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.

Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau - Les Arts Florissants

Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau with Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie, reissued as part of a series by Harmonia Mundi.   Like a garden, where different plants are combined for maximum display,  this recording is a bouquet of selections from Rameau, Gluck, Campra, Pignolet de Monteclair, and others, arranged to highlight the variety of 18th century form.  In this delughtful bouquet or sounds, well known perennials blend with relative rarities and dramatic colours alternate with the more discreet : an excellent introduction to the rest of the Harmonia Mundi series reissuing Les Arts Florissants recordings. This selection was first heard during the Rameau anniversary year when Les Arts Florissants  were joined by soloists  (Daniela Skorka, Emilie Renard, Benedetta Mazzucato, Zachary Wilder, Victor Sicard and Cyril Costanzo) from their academy, Le Jardin de Voix. Michel Pignolet de Montéclair's Jephté, (1633) was written a hundred and twenty years before Handel's oratorio on the same subject. The opera was based on a biblical text, at a time when the concept of combining religion and theatre was controversial.  Thus the Overture is surprsingly exuberant, the mood reinforced here by the air "Riez sans cesse!" with its jolly chorus, the orchestra singing along, repeating the melody, followed by a more decorous trio "du quel nouveaux concerts". where the woodwind consort sounds delightfully archaic.  Swiftly the mood changes back to more typical adventures in classical antiquity. Les Arts Florissants combine the well-known  "Quel doux concerts" from Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (1733)  (which Christie conducted at Glyndebourne), with "Quelle voix suspend mes alarmes" from Hercules mourant (1761) by Antoine Dauvergne.  This latter is lyrical yet elegaic, the strings in the orchestra sweeping gracefully decorated by woodwinds.

Religion  allegory and comedy ! The miniature Cantate rien de tout (the Cantata of Nothing at all" by Nicholas Racot de Grandval, pits mock elegance with wit.  The singer duets with flutes "Quoi!" she shouts then bursts into laughter and changes her tune (literally) into dance accompanied by bells like the bells on the shoes of a folk dancer.  The strings attempt to  restore decorum but to no avail.  "Aimiez-vous!" the singer cries and the orchestra wells up forceful chords.  Frilly trills and a short sharp ending "Rien de tout!"

More high spirits with three airs from La vénitienne, a comédie-ballet from 1768, by Antoine Dauvergne. Cyril Constanzo sings the qdrunkard who dreams up a drama : the orchestra explodes with thunder and wind effects.  Gradually the drunk falls into a stupor the winds and strings singing mock lullaby. The theme continues with extracts from Gluck's L'Ivrogne corrigé (1760). Glorious sound effects in the orchestra - baroque taste was not genteel but audacious.  Expressive ensemble singing (punctuated by percussion) the low male voices delightfully "drunk).   These mini-scenes are mixed by pieces by Rameau on similar themes. Les Arts Florissants and Christie conclude with a combination of André Campra's L'Europa galante (1697)  and Rameau's Les fêtes d'Hébé (1739) both opéra-ballets with allegorical imagery.   More Rameau too with selections from Dardanus. First  the rousing "Hâtons-nous, courons à la gloire", the orchestra zinging with energetic buzz behind the heroic tenor.  Low strings and winds introduce the récit "Voici les tristes lieux", followed by "Mais un nouvel éclat" and "Les biens que Venus nous dispense" which prepares us for Les Fleurs from Les Indes Galantes where the voices twine together in graceful harmony.

Dangerous Liaisons - Dance and Music - OAE Lully Rameau

Dangerous Liaisions with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.   Joined by  Les Corps Éloquents (Hubert Hazebrouq, choreographer, Irène Feste and Romain Arreghini, the OAE surpoassed even their own high standards, demonstating the link between music and dance in the French baroque. More than 40 extracts, primarily from Lully and Rameau, were chosen to form a highly original compilation, unfolding in thematic sequence : Idyllic Delight, Seduction, a Ballet des Fleurs, Vexation, Loss and Despair, Frolics and Mischief, with Reconciliation, the happy ending.   It's quite an achievement to put together more than 40 disparate extracts so they flow together naturally, yet with much variety. Like Le Concert Royal de la Nuit, (more here) this cohered well, an excellent summary of style and content.   Much admiration is due to  the OAE's Principal Flute Lisa Beznosiuk, who curated this with the support of an OAE team and Hubert Hazebroucq, who choreographed the dancing in period style.  This was also an exercise in French declamatory song style, with period (not modern) pronunciation, so credit is due, too, to soloists Anna Dennis and Nick Pritchard.  Conducted by John Butt, the OAE were in vivacious form : a delightful two and a half hours which passed all too quickly.

Like a prologue to a drama, the OAE began with Lully's Overture from Le Triomphe de L'Amour , followed by six miniatures, four from Lully's Thésée (1675)   "Aimons tout nous y convie, on aime ici sans danger".  Notice the archaic language, which did mater, since it complemented the stylized, idealized sentiments in the text, and in this context reminded us that the world of the baroque needs to be understood on its own terms. Thus the dancing, very different to what we take for granted today.  Like the art of fencing, dance prepared young noblemen with skills much needed in Court cicrles : physical fitness, mental discipline, alertness to strategy and form and an awareness of elegant presentation.  Thus the stances - hands and feet held at angles, foot positions which would have developed formidable muscles, enabling the dancer to control his position until he was ready to execute swift, decisive changes.  The formal patterns of dance also reflected concepts of social and cosmic order, the individual functioning as part of an emsemble.

