Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie - Staatsoper unter der Linden

Jean-Philippe Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie at the Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin, staged last November, now on arte.tv. with Simon Rattle conducting the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.  When Hippolyte et Aricie was premiered in 1733, it was considered radically inventive.  Baroque tastes were extravagant. Louis XIV, Le Roi Soleil, and his successor, Louis XV,  epitomized the aesthetic: audacity, not gentility,
vigour, not timidity.  Rameau and his audiences were so well versed in classical antiquity that they didn't need character development in the modern sense, and had no problems with symbolism and stylization.  The plot, as such, is allegory as much as drama, more poetry than narrative. 

At the premiere last year, this production, directed by Artletta Collins, wasn't well received, critics judging by surface appearances. So there are mirrors, mists, shadows and beams of light ? That's pretty much part of the plot. Diana is the goddess of the night and of hunting (ie strategems),  Diana doesn't like sex so when her protégée Aricie falls in love,  Destiny has to intervene to ensure that Hippolyte and Aricie can get together and restore Natural Order.   Get that and everything else falls into place. The sub-plot of Phèdre and Thésée ties in with that too, since Phèdre's obsession with her stepson isn't natural, nor orderly.  So Ólafur Elíasson's sets and costumes look "space age" ?   Why not, when extraterrestial beings like Gods interact with men and women? fantasy and imagination, not literal realism.  Modern audiences, conditioned by TV, need to adjust to this very different approach to art, to appreciate it on its own terms.  When Glyndebourne did Hippolyte et Aricie with William Christie - someone whose Rameau credentials cannot be challenged - many complained because the production wasn't abstract enough. (Please read more about that HERE).  

Significantly, Collins, who directed, is also a choreographer, so this production reflected dance in the widest sense - movement, dancers moving in ensembles that shifted shape and patterns. Again, the principles in the plot and in the music itself, at once formal and free spirited. The dancers more or less occupied the background, creating a backdrop of ever-changing rhythm, while the singers dominated centre stage.    That baroque sense of unity and order prevails too in the way the singing seems to grow organically from the music. No leitmotivs as such ! Excellent cast - Anna Prohaska (Aricie), Magdalena Kožená (Phèdre),Reinoud Van Mechelen (Hippolyte), Gyula Orendt (Thésée) and Peter Rose (Pluton), with Simon Rattle conducting the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.  Prohaska and Van Mechelen were outstanding, their voices expressing personality.  Rattle and the Freiburgers  have good rapport: this orchestra has a very individual sound, which Rattle makes the most of.  I neither loved nor hated the visuals but they made a lot more sense than they got credit for.  But thanks to Rattle and the Freiburgers, and to the singers, this Hippolyte et Aricie came to life as music.