Nymphs, shepherdesses, muses and lovers: Virginie Thomas

Virginie Thomas. Image credit: Studio Ledroit-Perrin. Image source: Les Heures Musicales de l’Abbaye de Lessay

Although my shelves (and coffee table, and stereo cabinet) are groaning with CDs, I recklessly continue to seek out new musical discoveries. And right now we are experiencing a flowering of French Baroque performances and recordings, as still-active period-instrument groups such as William Christie's Les Arts Florissants (approaching its 50th anniversary), Marc Minkowski's Les Musiciens du Louvre (approaching its 45th), Hervé Niquet's Le Concert Spirituel (next year celebrating its 40th), Christophe Rousset's Les Talens Lyriques (turning 35 this year) and Emmanuelle Haïm's Le Concert d'Astrée (entering its second quarter-century) are joined by the new generation of ensembles and performers that they have nurtured.

Virginie Thomas is a French soprano who has performed and recorded with Christie, Rousset, and Vincent Dumestre's Le Poème Harmonique, but also with newer groups such as Raphaël Pichon's Pygmalion, Gaëtan Jarry's Ensemble Marguerite Louise, and Reinoud Van Mechelen's a nocte temporis. She has specialized, in the words of her artist's biography, in portraying "muses, nymphs, bergères and amoureuses."

In fact, her first recital album for the L'Encelade label is entitled Nymphes (L'Encelade ECL 2203, released in 2023), a program of airs sung by nymphs from the operas of Lully, Desmarest, Campra, Leclair and others.

Nymphes (ECL 2203). Image credit: Virginie Thomas. Image source: Presto Music

The goddess on the cover of Nymphes is apparently Virginie Thomas herself: the image is credited as Autoportrait d'une nymphe à la piscine [Self-portrait of a nymph at the pool]. In her booklet note Thomas writes that the idea for the album arose from concerts she gave as part of the open-air Dans Les Jardins de William Christie summer festival. Nymphs are minor (though, I was surprised to learn, not immortal) goddesses associated with nature that, Thomas writes, "have to cope with human problems (love, desire, jealousy, etc.), and this is something that makes them particularly appealing."

Appealing is the word for this album. On Nymphes Thomas is accompanied by a period-instrument chamber orchestra led by harpsichordist Béatrice Martin and violinist Emmanuel Resche-Caserta; in some works she is joined by sopranos Maud Gnidzaz and Juliette Perret and mezzo-soprano Anaïs Bertrand. Thomas has arranged these airs for nymphs into a mini-opera. We follow the progress of the Nymph of the Seine as she emerges into the human world, discovers the pleasures and pains of love, and finally retreats into "darkness and silence."

If I have one (very minor) complaint, it's that a chamber orchestra cannot provide the aural richness of the 50 musicians or so for whom Lully and others composed their operas at the Académie Royale de Musique. But in compensation, the chamber orchestra places Thomas's lovely voice at the forefront.

From Nymphes, the nereid Orithe's "Me plaindrai-je toujours, Amour, sous ton empire?" (Must I forever lament, Love, under your yoke?) by a composer new to me, Pascal Colasse, a younger contemporary of Lully:

https://youtu.be/Qp0cych1ZnI

Me plaindrai-je toujours, Amour, sous ton empire? Ne seras-tu jamais favorable à mes vœux? On me fuit et mon cœur est toujours amoureux, Sans espoir de secours, je languis, je soupire. Me plaindrai-je toujours, Amour, sous ton empire? Ne seras-tu jamais favorable à mes vœux?

Oh Love, shall I forever groan underneath thy yoke? Wilt thou never grant my wishes? I am shunned and love is still in my heart, With no hope of help, I languish and sigh. Oh Love, shall I forever groan underneath thy yoke? Wilt thou never grant my wishes? —all English translations in this post by Nick Halliwell

As is obvious from this clip, Virginie Thomas's soprano is beautifully pure and clear. Its qualities make Thomas an ideal performer of the repertoire on her second recording project for L'Encelade, Mademoiselle Hilaire (ECL 2502).

Mademoiselle Hilaire (L'Encelade ECL 2502). Image credit: Presto Music

Hilaire Dupuis (or Hylaire Dupuy) was "known as 'le cristal humaine' due to the crystalline purity of her voice," Thomas writes in her booklet note. On Mademoiselle Hilaire, Thomas explores the airs, chansons and ensembles composed specifically for this exceptional singer by Michel Lambert, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Francesco Cavalli during Louis XIV's minority and reign.

