O Pallas! O Salvatrice de ma maison! (Orestes) 01:41
• 39 Act III: Io, jeunes dieux (Chorus) 01:56
• 40 Act III: Ecoutez-moi, Furies (Athena) 01:26
• 41 Act III: Io, jeunes dieux, quoi, les vieilles lois (Chorus) 01:43
• 42 Act III: Nullement deshonorees! (Athena) 01:26
• 43 Act III: Cela, moi, le supporter, pheu (Chorus) 00:41
• 44 Act III: Je ne me lasserai point de plaider (Athena) 01:34
• 45 Act III: Reine Athena (Athena, Chorus) 01:28
• 46 Act III: Toutes celles qui accompagnent (Athena, Chorus) 08:00
• 47 Act III: A cause du bien qui suit (Processional) 02:09
• Total Runtime 02:21:25

Info for Milhaud: L'Orestie d'Eschyle

Part of the great French musical tradition and a member of Les Six, Darius Milhaud was an important avant-garde figure in early 20th-century Paris. The Oresteia of Aeschylus trilogy arose from his lifelong interest in Greek mythology and drama, inspired by the expressive, syncopated rhythms of Paul Claudel’s poetic texts. In addition to innovative rhythmic elements, the trilogy exhibits complex harmonic techniques, particularly polytonality, which Milhaud believed gave him more varied ways of expressing sweetness in addition to violence.

„Though Aeschylus's triptych of tragedies has influenced opera composers from Wagner to Birtwistle, relatively few of them have been tempted to fashion a stage work of their own from the Oresteia plays. There is Sergei Taneyev's ambitious, evening-long version, while Iannis Xenakis's Oresteia compresses the whole drama into just 50 minutes, with a single baritone protagonist and children and adult choruses. Neither, though, is on anything like the scale of Darius Milhaud's L'Orestie d'Eschyle, which emerged over the course of a decade, when the composer was in his 20s. Milhaud's starting point was a French translation of Aeschylus by his lifelong collaborator, the playwright Paul Claudel. He began in 1913 by setting just a single scene of the first play, Agamemnon, as a relatively conventional musical interlude for soprano and chorus as part of a spoken stage performance. His treatment of the second part of the triptych, Les Choéphores (The Libation Bearers), which emerged three years later, is much more ambitious; it requires an orchestra supplemented by 15 percussionists, and alongside the complex, multi-layered choruses and solo numbers, it incorporates rhythmically notated speech that at times weirdly anticipates the style of Peter Hall's famous National Theatre staging of the Oresteia of the 1980s. The third part, Les Euménides (The Furies), which Milhaud completed in 1923, is on a different scale entirely its three acts last more than twice as long as the first two parts put together, and it requires an even bigger orchestra, including quartets of saxophones and saxhorns for music that, in its way, is sometimes as strikingly original as anything by Stravinsky from the same period. Any performance of the whole of L'Orestie, then, is a daunting undertaking. But in April last year, prompted by the composer William Bolcom, who studied with Milhaud, the music department of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor assembled more than 350 performers, a mix of professionals, students and amateurs, for a concert performance conducted by Kenneth Kiesler. This recording is taken from that extraordinary event, and it may well be the first time Milhaud's complete score has been available on disc, though Leonard Bernstein, of all people, recorded Les Choéphores in the early 1960s. The soloists, led by soprano Lori Phillips as Clytemnestra and baritone Dan Kempton as Orestes, seem heroically committed; the multiple choruses and myriad instrumentalists work immensely hard. With the libretto and an English translation available on the Naxos website [www.naxos.com], it's an operatic curiosity well worth investigating, and musically it often turns out to be much more than that.“(The Guardian)

„The real stars are the University of Michigan's multiple Choirs, who are faced with what must be some of the most taxing choral writing in the entire operatic repertory. Their singing has tremendous authority and beauty.“ (Opera)

Lori Phillips, Soprano (Clytemnestra) Orestes
Dan Kempson, Baritone (Orestes)
Sidney Outlaw, Baritone (Apollo)
Sophie Delphis, Leader of the Slave Women
Brenda Rae, Soprano (Athena / A Slave)
Tamara Mumford, Mezzo-soprano, (Athena)
Jennifer Lane, Contralto (Athena)
Julianna Di Giacomo, Soprano (Pythia (Oracle)
Kristin Eder, Mezzo-soprano (Electra)
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra
Percussion Ensemble Chamber Choir
University Choir
Orpheus Singers
UMS Choral Union
Kenneth Kiesler, conductor

No biography found.

Booklet for Milhaud: L'Orestie d'Eschyle