Pierné's chamber opera Sophie Arnould is a setting of a sweet verse play about two lovers long parted who meet again on the verge of their old age. Its pastel music matches the play's understated, bittersweet tone, but the composer rarely allows it to take lyrical flight. The text setting primarily consists of a meandering parlando. There are some lovely moments, but there's little sense of dramatic or musical direction, so the moments don't add up to a great deal. Sophie Marin-Degor makes the most of the title role and ...
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Pierné's chamber opera Sophie Arnould is a setting of a sweet verse play about two lovers long parted who meet again on the verge of their old age. Its pastel music matches the play's understated, bittersweet tone, but the composer rarely allows it to take lyrical flight. The text setting primarily consists of a meandering parlando. There are some lovely moments, but there's little sense of dramatic or musical direction, so the moments don't add up to a great deal. Sophie Marin-Degor makes the most of the title role and sings with sweet tone. As her former lover, Jean-Sébastien Bou for the most part sings with warmth, but occasionally seems to lack vocal control and produces some unlovely sounds. Ballet de Cour is a suite of orchestral pieces in the form of Baroque dances. In it, Pierné aims very much for the same effect as Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin -- updated versions of classic dances, a rigaudon, passepied, "Le Canarie," pavane, saltarello, menuet, and passa-mezzo. The composer isn't as audacious...
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