Escolania del Escorial - Messe Brève(Delibes)

'O Salutaris', 'Agnus Dei', de la Messe Brève de Léo Delibes(1836-1891) Trebles: Alejandro Castro, Antonio Jesus Guardia In 1567, just four years after the construction of the Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo del Escorial had begun, Felipe II founded and instituted a School and Seminary in the Monastery of Párraces (Segovia), while the works of the Escorial were being finished. These children of the seminary were instructed in grammar and latin as well as in music (plain song mainly) and were charged to sing the Mass of the Dawn every day in the Basilica, as well as after the evening prayers of the community of monks of the monastery. Also they had the obligation to help as acolytes in the masses that were celebrated in the Basilica. The 40 children sang daily in groups of 20, and also took part in the following celebrations with carols and dances: Christmas, San Lorenzo, San Jerónimo, Corpus... as well as in the presence of the Kings and personalities that went to the Monastery. This work and institution remained through the centuries until the confiscation of Mendizábal, at which the monacal community had to leave the Monastery and with it all activity stopped. Following this abandonment the seminary was restituted of flowed it of the chaplain of queen Isabel II: D. Antonio Mª Claret (later bishop and saint). And within the seminary it created a series of scholarships for children who had musical abilities to maintain this group of singers to honor the liturgy of the Basilica. Again this refounded institution went through different stages that ended with their disappearance and a new foundation, already in the hands of the Augustine monks, in 1974 of the Escolanía as it is known today. With modern statutes and a practical organization but with the same purpose of always: the embellecimiento of the escurialense liturgy. Delibes étudia au Conservatoire de Paris et obtint un premier prix de solfège en 1850. Son ballet, Coppélia, joué à lOpéra de Paris en 1870, fut un triomphe. Basé sur une histoire de lécrivain allemand Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, il conte la destinée du vieux Dr Coppelius et de sa poupée Coppélia. En 1876, il publia Sylvia, ballet dont laction se déroule en Grèce. Grand amateur de danse, Tchaïkovsky admirait ces deux ballets. En 1882, il écrivit un pastiche dairs et de danses anciennes pour Le Roi samuse de Victor Hugo, qui a fourni plus tard le sujet du Rigoletto de Verdi. Son célèbre opéra Lakmé, qui narre lamour impossible dun officier britannique et de la fille dun prêtre de Brahma, dans lInde du XIXe siècle, confirma sa gloire. La Scène et légende de la fille du paria, dit Air des clochettes est un morceau de bravoure pour les sopranos coloratures. Son duo Doù viens-tu ? Que veux-tu ? est également fameux. En 1884, Delibes est élu membre de lAcadémie des Beaux-arts. Delibes reste dans les mémoires comme un maître de la tradition musicale française, légère et mélodieuse, comme il le proclamait lui-même : « Pour ma part, je suis reconnaissant à Wagner des émotions très vives quil ma fait ressentir, des enthousiasmes quil a soulevés en moi. Mais si, comme auditeur, jai voué au maître allemand une profonde admiration, je me refuse, comme producteur, à limiter. » Il mourut en laissant un opéra inachevé, Kassya, qui sera orchestré par Jules Massenet.