Hazebroucq's choreography is based on extensive archival research but also on the relationship between dance and music, so fundamental to the baroque aesthetic.  Lully didn't conduct with a staff for nothing : he was (literally) beating time, creating a percussive foundation for music that was made to be moved to.  Hence the vigorous rhythms and exuberance, at times reminiscent of military marches and fanfares. Period instruments pack an earthy punch, horns and percusssion evoking  instruments  from even more archaic times, complementing the baroque fascination with classical antiquity.  The stringed instruments, plucked or bowed, added variety and character, sometimes providing continuo, or embarking on flights of inventiveness.  Seeing the dancers move in close relation to the music enhanced understanding of the musical logic. 
Thoughtfully, this Liaisons Dangereuses (like the novel that is told in letters, not narrative), interleaved an extract from Lully's Les Noces de Village (1663),between the pieces from Lully's Thésée. Philinte and Climene are idealized shepherd and shepherdess, more personable than  the more stylised, abstract evocations of love in Thésée. This also served to show that court dance, even when inspired by pastoral fantasy, was not folk dance but far more sophisticated.  The second section, "Seduction",  combined extracts from André Campra's L'Europe Galante (1697) and Lully's Le Bourgeois Genthilhomme (1670),, the vaguely "Spanish" allusions adding exotic spice, to the dancing as much as to the music.   In the Interlude, a "Ballet des Fleurs" , the dancers enacted an allegory in which three figures interact as lovers and rivals, eventually finding reconciliation. This is an allegory in music, too, combining Gavottes and Airs sourced from Rameau's Les Indes Galantes and Lully's Atys (1676), allowing the dancers ample room for elegant, intricate pattterns of movement.  The section "Vexation" was based on Lully's Armide (1686), where the sorceress Armide tries to seduce Renaud.   Anna Dennis was particularly impressive in this splendid role with Nick Pritchard her foil,  dancers in black, the orchestra conjuring up a storm..

The section "Loss and Despair" began with the Prelude from Charpentier's Orphée descendant aux enfers (1684) setting the scene.  An extract from Lully's Ballet royal de la Naissance de Venus (1665)  prepared the way for Orpheus "Tu ne la pendras point, hélas, pour me le rendre"  and Proserpine's "Courage Orphée, étale ici les plus grands charmes", also from Charpentier's La descent d'Orphee aux Enfers depict the Underworld. But love itself does not die. Venus (Anna Dennis) sang "Amiable Vainqueur" from Campra's Hésione (1700), neatly connecting the Orpheus legend with a tragédie en musique  wth characters from other parts of classicl mythology.  "Love that is strong enough can "Désarmer le Dieu de la Guerre: le Dieu de la Tonnere" evoked by the wind machines, crashes of percussion and baleful brass in the orchestra.   After the tumult, fantasy and fun.  From Rameau's Platée (1745) a satire, and a parody from Jean-Joseph Mouret's Les Amours de Ragonde (1714) . In the former, the gods squabble, causing invertebrates and mortals to fall in unrequited love. In the latter, couples end up mismatched. Colin, who ends up wed to his would be mother in law sings mock peasant dialect "Je ne songeons qu'uà bien aimer, je rougirions d'être volage".  Warped humour, the opposite of idealized courtly love, but an opportunity to see the dancers imitate folksy jigs and "exotic" dances.  But all is resolved in the final tableau, Reconciliation.  Eglé and Mercury  sort out their differences in a dialogue from Rameau's Les Fêtes d'Hébé (1739) and Calatée, Mercure, Zoroaster and Amelite sort out theirs in Rameau's Zoroastre (1739).
Please also see

Rameau  Zaïs HERE. (Anna Dennis, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Rameau Pygmalion and Anacreon danced HERE (OAE, danced by Les Paisirs des Nations),
Rousseau Le Devin de Village HERE (Hubert Hazebrouque, choreographer)
and much else

Rameau Maître à danser William Christie

Rameau : Maître à danser with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants in the famed production at Le théâtre de Caen, from 2014,  still (just) available on Culturebox.  Notice, Maître à danser, not master of the dance but a master to be danced to: there's a difference.  Dance is movement, formalized into art.  Dance encapsulates the values of the baroque, where art meant civilisation, refinement over nature, orderliness over abundance.  Rameau was a music theorist as well as a composer, his music shaped by the values of his time. The pulse of dance invigorates his music, and informs its intricate patterns.  We can hear it animate the music. Now, fortunately, thanks to extensive modern research, we can also watch music being danced to, in stagings that reflect the spirit of the period.

In this performance, Christie presents Daphnis et Églé  (1753), written as a private entertainment for Louis XV and his court at Fontainebleau, after days spent out in the forests hunting for game. Context is relevant. It also commemorates the birth of a royal princes, and dynastic continuity.  The King wanted to be amused, but the show also had to flatter his image of power.  Thus both pieces present Happy Peasants, acting out simple, innocent lives, their peaceful idylls made possible by the benevolence of the King.   

Daphnis et Églé is basically a masque for dancing,  Daphnis (Reinoud Van Mechelen) and Églé (Élodie Fonnard), shepherd and shepherdess, are friends who gradually fall in love over a sequence of 16 tableaux.  Daphnis flirts with a stranger, singing a lovely air. Églé drags him away.  Cupid appears, with wings and a wooden bow and arrow.  Daphnis presents  Églé  with a bow. Later, heavily "pregnant, they embrace as happy peasants dance around them.  Van Mechelen and Fonnard are familiar names on the French baroque circuit. Fonnard's particularly pert and dramatic  and Van Mechelen has good stage presence. The first performance of this piece in 1753 flopped, apparently because the singers were duds. Fonnard and Van Mechelen are good. They're delightfully fresh.  But singing is only part of the dramatic whole, contrary to modern notions about the past.  There isn't much of a plot, and what narrative there is unfolds in stylized symbols. In the final sequence, Églé carries a doll, representing a new-born babe. Louis XV and his Queen, with their infant prince, would have been flattered.Contrary to modern assumptions, the singing, though beautiful, does not take precedence over all else.  Baroque values emphasized balance and natural order, ensemble not diva-ism.  Van Mechelen has a lovely passage "Chantez ! Chantez", garlanded by woodwinds that sing like birds, bringing "nature" into the proceedings, and the idea of natural purity. The long dance sequences, punctuated by simple percussion, emphasize the orchestra over the singers.  Indeed, the chorus has almost as much to do as the singers.   

Daphnis et Églé works well when its slender charms aren't overwhelmed by excess opulence. Daneman's staging reflects this innocence, A simple cloth is held up on sticks to suggest  peasant theatre.  Alain Blanchot's costumes (organic dyed fabric?) show the shepherds and shepherdesses in what would have been normal 18th century costume for their class, ie "modern" for the time. Daneman has worked with Christie since their first Hippolyte et Aricie together some 20 years ago. 

