Locke: Psyche Ensemble Correspondances & Sébastien Daucé

• Matthew Locke (1621 - 1677): Psyche, Act I:
• 1 Locke: Psyche, Act I: Overture 02:16
• Psyche, Act I Scene 1:
• 2 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: A symphony of recorders and soft musick 00:43
• 3 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Great Psyche, goddess of each Field and Grove (Pan & Nymphs) 02:13
• 4 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: A rustick dance of Sylvans & Dryads 02:20
• 5 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Symphony of rustick musick representing an eccho 01:00
• 6 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Song of Ecchoes "Great Psyche shall find no such pleasure as here" 02:32
• 7 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Dance for Ambition, Power, Plenty and Peace 01:05
• 8 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Entry of Envy 01:57
• 9 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Song of Envy & Furies "Envy 'gainst Psyche" 01:24
• 10 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Entry of the Princes Nicander & Polynices 02:45
• 11 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Symphony at the descending of Venus in her chariot drawn by doves 00:43
• 12 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: With kindness I your pray'rs receive (Venus) 01:22
• 13 Locke: Psyche, Act I Scene 1: Symphony at the ascending of Venus in her chariot drawn by doves 00:48
• Psyche, Act II:
• 14 Locke: Psyche, Act II: Curtain tune. The temple of Apollo Delphicus 01:32
• Psyche, Act II Scene 1:
• 15 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 1: Song of procession in the temple "Let's to Apollo's Altar now repair" 02:30
• 16 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 1: Son of Latona (Chief Priest) 04:20
• 17 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 1: Dance of Priests 00:59
• 18 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 1: To Apollo, our Celestial King (Chief Priest & his attendants) 00:29
• 19 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 1: Ceremony for Apollo 01:05
• Psyche, Act II Scene 2:
• 20 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 2: Entry for Despairing Lovers 02:13
• 21 Locke: Psyche, Act II Scene 2: Break, break distracted heart (Four Despairing Lovers) 05:03
• 22 Locke, Lully: Psyche, Act II Scene 2: Intermède. Plainte italienne (extr. from Lully's Psyché) 10:39
• Psyche, Act III:
• 23 Locke: Psyche, Act III: Curtain tune 03:36
• Psyche, Act III Scene 1:
• 24 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 1: Dance of Cyclops 00:54
• 25 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 1: Song of Vulcan "Ye bold Sons of Earth" 03:43
• 26 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 1: Song at the Treat of Cupid & Psyche "All joy to fair Psyche" 03:58
• Psyche, Act III Scene 2:
• 27 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Warlike dance with a consort of loud martial musick 01:42
• 28 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Song and dance of the Salij "Let us loudly rejoice" 01:05
• 29 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Song of Praesul "Great God of War" 01:41
• 30 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Warlike dance 00:47
• 31 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: While we to Mars (Praesul) 00:19
• 32 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Venus & Mars meet in the Air in their chariots; his drawn by horses, and hers by doves 01:32
• 33 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Song of Venus & Mars "Great God of War" 02:24
• 34 Locke: Psyche, Act III Scene 2: Entry of Furies 01:04
• Psyche, Act IV Scene 1:
• 35 Locke: Psyche, Act IV Scene 1: Curtain tune. A stately garden belonging to the magnificent palace 01:22
• 36 Locke: Psyche, Act IV Scene 1: Entry for Cupids 01:07
• 37 Locke: Psyche, Act IV Scene 1: Song for Cupids "Let old Age" 01:28
• 38 Locke: Psyche, Act IV Scene 1: Dance of the statues, leaping from their pedestals 01:32
• Psyche, Act IV Scene 2:
• 39 Locke: Psyche, Act IV Scene 2: Stay, stay (God of the River & two Nymphs to Psyche) 02:24
• 40 Locke: Psyche, Act IV Scene 2: Symphony at the descending of Venus 01:19
• Psyche, Act V:
• 41 Locke: Psyche, Act V: Curtain tune. Burning ruins of buildings, the throne of Pluto, and a great number of Devils & Furies 00:43
• Psyche, Act V Scene 1:
• 42 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 1: To what great distresses (Devils & Furies) 02:07
• 43 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 1: Dance of the Furies 00:48
• 44 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 1: Entry of Pluto 03:07
• 45 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 1: Refrain your tears (Pluto) 00:59
• 46 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 1: Psyche, draw near (Proserpina & Pluto) 02:08
• 47 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 1: Be gone, fair Psyche (Proserpina & Pluto) 01:58
• Psyche, Act V Scenes 2 & 3:
• 48 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scenes 2 & 3: Symphony at the descending of Apollo and the Gods 01:28
• Psyche, Act V Scene 3:
• 49 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: Assemble all the ye Heavenly Quire (Apollo) 02:21
• 50 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: On Earth by unkindness (Three Elysian Lovers) 02:10
• 51 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: Symphony at the descending of Jupiter, Cupid & Psyche 01:07
• 52 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: Dance for Six Elysian Princes 01:33
• 53 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: Behold the God (Mars) 01:09
• 54 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: Rustick musick of Mænades & Ægipanes 01:06
• 55 Locke: Psyche, Act V Scene 3: Grand chorus and dance, with all the instruments "All joy to this Celestial Pair" 02:32
• Total Runtime 01:47:11

Info for Locke: Psyche

Inspired by the Psyché created collectively by Lully, Molière, Corneille and Quinault, Locke’s Psyche was a veritable artistic firework display: seeking to vie in splendour with the operas of continental Europe, it luxuriously combined theatre, song, dance, and spectacular machines and scenery.

