EDITH CANAT DE CHIZY (b.1950): Tombeau de Gilles de Rais.

Description: Gilles de Rais was an important secondary figure in the story of Joan of Arc and the siege of Orléans, later achieving high office but subsequently executed amid accusations of all manner of infamy. This opera, to a libretto by and after the dramatic poem by Enzo Cormann, depicts Gilles de Rais' last night, an ambiguous allegorical portrait presenting conflicting accounts of his activities and the battle for his soul between good and evil, while leaving the question of his guilt or innocence open to question. Musically, this is among Canat de Chizy's most extrovert and dramatic scores so far to reach CD; after an intense overture and the recitation of Gilles de Rais' sentence, the accusations of the mob, the church, the central character's own ambiguous actions and the dispute of the allegorical angel and devil (a mayfly and a rat) are presented in taut dramatic narrative and music of vivid impact and refinement of detail. The composer's characteristic textural variation and rich harmonic vocabulary conjures a dreamlike world of shifting colors and shadows, surreal yet tangibly exact. French-English libretto. Lionel Peintre (baritone), Brigitte Peyre (soprano), Mireille Quercia (alto), Patrice Balter, Richard Taylor (basses), Maîtrise de Paris, Ensemble Musicatreize, Philharmonie de Lorraine; Roland Hayrabedian.