This stylized simplicity is of the essence, since The King wanted to portray himself as father of his people, a populace too childlike and naive to object.  Little did he know what would happen in 1789!

 Françoise Denieau choreographed. Each of these danced sequences represent a different type of dance. Fans of early dance will enthuse about the finerMdetails, and the names of each type of dance, the arm movements and the position of feet.  Baroque dance stemmed from athletics aristocrats practiced to keep fit and to fence. It's more stylized than 19th century ballet, and, serves the music. It isn't over-elaborate, since the purpose of the piece was conceptual idealism.  It feels like hearing the score come alive. When the music takes precedence, there are some lovely moments.  The Three Graces appear, in skimpy flesh coloured chemises, their arms held in expansive gestures. A young man dances with them. I'm not sure "who" he represents, but his graceful agility is a joy to watch.  

I first heard Christie's  Maître à danser  live at the Barbican in 2014, soon after the Caen premiere, together with another miniature, marking the birth of a second young prince, who would become the ill-fated Louis XVI.  In London, I think we got a truncated version of the two pieces, but I can't remember exactly.  Please see my other posts on Rameau's Zaïs HERE. and on  Pigmalion and Anacréon HERE

Les Indes galantes Munich - dance and intelligence

Rameau's Les Indes galantes is shockingly audacious, defying boundaries of time and place with exuberant high spirits.  William Christie's staging with Les Arts Florissants (Andrei Serban 2004) is so stunning that all other contenders are dazzled by its glory.  But Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's production at the Prinzregententheater Munich, via the Bayerisches Staatsoper and BR Klassik, rose to the challenge, staging it with a different perspective, while also remaining true to the adventurous spirit.  If anything, this new approach confirms Rameau as visionary.  First, be prepared for a surprise.

What are Hébé, L'Amour and Bellone doing in a schoolroom?  But in a classroom, kids learn about the world. And Les Indes galantes is about the world, and universal themes of life and love. Hébé  (Lisette Oropesa) is the "nice" teacher confronted by an apparition in drag. Will Hébé's charges be confused by Bellone, his trumpets and rousing cries of "La Gloire vous appelle" ?  Goran Jurić in travesti isn't exaggerated, though hardly comforting, for he represents opposing systems.  This Prologue, (dramaturges Antonio Cuenca and Miron Hakenbeck)  reaches much deeper than the nudity in the Laura Scozzi production for Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques in 2014, since it deals with the tensions that underlie the plot, or rather non-plot, reminding us that Les Indes galantes is allegory: entertainment to engage the mind as well as the senses.  Rameau's audiences, versed in the classics, weren't stupid.  In idealized allegory, conflicts are resolved by L'Amour (Ana Quintans).

Brilliantly, the idea is followed through in each of the four Entrées and in the ending, unifying the whole, bringing out connections. The world, after all, is "one", whether you're French, Spanish, Greek, Inca, Turk or Native American.  For example Osman  (Tareq Nasmi) appears in a long tunic over trousers. Not non-European attire, but in these xenophobic times, "alien" outfits suggest danger, even more so, perhaps than they did in Rameau's time. Bellone cross-dresses, parodying the usual trouser-role meme, and pretty much the whole Entrée of 'Les Fleurs' predicates on mistaken identity.  The message is clear: don't judge by superficial appearances.

Dance is absolutely integral to Rameau, so this new production is valuable, too, in its emphasis on movement as abstract expression.  In 'Le turc généreux'  singers and dancers move in and out of structures which resemble display cases.  Slave traders? People treating each other as objects of consumption ? Image or reality? The lustful Turk turns out to be the good guy after all, uniting Émilie (Elsa Benoit) and Valère  (Cyril Auvity) so they can go home, where they belong. Despite their differences, Osman and Valère are mates. "Au plus parfait bonheur il a droit de prétendre, Si la vertu peut rendre heureux"
    

In 'Les incas du Pérou', Anna Prohaska is magnificent as Phani, singing with smouldering intensity, conveying with her voice the conflicts  she must feel betraying her heritage for love. So Huascar (François Lis)  is a Catholic Priest and not an Inca High Priest? Again, it's not robes that make a man malevolent.  We don't need Inca kitsch to remind us that priests of all types are fond of invoking divine retribution on those who question.  And symbols like the sun and blood sacrifice occur in many religions.  Think on that when blaming the Alien Other.  Husacar thinks he has an exclusive hotline to God. "Triomphe soliel" was delivered with suitable fire and brimstone. The volcano explodes but even more explosive was the interpretation. This 'Les incas du Pérou' drew its power from the potent, provocative ideas inherent to the plot.  Rameau might not have dared question the Church publicly, but a whiff of revolt rumbled in the background. exploding in the Revolution which came only 50 years after the opera's premiere.

Dance also brought out the deeper levels of 'Les Fleurs', without resorting to prurience or bad taste. The "Flowers" here are the secluded women oif the harem, waiting to be plucked.  Thus the stylized hand and foot gestures, nodding heads and swaying gestures, Middle Eastern dance sublimated.  Tacmas (Cyril Auvity ) loves Zaïre (Ana Quintans) the slave of Ali (Tareq Nasmi ) who is loved by Fatime (Anna Prohaska).  There would have been practical reasons for Rameau to employ the same small group of principals, but interplay of familiar voices also contributes to the sense of disguised identity. The correlation between singing and dancing was particularly lively.   Flowers are fertilized by butterflies, which shift-shape, and whose fragile beauty soon fades. The beautiful "Papillon" aria was exquisite, made even more so when followed by the image, shot from above the stage, where the dancers move in formation, swaying awkwardly like the segments of a caterpillar.  The sub-themes of renewal which connect the apparently disparate parts of  Les Indes galantes are subtly depicted by minor details of cleansing and replenishment which come to blossom fully in 'Les Fleurs'.  Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's choreography is so vivid that it evolves into directoral thinking, much more effectively than some theatrical directing translates into opera.