Mlle. Hilaire's older sister Gabrielle was also a singer. In 1641, Gabrielle married Lambert, but died just over a year later after giving birth to a daughter, Madeleine. Mlle. Hilaire, then 17 or 18, moved into Lambert's household, perhaps to help care for her infant niece. Mlle. Hilaire became a student of Lambert's and frequently performed with him. In 1655 on a visit to Paris, the Dutch mathematician Christian Huygens wrote to his father of a private concert he'd attended by "Monsieur Lambert and Mademoiselle Hilaire, his sister-in-law, who sings like an angel." [1]

In 1659, when Mlle. Hilaire was in her mid-30s, she was appointed as an Ordinaire de la Musique de la Chambre du Roi, singing in entertainments for Louis XIV, primarily ballets de coeur. Many of these were written by Lully, who attained a position as a court composer. A few years later, after the success of the ballets he had composed for Cavalli's wedding opera L'Ercole Amante (1662), the 29-year-old Lully married the 19-year-old Madeleine Lambert, and moved in with his father-in-law and Mlle. Hilaire. By living in the same house as the two most renowned French composers of the period and having an appointment at court, Mlle. Hilaire was positioned at the center of French musical life.

In the early 1660s Lully and the playwright Molière created a new genre, the comédie-ballet, in which musical intermèdes introduced, appeared between the acts of, and concluded a play. One such work, La Princesse d'Élide, was presented in 1664 as part of week-long spring festivities at Versailles, Les Plaisirs de l'Isle enchantée (Pleasures of the Enchanted Island). The frame story was drawn from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso, in which the knight Ruggiero is seduced by the beautiful sorceress Alcina and the pleasures of her magical island. La Princesse d'Élide was performed on the second day of the festival, 8 May.

The plot revolved around a princess who was apparently immune to love but who was eventually won over by a young man who feigned indifference in order to entice her. At the outset Princess Elide was presented as a spirited beauty who loved hunting more than she sought love, and it cannot have been an accident that [the king's mistress] Louise de la Vallière was dedicated to the chase. Indeed the whole play might be seen to justify Louis' passion for her. [2]

Portrait of Louise de La Vallière, attributed to Pierre Mignard, c. 1660s. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The musical accompaniment for the intermèdes was provided by "a large, rather heterogeneous orchestra with exotic and colorful instruments. The livret of La Princesse d'Elide mentions 'several hunting horns and trumpets' in concert with the strings, and at one point describes a 'large tree machine in which there are sixteen Faunes, eight of whom play flutes, the others, violin. . . . .Thirty violins answer them from the orchestra with six other harpischord and théorbo soloists." [3]

The sheer scale of the undertaking can be seen in the commemorative engravings of the occasion made by Israël Silvestre:

Seconde Journée: Theatre fait dans la mesme allée, sur le quel la comédie, et le ballet de La princesse d'Elide furent representéz [Second day: Theatre erected in the same avenue, in which the comedy and the ballet of The Princess of Elis was performed], designed and engraved by Israël Silvestre. 19th-century print after 1673 original. Background: a scene from Molière's verse play La princesse d'Élide. Foreground: Louis XIV and members of the court watching the performance. Image source: New York Public Library Digital Collections

As on Nymphes, on Mademoiselle Hilaire Virginie Thomas does not attempt to reproduce the richness of the instrumental forces marshalled for the King's pleasure. But the more intimate approach she and her collaborators take enhances the music's sensuality. "Recit de l'Aurore" from La Princesse d'Elide:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46AsyU-8Xmc

L'Aurore: Quand l'amour à vos yeux offre un choix agréable, Jeune beauté laissez-vous enflammer; Moquez-vous d'affecter cet orgueil indomptable Dont on vous dit Qu'il est beau de s'armer. Dans l'âge où l'on est aimable Rien n'est si beau que d'aimer. Soupirez librement pour un amant fidèle, Et bravez ceux qui voudraient vous blâmer; Un cœur tendre est aimable, et le nom de cruelle N'est pas un nom à se faire estimer. Dans le temps où l'on est belle Rien n'est si beau que d'aimer.

Dawn: When love seems to offer you a pleasant choice, Young beauty, allow yourself to be set alight; Trouble not to feign that indomitable pride That is so often said to be Such a fine weapon in one's armoury. When you are of an age to be loved There can be naught finer than to love. Sigh freely for a true lover, And defy those who would criticise you; A tender heart can be loved, and being called "cruel" Is no way to gain others' esteem. For as long as you have beauty There can be naught finer than to love.

