Although copyrighted 2008, these performances were originally released on LP in 1984. The music involved wasn't performed terribly often in the interim. That's understandable inasmuch as it's pretty slender stuff, but those interested in the ways of the French court in the first part of the eighteenth century will be glad to have this reissue. The "cantatas" involved are not of the Bachian kind but are descended from the solo cantatas of seventeenth century Italy. The three works heard are short (the aging Sun King wanted them that way), multimovement pieces with mythological settings. Two are by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, the composer most associated with the French cantata. The pieces are not necessarily comic, but they're broadly entertaining (if in some cases apparently allegorical), with a forward-looking style emphasizing melody over polyphony and harmonic artifice. Music like this was the harbinger of the galant, "natural" aesthetic that dominated French musical thinking over the coming decades. Bass-baritone John Ostendorf is a standout among a group of all-American historically informed performers who deliver lively readings that one can imagine unfolding in the salons of the French palace. The rather puffy classical conventions of the texts are given just the right amount of humorous overacting. The concert-hall sound is rather boxy, with a lack of intimacy that was the norm for its time, and the music has a kind of functional simplicity that the average listener may or may not enjoy. Those trying to put musical sounds to the experience of the paintings at Versailles, or better yet of the place itself, will find this a valuable release. The booklet, including the cantata texts, is in English only; the original texts are not given.