Perhaps symmetry comes naturally to a dancer, but the staging of the Final Entrée, Les sauvages connected beginning to end with poise and elegance,  We returned to the "classroom", which isn't at all a bad metaphor for the innocence of childhood, and the idealized simplicity of "natives" living in harmony with Nature.  The wonderful "Forêts paisibles".  Ivor Bolton doesn't conduct with the vivacious finesse of William Christie or even with the flair of Christophe Rousset, but his Handelian solidity works well with the down to earth physicality of Cherkaoui's choreography.  The excellent singing and dancing more than compensate. Cherkaoui's interpretation gets to the soul of Les Indes galantes with great intelligence and sensitivity.  We need more of this, especially in these times.

Time travel Aldeburgh : François-Xavier Roth Rameau Ravel

François-Xavier Roth brought Aldeburgh "through the centuries" when  Les Siècles played Rameau and Ravel on Saturday, the first in a series by this most fascinating of ensembles. Roth and Les Siècles are innovative, dispensing with the whole idea of boxing music into stereotypes of period and genre.  For them, music is a life force so vital that it transcends boundaries.  Period performance isn't just about instruments or even style. It's a whole new way of thinking, which respects the music itself, as opposed to received tradition.  In his own time, Jean-Philippe Rameau was avant garde, so shockingly different that he was lucky to have patrons in high places.  Rameau changed music.  Thus Roth and Les Siècles paired Rameau and Ravel, innovators across the centuries, both working on themes from classical antiquity.  Time travel on every level !

Significantly, both Rameau and Ravel were writing for dance.  Dancing is a physical activity, which requires co-operation. Dancers co-ordinate with music, and with each other. Rameau's music takes its very structure from the discipline of dance, with its intricate formal patterns and abstract expressiveness. In 1722,  Rameau wrote the Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels, building firm theoretical foundations for musical creativity.  The baroque aesthetic "contained the world" to borrow a phrase from Mahler, encompassing worlds beyond time and place.

Rameau's Daphnis et Eglé (1753) illustrates the composer's basic ideas.  It was created for Louis XV at Fontainebleau, as entertainment after days spent in the forests hunting animals for sport.  This context matters.  The dancers, singers and musicians act out a fantasy which has little bearing on real life. Yet it's so beautiful that it takes on a logic of its own.  Think about baroque gardens, where the abundance of nature is channeled into formal parterres, though woodlands flourish beyond, and birds fly freely.This tension between nature and artifice livens the spirit: gods mix with mortals, improbable plots seem perfectly plausible.  We enjoy the music as abstract art.  The whole  Daphnis et Eglé unfolds over 16 separate tableaux each of which illustrates a type of dance, the whole piece thus forming an intricate unity of patterns and sub-patterns.   I've seen the piece choreographed which reveals the way the music reflects physical form: a wonderful experience !   At Aldeburgh, Roth and  Les Siècles don't have the resources of Les Arts Florissants to hand, and also dispensed with the sections for voice, but this hardly mattered.   By focusing on the purely musical aspects of the piece, they brought out its innate energy, its liveliness deriving from its origins in dance. This performance was even more muscular than when Christie and Les Arts Flo did it in 2014,  bringing out the forceful, physical quality in the music to great effect.   Baroque dancing, particularly before Louis XIV, was more athletics than ballet as we know it now.  Like fencing, it was physical fitness for aristocrats, training the mind as well as the body.  In this superb performance,  Roth and Les Siècles proved, if any further  proof were needed, that period performance is not for wimps !

This performance of Daphnis et Chloé was even more revealing.  So often the piece is heard as dreamy colorwash, for it is so beautiful,  but its foundations are much firmer. Ravel was writing for the Ballets Russe, for larger and more opulent orchestras than Rameau.   Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé is a descendant of Debussy La Mer, an impressionistic fantasy, yet it is very much a work created for dance.  Ravel gave more room to characterize the narrative, but the spirit of the work is deliberately alien. Thus Ravel's wind instruments and strings evoke otherworldly atmospheres. The solo parts are exquisite, suggesting pan pipes and delphic voices.  . There's even a suggestion of a wind machine (though it's done by more conventional means).  The offstage horns, trumpets and voices evoke mystery, suggesting states beyond mortal comprehension (that's why the singing is wordless).  Yet the aesthetic of Ravel's period embraced modernity, the stylization of art nouveau, where plants, flowers and people were depicted in twirling, twining contrast, influenced heavily by art from beyond central and western Europe. As in the baroque, nature cannot really be tamed even in an era when people lived in cities lit by electricity and rode in tramcars.  Fokine's angular choreography horrified audiences used to mid-19th century ballet, where ballerinas fluttered in tulle.  Bakst's designs for this ballet were decidedly "modern" in comparison, evoking the formality of ancient Greek art.  This superb performance seemed informed by insight into the context of the piece.  Roth and Les Siècles  brought out the innate energy in the piece, reminding us of the angular, "primitive" style of the Ballets Russe, inspired by prehistory and ancient myth.  A vivid performance, bristling with verve and physicality.  Listen again here on BBC Radio 3.

Barbican Rameau Maître à danser Christie Les Arts Florissants

 
Maître à danser: William Christie and Les Arts Florissants at the Barbican, London, presented a defining moment in Rameau performance practice, choreographed with a team of dancers. Maître à danser, not master of the dance but a master to be danced to: there's a difference. Rameau's music takes its very pulse from dance. Hearing it choreographed connects the movement in the music to the exuberant physical expressiveness that is dance. Furthermore, the very structure of Rameau's music is influenced by the intricate patterns of dance. Rameau was a music theorist as well as a composer: his nephew was Didérot, the encyclopédiste, so this precise orderliness is fundamental to the idiom. Think about baroque gardens, where the abundance of nature is channelled into formal parterres, though woodlands flourish beyond, and birds fly freely.This tension between nature and artifice livens the spirit : gods mix with mortals, improbable plots seem perfectly plausible.

In these miniatures, one hears The Full Rameau. "You don't have to wade through a prologue, five acts and a postlude, as Christie has quipped. With dancers, the music becomes even more vivid. Sophie Daneman directed. She's a very good singer, specializing in the baroque and in Lieder. She first worked with Christie on Hippolyte et Aricie some 20 years ago.  On this evidence, she's a very good director, too.

