** 2020 GRAMMY NOMINATION ** Jesse's third recording with Boston Early Music Festival, on which he sings the roles of Comus in Les Plaisirs de Versailles and La Discorde in Les Arts Florissants. Recorded January 2019 in Bremen, Germany.
Charpentier & BEMF Again at their Best. In 2015 our most recent Charpentier recording to date, La Descente dOrphee aux Enfers with young soloists and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, received the Grammy Award for the Best Opera Production of the preceding year and Gramophones Editors Choice. Our new album featuring two mini-operas by Charpentier again offers enthralling performances of this court music of charming dance character and elegance. In contrast to Charpentiers other operas, Les Plaisirs de Versailles is directly associated with Louis XIV. The title of the manuscript score registers very clearly and unmistakably what is involved in this composition, and its equation of the plaisirs, the pleasures, with the kings residence not only serves to reveal the subject but also the context: on the one hand, the work describes the pleasures that could be experienced in the royal palace; on the other hand, it itself is supposed to be one of these pleasures.
