Desmarest went on to have a prominent career in opera from 1693 to 1698, but his fate took a tragic turn. In 1697, he exchanged a promise of marriage with Mademoiselle de Saint Gobert without her father’s consent. When their child was born, her father sued for seduction and abduction, leading the couple to flee to Brussels to escape the justice that sentenced Desmarest to be hanged in effigy at the Place de Grève. He went on to serve as principal Chapel Master to the new King of Spain, Philip V (Louis XIV’s grandson), and from 1707 as superintendent of music for the Duke of Lorraine, pursuing a career far from Paris and its vast musical possibilities. Despite Louis XIV’s admiration for his works, he never allowed Desmarest to return to France; in 1720, the Paris Parliament lifted all sentences, but it was too late for Desmarest.

His lyric tragedy Circé, premiered in 1694, is his second opera and one of his great successes. The libretto focuses on the encounter between Ulysses and the Sorceress, for whom the composer creates a role as grand as Lully’s famous heroines. The rich orchestration already departs from Lully’s style, and the work’s dramatic force sweeps everything in its path. For this revival (also recorded for our CD collection), the brilliant Gaëlle Arquez will embody the iconic figure of the evil and lovestruck Circe!

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