Christie and Les Arts Florissants presented two miniatures, Daphnis et Églé  (1753) and La naissance d'Osiris. (1754). both were written as private entertainments for Louis XV and his court at Fontainebleau, after days spent out in the forests hunting for game. The context is relevant. these pieces also commemorate the birth of two royal princes.  The Barbican stage was lit beautifully,suggesting candlelight in a darkend room, creating the right hushed tone of reverence.  The King wanted to be amused. The show had to flatter his image of power. Both pieces present Happy Peasants, acting out simple, innocent lives, thanks to the benevolence of their King. When the second infant prince grew up, he was crowned Louis XVI and built Le petit Trianon, to act out pastoral idylls.

There's so little drama in Daphnis et Églé that its basically a masque for dancing,  Daphnis (Reinoud Van Mechelen) and Églé (Élodie Fonnard), shepherd and shepherdess, are friends who gradually fall in love over a sequence of 16 tableaux.  Daphnis flirts with a stranger, singing a lovely air. Églé drags him away. Dancers supply interest in the absence of plot. Each of these vignettes represent a different type of dance. Françoise Denieau choreographed. Fans of early dance will enthuse about the finer details.  I enjoyed the diversity and intricate formations, charmed by  the natural precision of the dancers.  It felt like hearing the score come alive. Van Mechelen and Fonnard are familiar names on the French baroque circuit. Fonnard's particularly pert and dramatic  and Van Mechelen has good stage presence. The first performance of this piece in 1753 flopped, apparently because the singers were duds. Fonnard and Van Mechelen most certainly are not.

Daphnis et Églé works well when its slender charms aren't overwhelmed by excess opulence.  Daneman's staging reflects this innocence, A simple cloth is held up on sticks to suggest  peasant theatre.  Alain Blanchot's costumes (organic dyed fabric?) show the shepherds and shepherdesses in what would have been normal 18th century costume for their class, ie "modern" for the time. Daneman has worked with Christie since their first Hippolyte et Aricie together some 20 years ago.
La naissance d'Osiris is altogether more substantial.  This time the French shepherds and shepherdesses congregate around an Egyptian temple (not literally depicted), worshipping Jupiter, much in the way paintings of this period showed European landscapes populated with Europeans and semi-naked figures from Classical Antiquity. There;s a particularly beautiful part for musette (baroque bagpipes). The player gets to walk around the stage, among the dancers, just as at a peasant celebration. The idyll is shattered with a violent thunderstorm, the full force of Les Arts Florissants unleashed in splendid fury. Great lighting effects (Christoph Naillet). From up in the gods in the Barbican balcony, Pierre Bessière's Jupiter fulminates.  He will save the people by giving them his hero son, danced by a lithe young male dancer. Although the monarchy didn't know what was to come later, we can appreciate the poignancy in  these pieces because we do.

Since La naissance d'Osiris was written to mark the birth of Louis XV's second son (the future Louis XVI)  the allusion is audacious. The king of the Gods rules with divine authority, like an absolute monarch. The people know their place.  The piece is political  power game, Fonnard sang Cupid, with simple wings stuck to her back - sweetly naive, but firmed by Fonnard's feisty  singing. Sean Clayton sang A Shepherd and Arnaud Richard sang the High Priest. Eventually Jupiter takes his leave, and the Three Graces dance a lively trio.   

Although Rameau's music had to be written to please a royal patron, at heart its gentle good humour and humanity triumph. We in the modern audience were able to experience Rameau presented with great depth and sensitivity.  Plenty of  Rameau on this site - please click on label "Rameau" below

Rameau Platée comes to London with Paul Agnew

Paul Agnew conducts Rameau Platée with the Early Opera Company on 20th November. My review is HERE.That's Agnew in the photo above, when he was singing Platée in 1999 with Marc Minkowski. Platée is one of Rameau's best-known works, ranking with Les Indes Galantes. More details of the London performance HERE.  Agnew defined the part, and has probably sung it more than anyone else. He's also conducted the opera many times in recent years, including Paris, Vienna and New York.  So his presence in London will be reason alone to catch the London concert performance next week. He's replacing Christian Curnyn,. the Early Opera Company's much loved regular conductor, but Agnew is mega star billing in Rameau circles.What an opportunity to hear the best of Rameau with one of the best interpreters! This performance marks the beginning of a new relationship between the Early Opera Company and St John's  Smith Square.

Platée is a key part of Rameau's canon. Indeed, I don't think it's possible to understand Rameau without appreciating this remarkable work. It has all the key features of Rameau's style – energy, and vivacious dance rhythms, in a fantasy where gods, mortals, and animals mix with imaginative exuberance.  Not quite "good" humour though, as Platée was written to entertain Louis XV and his court on the occasion of the Dauphin's marriage in 1745. The bride was a Spanish Infanta, but she was very ugly.  Platée is a frog whose realm is a pond in the wilds, the opposite of refined, elegant Versailles. She/he has pretensions: she/he thinks everyone she meets will fall in  love with her. The part was written for a travesti, a man pretending to be a woman, which makes the satire rather cruel.  The man who sang the original was costumed so he looked as though he was covered in pustules. Yech! Quite possibly the French Court wanted this subject in order to put the Spanish in their place. Dynastic marriages were politically loaded, and had nothing to do with love..

As it happened, the princess died very young and the prince never became king. Yet given what we know of Rameau and the way he had to court the rich, perhaps the laughs are ultimately on the Gods and their abuse of power. Jupiter, Mercury and Juno might misuse Platée  as a pawn in their intrigues, but ultimately it's the humble frog who learns the true meaning of love, and finds wisdom. Apart from Platée herself/himself, the pivotal part goes to an extravagant character sometimes L'amour, sometimes La Folie. Love and madness! In the end, Platée returns to the pond, where she/he is in her/his natural element. Presumably the Gods still scrap, but the implication is that Platée is happy.

Please read my piece Frog Kisses Prince HERE  a review of the 1999 production filmed in 2002  - absolutely essential viewing!