Sébastien Daucé here offers us his splendid reconstruction of this key masterpiece in the history of early English opera.

The ensemble Correspondances, with its 43 singers and instrumentalists under the direction of harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé, has chosen to present Psyché, the first English semi-opera in a concert version.

Psyché (1675) is claimed to be a future model of the operatic genre, a new attempt to unite theatre and music. King Charles II, anxious to match the artistic splendour of Louis XIV, asked Matthew Locke to develop the first English opera. Locke may even have composed this work as a riposte to the visit of the Royal Academy of Music troupe, under the direction of its creator Robert Cambert (Lully's predecessor) to London in 1674.

Composed on a translation of the libretto by Molière, Corneille and Quinault that had been used for Lully's Psyché, this English Psyché was not based on the Italian opera model, nor on the new French lyrical tragedy inaugurated the previous year (Lully's Cadmus & Hermione): it was in fact the very first semi-opera, in which lyrical art - with the very first English recitatives - coexisted harmoniously with the theatre, in the vein of the Masks that preceded it.

The splendour of the cast (probably more than 100 artists at the time of the creation), the beauty of the music, the perpetual invention (echoes in different parts of the stage, varied and precisely described instrumentations, the harmonic madness of the numerous choruses) make this Psyche an unknown monument in the history of English music, a source from which Blow and Purcell will draw directly.

"Locke is a disruptive genius who belongs to that grey area between Dowland and Purcell about which little is known, where the French influence is very strong. It is a strange music, which constitutes a new language for us, while at the same time possessing characteristics of court ballet. The lines are completely broken up, and one comes to wonder at each measure if there is no error... It is by gradually realising that there are none, that one begins to fully perceive the genius of this music!" (Sébastien Daucé)

Ensemble Correspondances
Sébastien Daucé, conductor

Ensemble Correspondances
Since its formation in 2008, the Ensemble Correspondances has devoted itself chiefly to French sacred music of the seventeenth century. Brought together by Sébastien Daucé during their studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) de Lyon, the musicians of Correspondances pursue this work (focusing notably on Marc-Antoine Charpentier) with infectious enthusiasm today.

To date the Ensemble Correspondances has appeared at such French festivals as Saintes, Fontevraud, Musique & Mémoire, Sablé, Royaumont, and Sinfonia en Périgord. It has also performed at the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht and in Rome, Nuremberg, Foligno, and Fribourg, and has toured Japan and Colombia. The ensemble has given several concerts for such radio stations as the Bayerischer Rundfunk, Radio France, and the Radio Suisse Romande. Its most recent engagements have taken it to Royaumont, the Ambronay, Lanvellec, and Pontoise festivals, and Rome, Hamburg, and Hong Kong.

Sébastien Daucé
After a specialized program at the National Conservatory of Music of Lyon, Sébastien Daucé played under the direction of Kenneth Weiss (Didon and Aeneas, Madrigal of Monteverdi), of Gabriel Garrido (Ercole Amante of Cavailli, in the Academy of Baroque Opera at Ambronay, and recently for the recording of another Cavalli opera, Gli Amori d’Apollo e Datne,) of Raphaël Pichon (Pygmalion), of Toni Ramon (Radio France), of Françoise Lasserre (Akademia) and Geoffroy Jourdain (The Crys of Paris).

He was the assistant of Kenneth Weiss’s for the 2006 and 2007 academies at the Festival d’Art Lyrique in Aix en Provence (France).

In 2006, he founded the Ensemble Correspondances. The first concerts of this ensemble, made up of young musicians from the National Conservatory of music of Lyon and of Paris, took place in France and in Switzerland. During this time, they were recorded and aired on the radio. The Ensemble Correspondances toured Japon in December 2009 ; and have played in some prestigious festivals (Pontoise, Saintes, Utrecht). Their two firsts Cds have been recorded on the ZigZag Territories label : they both received notable press such as Choc de Classica and a Diapason découverte. Sébastien Daucé has worked, as well in the past few years, on Marc-Antoine Charpentier; in which he has published in the Abbesses Editions, three operas, in collaboration with William Christie. From 2012, he is a teacher at the Pole Supérieur Paris-Boulogne.

Booklet for Locke: Psyche