In 1680 Louis XIV, eager to relive his youth through his own children, commissioned his surintendant de musique to devise an updated version of the ballets in which they had danced together 20 years and more before. In the interim, Lully had collaborated with Molière on comédie-ballets and tragédies en musique with Quinault, and the practical experience he had gained in-formed the plan of this, his latest royal confection: the opéra-ballet. Le triomphe de l’Amour was first performed at the château at St-Germain-en-Laye. Because many of the younger members of the court were among the 64 dancers, 39 rehearsals were required before it could be presented before the king in January 1681. In the public première at the Paris Opéra several months later Lully took the daring step of employing women among the professional dancers.

Le triomphe de l’Amour was a sensation, revived and subsequently recast, then forgotten. Hugo Reyne aims here to recreate the original version; to do so he has chosen to record a live performance, semi-staged and choreographed, that took place a year and a half ago in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Though we as listeners cannot experience the production, we can in some senses hear evidence of it in the danceable tempi that Reyne chooses and the instrumental and choral effects Lully introduced in his score. This is a sensible performance, not a glossy one produced in a studio of the sort that we have become accustomed to today.

In the time-honoured tradition, many of the singers take multiple roles, and a few, like Julie Hassler (who is Amphitrite, La Nuit, the first Indian and La Jeunesse) and Philippe Roche (as the second Plaisir, Neptune, the Chief of the Cariens, an Indian and Jupiter), even thrive on the challenge; not all are quite so adept. They do, however, project the text effectively, even the chorus, in spite of imperfect ensemble here and there. The string playing is confident and blended; the wind playing is superb. Lully’s special instrumental effects on parade include muted strings, transverse flutes (in their French theatrical début) and a quartet of recorders. Of special interest to lovers of French Baroque music will be the varied and subtle ways in which Lully moved on from his operatic style (especially in terms of conveying the text and deploying solo instruments and voices), setting provocative precedents for Campra and the generation of composers around the turn of the century.