Rameau ballets Barbican William Christie

Maître à danser -William Christie conducts Les Arts Florissants at the Barbican on 18th November featuring Rameau works for dance: Daphnis et Églé (Pastorale héroïque) and La Naissance d’Osiris (Acte de ballet)   READ MY REVIEW HERE. This promises to be quite spectacular - orchestra, choir, singers and dancers (choreographed by Françoise Denieau). The performance will be danced in full costume Imagine the first courtly audiences delighting in the simplicity of innocent peasants playing Arcadian fantasy. Enjoy the video below of the performance in Caen. Picture credits © Philippe Deival  Please seen also my posts on other danced Rameau performances Anacréon and Pigmalion. and Zais here. And of course my numerous posts on Rameau operas which come with lots of dance.

Rameau Anacréon danced - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

"Flying the Flag/L'Amour" ,the catchy title of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's  Rameau programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The title concealed the treasures within, two rarely-heard Rameau pieces, Pigmalion and Anacréon. True to the spirit of Rameau's aesthetic, which lies in dance, the performance was realized by dancers from Les Plaisirs des Nations (choreographer Edith Lalonger). Both pieces are miniatures, far less exuberant than masterpieces like Castor et Pollux but for that very reason, we can appreciate the basis of Rameau's distinctive style. 

Anacréon begins with a simple flourish : two coiled valveless horns (one possibly a genuine antique) evoke the kind of Arcadia which artists of the classical period delighted in painting. The horns are followed by high woodwinds, intensifying the dream-like atmosphere of ancient Greece seen through 18th century French imagination.  In this landscape, Gods, mortals and animals frolic, in idealized fantasy. Chloé (Anna Dennis) and Batile (Augustin Prunell-Friend) cautiously declare their love for each other.  However, Chloé is about to marry the famous poet Anacréon (Matthew Brook). She quite likes him but he's too amorous.  Rameau's audiences would have cackled, since they had enough classical education to know that Anacréon, though revered, was a drunk and a lecher.  Rameau suggests Anacréon's earthiness with lines that descend in almost ostinato: an old roué drooping because he's in his cups.  "Regnez, Regnez" sings Matthew Brook, like the god Bacchus, the lord of misrule. "I live in the moment" he sings. Instead of the deep reflection one might expect from Wagner, or the florid intensity of Verdi,  Rameau's Anacréon watches the dancers do their routines, and thus satisfied, lets Batile and Chloé find true love. Augustin Prunell-Friend sings Batile's long showpiece, which consists mainly of the lines "Let fly, arrows of love, into our souls" but is so beautifully decorated that it makes perfect sense. (The photo above is a 19th century French painting of Anacréon,with his lute with a hairless Pan and cupids - try staging that now)

The parade of dancers thus operates as plot device, which wouldn't be quite so obvious on audio-only recording. Why are the dancers dressed (vaguely) as Turks or Hindus?  Baroque audiences were fascinated by exotic cultures. If people from strange places could do strange things, then why not have them inject another level of fantasy into the proceedings?  Pan the god appears, half-man, half-goat, complete with little red horns like the devil.  Pan was the god of music, but also of sensuality and dangerous wild spaces. Bacchus appears, too, an old man with a wreath of grapevine.  Gods, men and animals mix in joyous confusion : anything can happen in the creative imagination. In Anacréon, we can see, in germ, the exuberance and creative good humour William Christie found in Les Indes Galantes, Les Paladins and Hippolyte et Aricie  The true, adventurous spirit of the age!

Williams and the OAE aren't quite in that league of brilliance, but they performed  a new edition of Rameau's  1754 version of Anacréon, compiled by Dr Jonathan Williams, who conducted. Their recording of this "new" Anacréon is the first in the market.

In April this year, Williams and the OAE performed Rameau's Zaïs, also danced by members of Les Plaisirs des Nations. Please see my review HERE.  Pigmalion dates from 1748, as did  Zaïs, but the plot's even thinner.  It's a metaphor fpor the power of artistic imagination. This isn't necessarily a disadvantage, since it means we can focus on the structure and on the role of dance. Pigmalion (Daniel Auchincloss) is a sculptor who has fallen in love with a Statue (Katherine Manley). Pigmalion's lover, Céphise (Susanna Hurrell) calls on the gods for help.  Unfortunately, L' Amour (Venus, sung by Anna Dennis) feels sorry for Pigmalion and turns the statue into a woman.  Everyone's happy, except Céphise, who disappears.  Rameau writes a rollicking good chorus singing about the joys of love. Is it ironic that a composer so given to energy and movement would write a piece where the love interest is an inanimate object? Again, the sheer vivacity of the music  makes anything seem possible.  Three dancers depict the Three Graces, artistic creations born like the Statue fully mature and whole..Although in classical art, the Three Graces, and most statues were shown naked, or semi-naked in Grecian drapes,  Nudity might have been authentic but Rameau and his audiences used their imaginations. The Three Graces appear in outfits which would have been contemporary in Rameau's time, and Katherine Manley wears an evening gown.

Most of the action happens not in sung text but in abstract music. Sequence after sequence of dance figures: I lost count after ten. These probably illustrate specific dance forms, some pastoral, some lively, some almost militaristic.  The patterns in which the dancers move reflect the patterns in the music, as if the abstract forms in music are being made visible. For all his exuberant effervescence, Rameau was a superb craftsman. His Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels  was one of the first great treatises on the theory of music. Rameau's mind reflected the clarity and precision so dear to the Enlightenment.

Rameau Les Paladins Christie Les Arts Florissants

Ahead of the all-Rameau Les Paladins concert at the Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 1st October, a link to a film on Les Paladins on medici tv based on the 2004 Théâtre du Châtelet de Paris production with Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie.