The writer Jean Loret was one of the 600 invitees to the Versailles première of La Princesse d'Elise, and wrote a celebratory poem about the performance that mentioned Mlle. Hilaire by name, calling her one of the "Nightingales of the Court." Loret essayed a second poem on seeing the revival two months later of the Lully-Molière comédie-ballet at the Fontainebleau Palace:

Ces deux Filles, qui par leurs voix Ont charmé la Cour tant de fois, Sçavoir Mademoizelle Hilaire, Qui ne sçauroit chanter sans plaire, Et La-Barre, qui plainement Dompte les coeurs à tout moment, Par le rare et double avantage De son chant et de son vizage, Joüérent si bien leur rolet Dans la Piéce et dans le Balet, Remplis d'agréables mélanges, Que, certainement, leurs voix d'Anges Furent dans ces contentemens Un des plus doux ravissemens.

These two Girls who, with their voices, Have charmed the Court so many times, They are Mademoizelle Hilaire, Who could not sing without making a pleasing sound, And Mademoizelle La-Barre, who plainly Wins hearts at any time, With the rare and twofold advantage Of her singing and her face, Played their little roles so well In the Play and in the Ballet, Full of pleasant combinations, That, certainly, their Angels' voices Were, in these contentments One of the sweetest delights. [4]

"Mademoizelle La-Barre" was Anne de la Barre, another court singer with whom Mlle. Hilaire often performed, along with Anna Bergerotti and Mademoiselle de Saint Christophe. Mademoiselle Hilaire includes vocal duets, trios and quartets written for these singers, such as "Recit de l'Europe et des 4 parties du Mond" from Ballet Royal de Flore, given in the Tuileries in 1669:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWeR049nDYE

L'EUROPE Amour, n'est-ce point vous qui par tant de merveilles Charmez nos yeux, et nos oreilles? Sans vous tout déplaît en effet, C'est par vous que des dieux la troupe est divertie, Amour, il n'est rien de bien fait, Si vous n'êtes de la partie. L'AMERIQUE, L'ASIE, L'EUROPE, L'AFRIQUE Amour, il n'est rien de bien fait, Si vous n'êtes de la partie. L'ASIE Il n'est point de plaisir qui ne semble imparfait. L'AFRIQUE Point de félicité pleinement ressentie. L'AMERIQUE Le cœur ne goûte rien dont il soit satisfait. L'AMERIQUE, L'ASIE, L'EUROPE, L'AFRIQUE Amour, il n'est rien de bien fait, Si vous n'êtes de la partie. L'EUROPE En vain pour les plaisirs ici tout se prépare, L'Air s'embellit, le ciel se pare, Sans vous tout déplaît en effet, C'est par vous que des dieux la troupe est divertie, Amour, il n'est rien de bien fait, Si vous n'êtes de la partie. L'AMERIQUE, L'ASIE, L'EUROPE, L'AFRIQUE Amour, il n'est rien de bien fait, Si vous n'êtes de la partie.

EUROPE Oh Love, is it not you whom, by so many wonders Charm our eyes, and our ears? Without you, indeed, there is naught that is pleasing, It is by you that the company of the gods is entertained, Oh Love, naught is well, If you are not there. AMERICA, ASIA, EUROPE, AFRICA Oh Love, naught is well, If you are not there. ASIA There is no pleasure which does not seem imperfect. AFRICA No bliss fully felt. AMERICA The heart tastes naught that slakes its thirst. AMERICA, ASIA, EUROPE, AFRICA Oh Love, naught is well, If you are not there. EUROPE Everything here prepares for pleasures, yet in vain, The very Air beautifies itself, the sky bedecks itself, Without you, indeed, there is naught that is pleasing, It is by you that the company of the gods is entertained, Oh Love, naught is well, If you are not there. AMERICA, ASIA, EUROPE, AFRICA Oh Love, naught is well, If you are not there.

The singers joining Virginie Thomas on the recording are her colleagues from Nymphes, sopranos Maud Gnidzaz and Juliette Perret and mezzo-soprano Anaïs Bertrand.

In 1677 at age 52, Mlle. Hilaire withdrew to the convent of the Nouvelles Catholiques; she remained there for more than three decades until her death in 1709. Mademoiselle Hilaire, from its thoughtful conception to L'Encelade's beautiful design to the exquisite performances of Thomas and her collaborators, allows us to comprehend full well why Mlle. Hilaire was called one of the "nightingales" of Louis XIV's brilliant court.

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1. James R. Anthony, French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. Amadeus Press, 1997, p. 347.
2. Ian Thompson, The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre and the creation of the gardens of Versailles. Bloomsbury, 2006, p. 135.
3. Anthony, French Baroque Music, p. 77.
4. Quoted in Lisandro Abadie, "La Sage Demoiselle Hilaire," Mademoiselle Hilaire booklet, p. 13.