The Centre de musique baroque de Versailles offers the cantata Circé by Collin de Blamont in the spirit of the time: in a chamber version as well as an orchestral version, restored according to documentary and musical evidence that Graham Sadler has already exposed. The cantata Circé occupied all the attention of Collin de Blamont. Performed at the court of the Duchesse du Maine and at the Concert de la Reine, he published a version in his first book of cantatas (1723), and another, heavily revised, in his third book of cantatas (1729), itself reworked in one copy with numerous manuscript additions, the subject of the present edition.----
 
In order to offer musicians all the historically informed interpretive alternatives available, the score includes three possibilities for performance:

• one per part (high voice (dessus), violin, flute, basse de viole and basso continuo);
• an orchestra with the viola parts restored by Graham Sadler;
• an orchestra without the viola parts restored.

• François Collin de Blamont, born in 1690, began music with his father, an ordinary singer of the Musique du roi. Singer of the King’s Chamber and Chapelle, his first works were performed at the court of the Duchess of Maine. In 1719 he bought from Jean-Baptiste Lully junior his position as Surintendant de la Musique de la Chambre. On the death of Lalande, whose disciple he was, he took over as Maître de musique. Very active at court, he supervised the Queen’s concerts with Destouches. In the 1740s, illness forced him to hand over his duties to Bernard de Bury and François Francœur. He died in 1760. Author of successful cantatas, of a Te Deum among the most performed at the Chapelle royale of Versailles, it is in the operatic field that he particularly distinguished himself.