"We're talking about a composer who IS funny.....I've been living with Les Paladins for a number of years now", says William Christie, "and the thing that strikes me is that it's a piece of absolute anarchy, and from a composer who's an old man , 77, 78 years old,, it's as if he's trying essentially to shock. Then, " parody and caricature are important words describing this piece - it's as if he's parodying himself "
 
A black and white engraving of a huntsman comes alive as rows of deer run out from the flat surface. The stage is divided so rows of dancers occupy the front level, while large-scale videos of other dancers leap above them, as if bouncing off clouds. The baroque imagination adapted and re-created by modern technology. Later, dancing bunnies and other images of the exuberant bounty of Nature. The livret is pretty basic. "It's Entführung" says Laurent Nouri who sings Orcan (ie Osmin). Excellently cast - Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Argie), Topi Lehtipuu (Altis), Sandrine Piau, Laurent Naouri (Orcan), René Schirrer (Anselme), François Piolino (Manto), Emiliano Gonzalez Toro (un paladin).. Choreography and staging by José Montalvo. The music is so bright, and the playing so infectiously jolly that the singers bob about quite naturally among the dancers.

Who could sit still grumpily with music like this?  Throughout the opera ballet, words and orchestral passages bounce back and forwards in intricate patterns, captured in lively splitscreen staging.  Gert the full 2 disc DVD here

Sandrine Piau is singing at the Wigmore Hall on Wednesday, with Les Paladins, the consort conducted by Jérôme Correas. They're doing a mixed programme of extracts from different Rameau opera/ballets , including Les Paladins, Castor et Pollux, Les Indes Galantes, Platée asnd Les Surprises d' Amour. Link to Wigmore Hall Box Office HERE. They're selling fast. There's a pre concert talk, too.

Happy 250th, J P Rameau !

Today, 25th September, is the  331st birthday of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Celebrate! Rameau epitomizes the best parts of the era in which he lived, when Europe was confidently discovering the rest of the world, but before it took on the baggage of empire. The baroque was an age of discovery, exploring exotic new frontiers, of glorious, audacious extremes of the imagination.  Cure from the art,  hyperbole, not grim literalism. Gods mix with mortals and animals in landscapes which bear less resemblance to Greece than to contemporary France. Goddesses in states of undress, revealing the delights of the flesh, but teasingly virtuous, under the veil of 'art". Shepherdesses in the clothes of the time, fantastical inventiveness and over the top fantasy. Technical limitations decreed a degree of abstraction in stage mechanics, compensated by extreme imagination in music and characterization. Perhaps Gods and mythic heroes appealed so much - they didn't conform to grubby expectations. When your grandad is Neptune, for example, you don't really need to follow rules.  And so the Heroes go their merry ways, having adventures, fooling around,  screwing around, and getting away with things and eventually learning a degree of basic moral wisdom. In the baroque lies the germ of the idea that Gods and Kings aren't all-powerrful. The baroque was more forward thinking – and "modern" – than many realize.

And listen to Rameau's music! Who can resist the vigorous and very physical dance rhythms, that make you feel with your body as well as with your mind? Petty minded Victorian values colour the past with a prissiness that Baroque personalities wouldn't recognize. Rameau, a nobody from the provinces, captures the imagination of Paris with his uninhibited joie de vivre. In his own time, Rameau was considered a radical and a rebel. Rameau's dance patterns and structures need precise, clear-sighted performance. hence the importance of performance styles which let the music shine, free and unfettered. Without  the  genuinely informed insight we have today, would we be able to hear Rameau in his true light?  Jean-Philippe Rameau, your time has come!

Souffler les bougies : L'année Rameau

Blow out the candles. It's Rameau's 250th birthday on 25th September. To celebrate Arte TV is screening four classic productions

All of these are very well known, so anyone with the slightest interest in Rameau will have seen them already. But my goodness, they are so good that you want to enjoy them over and over. A brilliant introduction, too, for those new to Rameau.


Les Indes Galantes - the groundbreaking  1992 William Christe Les Arts Florissants production from 1992. Barqoue is its true, exuberant glory!

Platée  (1999) Marc Minkowski, L'Orchestre des Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble in the brilliant Laurent Pelly production, described here - Prince kisses Frog.

Les Paladins : William Christie ".....; une oeuvre rare de Jean-Philippe Rameau. Presque oubliée, elle s'inspire pourtant des fameuses "Fables" de la Fontaine. Avec humour et surréalisme, cet opéra raconte l'amour impossible entre Atis et Argie, cette dernière étant promise au vénérable sénateur Anselme et placée sous la surveillance de l'inflexible Orcan. "Les Paladins" fut incompris à son époque, cette comédie-ballet est pourtant un petit bijou d'autodérision et de cocasserie."

 Hippolyte et Aricie ~ Emmanuelle Haim , Concert d'Astrée

Rameau Les Boréades broadcast

WONDERFUL Rameau Les Boréades streaming from France Musique. Marc Minkowski from the Aix Festival, recorded live in July.  Nothing timid about the Baroque.  Far from being precious, early music bursts with energy and vigour. Les Boréades is "new music" in the sense that it wasn't heard at all until 40 years ago. There's no "performance tradition"  to stifle enjoyment. Minkowski knows the music, its period and its audacious exuberance. That is the background that really counts.

Rameau Motets Prom William Christie Les Arts Florissants

Best of the season so far! William Christie and Les Arts Florissants  performed Rameau Grand Motets at late night Prom 17. Perfection, as one would expect from arguably the finest Rameau interpreters in the business, and that's saying a lot, given the exceptionally high quality of French baroque performance in the last 40 years. Even more significantly, this perfection was mixed with joy and humour. This was an  hommage to Rameau, whose 250th anniversary we celebrate, But for us in the audience, it was also an hommage to William Christie, who founded Les Arts Florissants in 1979. Christie and the generations of artists he has inspired  blend new scholarly research with musical intelligence.

In his lifetime, Rameau was something of a radical. Christie and modern baroque specialists present  Rameau as vibrant as it might have been when the music was still fresh.  Deus noster refugium (1713) (God is our refuge) begins in relatively conventional mode, suitable for decorous church performance. Then a wilder. almost dance-like mood takes over, ushered in by "footsteps"in the vocal line, where each syllable is deliberately defined. The voices sing with firm conviction, while the forces around them are in tumult. With a little imagination, we can hear, as Lindsay Kemp describes in his programme notes, "'mountains' cast into the sea (bursts of tremolos and rushing scales  in the strings, stoically resisted  by firmly regular crotchets  in the three solo voices; swelling waters (smooth but restless choral writing over forward-driving strings); and finally  streams that 'filled the city of God with joy' a gigue-like aria for soprano with solo violin".

