MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER (1643-1704): Orphée descendant aux Enfers, H.471, La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, H.488.

Description: In 1687 Charpentier created his second illustration of the myth, La Descente.… In its two acts can be discerned the outline of a possible complete opera – the manuscript has reached us shorn of the third act in which Orpheus would presumably have lost Eurydice before being devoured by the Maenads. While La Descente has already been recorded several times, the Orphée of 1684 is a rarity and a magnificent discovery. French-English texts. Reinoud Van Mechelen (countertenor), Déborah Cachet (soprano), Vox Luminis, A Nocte Temporis; Lionel Meunier, Reinoud Van Mechelen.