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LE CARNAVAL DU PARNASSE

JEAN-JOSEPH CASSANEA DE MONDONVILLE (1711-1772)

Ballet héroïque in a prologue and three acts to a libretto by Jean-Louis Fuzelier, first performed at the Académie royale de musique in Paris in 1749.

Gwendoline Blondeel · Hélène Guilmette · Hasnaa Bennani 
Mathias Vidal · David Witczak · Adrien Fournaison 

Chœur de Chambre de Namur 
Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie
Alexis Kossenko, conductor

Le Carnaval du Parnasse, Mondonville's heroic ballet, was a dazzling triumph at its premiere in 1749, eclipsing Rameau's Zoraastre. Dedicated to the Marquise de Pompadour, muse of the arts and the omnipotent favourite of the
King, this whimsical carnival is a delicious mariaudage: on Mount Parnassus, Apollo and his Muses indulge in feasts
of the senses and entertainments of the heart...

Mondonville displays prodigious virtuosity throughout, depicting unheard-of orchestral colours and imagining
unbridled dances and vast ceremonial choruses comparable to those in his great motets. Alexis Kossenko has
made an exceptional rediscovery of this masterful reincarnation of the splendours of the Court of Louis XV, then at
its apogee.

Recorded in March 2023 in Namur

You may find the booklet, available in French and English, by clicking here

You may find this  recording on our online shop by clicking here