The Éditions du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles have just published a new stage work by André Cardinal Destouches: le Carnaval et la Folie. Made for the 2007 Académie musicale d'Ambronay, conducted by Hervé Niquet, the work is now available for sale in a pocket format.
The libretto is inspired by The Praise of Folly by Erasmus. It staged in a prologue and five acts the love between the Carnival and the Folly, the trickery of Momus and the divine pleasures of Love. The comedy is include in a sumptuous dramaturgy, always moving. The Italian scene between a teacher of madness and his pupils is one of the most funny. The composer Destouches and the author Houdar de la Motte are renewing the theatrical conventions at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.
There is 13th characters in the opera, which can be played by 9 singers. Some of them can come from the 4 parts choir. The orchestra include piccolo, flutes, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, timpani and 4 parts of strings (dessus de violon divided, haute-contre de violon, taille de violon and basses de violon) with the continuo. Duration from 2h30 to 3h.
Learn more at: http://editions.cmbv.fr
(http://editions.cmbv.fr)
Pocket score available from 38 € at the web site of the publisher and in any music shop.