Léo Delibes - Jean de Nivelle (György Vashegyi)

Information

Composer: Léo Delibes

• Jean de Nivelle

Cyrille Dubois; Mélissa Petit

Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur; Tassis Christoyannis

Juliette Mey; Adrien Fournaison

François Rougier; Jean-Philippe Mc Clish

Hungarian National Choir & Philharmonic Orchestra

György Vashegyi, conductor

Date: 2026

Label: Bru Zane

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Léo Delibes’s Jean de Nivelle (1880) occupies a pivotal place in his mature output, bridging Le Roi l’a dit and Lakmé. Premiered to acclaim at the Opéra-Comique, the opera combines light, charming melodies with rich orchestration, complex harmonies, and dramatic grand-opera influences. Critics praised its libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille while noting how the score reflected the era's evolving shift toward greater seriousness in comic opera. Although the inclusion of spoken dialogue was initially critiqued, recitatives were promptly added to facilitate international performances. This full recitative version has been faithfully reconstructed and recorded by the Palazzetto Bru Zane.

György Vashegyi (b. 1970) is a Hungarian conductor renowned for his contributions to historical performance. A graduate of the Budapest Academy of Music (1993), he was strongly influenced by Helmuth Rilling, John Eliot Gardiner, Malcolm Bilson, and others. In 1991, he founded the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Zenekar, leading numerous opera, oratorio, and orchestral productions, as well as premieres of both Hungarian and international works. With over 30 recordings, he has collaborated closely with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles since 2014, releasing acclaimed French Baroque projects on Glossa. Vashegyi is an associate professor at the Academy of Music, recipient of the Liszt Award and the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, and since 2017, president of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.