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Graham Sadler, French cantatas and airs, Early Music, Volume 36, Issue 2, May 2008, Pages 332–333, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/can008
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Extract
Nowadays the early 18th-century cantate françoise seems primarily the preserve of female singers. That is understandable, since the vocal lines of most of those designated ‘à voix seule’ are notated in either the soprano or the treble clef. But this was a multi-purpose notation and did not necessarily indicate that a work was unsuitable for male voices. Indeed, Jean-Baptiste Stuck justified his use of the soprano clef for what was clearly a male role (the upper line in his cantata Heraclite et Démocrite) on the decidedly non-PC grounds that ‘it is easier for tenors to sing from the soprano clef than for women to sing from the tenor clef’.
Cyril Auvity is one of a fairly small number of tenors to exploit this solo repertory, and he does so with aplomb. His disc Orphée: Rameau, Clérambault (Zig-Zag Territories zzt071002, rec 2007, 71′) includes two cantatas on the Orpheus myth and an assortment of airs by Lambert, Charpentier and others. The two substantial cantatas complement each other perfectly. Clérambault's much-recorded Orphée recounts the familiar tale up to the point where Pluto sanctions Euridice's release from Hades. Rameau's Orphée, less often performed but scarcely less affecting, picks up from there, focusing on Orpheus's turmoil as he tries to respect Pluto's command not to look at Euridice until he has left Hell.