Quam dilecta tabernacula (1713-15?) (How lovely is thy dwelling place) allows Rameau to write elaboate fugal patterns. Rameau, the master of technical form, also manages to evoke the beauty of the outdoors. The piece begins with very high soprano, accompanied by delicate winds : pastoral, sensual and mysteriously unearthly. The choruses introduce a livelier mood, which might suggest fecundity and vigorous growth. The soprano solo is balanced by a tenor solo, then later by baritone. Elegant design, reminiscent of baroque gardens, laid out in tight formation. When the soloists sing in ensemble, and later with full chorus, the voices entwine gracefully.

The version of In convertendo Dominus (Psalm 126, When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Zion)  only now exists in a revision made for Holy Week in 1751. The piece begins with a wonderful part for very high tenor, presaging the passion later French opera would have for the voice type. Do we owe Enée and  Robert le Diable to Rameau?  Reinoud Van Mechelen's voice rang nicely, joined by the other five soloists in merry, lilting chorus that suggests laughter. The bass Cyril Costanzo's art was enhanced by whip-like flourishes of brass and wind. Even lovelier,  the well decorated soprano passages, which lead into a  beautiful blending of solo voices and orchestra.  A pause: and then the exquisite chorus. "They that go out weeping....shall come back in exultation, carrying their sheaves with them.  Christie balances the voices so finely that one really hears "sheaves", united and golden.

If these Grand Motets weren't enough, Christie continued with so many encores that the  BBC schedule was thrown off kilter, and only one can be heard on rebroadcast. Haha! I thought, admiring Christie's sense of humour and bravado.  The photo above shows Christie having fun in fancy dress. Since I'd come for the music (and for Les Arts Flo) I was glad I could stay, and not worry about mundane things like missing the last bus. "Hahahahahaha " went the chorus in the excerpt from Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville's In exitu Israel (1753) on exactly the same subject.   A brilliant choice!  Just as in Rameaus In convertendo Dominus, the Hebrews are laughing because they've been freed. Rameau's laughter is more subtle, Mondonville's more crude, "crowd pleasing" to the point of being coarse.  Christie is making a point. Mondonville was more fashionable at the time, but as we know now, Rameau has had the last laugh.

Christie continued with an extract from Rameau's Castor et Pollux which was used with words of Kyrie Eléison for Rameau's funeral Mass. The opera and its successors meant a lot to the composer, and to Christie, who conducted Hippolyte et Aricie at Glyndebourne last year (read my review HERE). Christie is no fool. Respect his choices. He knows baroque style better than most, and chose as director Jonathan Kent, with whom he created the magnificent Glyndebourne Purcell The Fairy Queen. "If it's good enough for Bill Christie", my companion said, "It's good enough for me". At the interval at Glyndebourne we bumped into Christie himself, and told him. He beamed with delight, his eyes twinkling. "That's what I like", he grinned.

Christie and Les Arts Florissantes ended with a excerpt from Les Indes Galantes, their greatest hit, which revolutionized public perceptions of the genre.The baroque era was audacious, given to extravagant, crazy extremes. People embraced the new world outside Europe, and delighted in exotic fantasy. Po-faced literalism is an aberration of late 20th century culture, dominated by TV.  To really appreciate baroque style, it helps to understand the period. "You have to steep yourself in historical, performance practice", says Christie. "it has to become completely natural and spontaneous. If the public starts to become aware of the archaeological aspects, then we've failed. I think one of the reasons we've had success in Les Arts Florissants is because we've become completely instinctive". This fabulous Prom unleashed the joy, energy and wit in the style. Christie makes Rameau, and the spirit of his age, come alive.

Rameau Zaïs Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment QEH

Shepherdesses, gods and supernatural sylphs, jostling merrily together in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Zaïs, performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment complete with dancers.,This is the latest venture by the Rameau Project, a multi-disciplinary group dedicated to Rameau scholarship. In October, Anacréon (1754), reconstructed from archival sources, and Pigmalion will receive their modern premieres.

Zaïs (1748) opens with a Prologue in which the orchestra depicts Chaos itself - the origin of the Universe, from the Elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water - are brought into being, an ambitious concept, but one which reflects the audacious bravado of the high Baroque.  The strings scream turbulence like howling winds, and percussion beats thunder. Four flautists stand apart from the main body of the orchestra, playing wavering lines that might suggest flames. Anyone still under the misapprehension that period instruments can't do gusto needs to hear the energy of the OAE, unleashing the creation of the Sun no less, and the world of gods and men. A woodwind chorus plays birdsong, reminding us how deeply Messiaen's roots reached into the past. Jonathan Williams conducted, bringing out the sprightly humour in the work which I feel is so important in the idiom. Rameau was a radical in his day, no po-faced curmudgeon.

Zaïs, King of the Sylphs, has fallen in love with a mortal, the shepherdess, and she with him, thinking he's a shepherd. Jeremy Budd and Louise Alder wore normal concert black, as did Ashley Riches (Cindor), Katherine Watson (Amour). David Stout (Oromanés), Katherine Manley (The High Priestess), Anna Dennis (A Sylphide) and Gwilym Bowen, a cupid-like Sylph. This was surprisingly effective. Realism is not of the essence in an allegory like this, any more than in the pastorals of Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard or Le Petit Trianon.  Choreography is hard to authenticate, but it was interesting how this dancing reflected the music. Edith Lalonger had the dancers use stylized poses, their arms hovering in the air during pauses in the music. What did real shepherdesses wear in those times?   They can't have moved like characters in a toile de jouy. These certainly weren't Grecians of Antiquity. So it's fair to imagine them as 18th century Parisians re-imaging the past.  Are the costumes in Rameau's operas an elaboration of normal court dress, if "normal" could ever apply to Versailles? 

The love between Zaïs and Zélidie,transgresses social boundaries so must be tested throufgh a series oif trials. which involve impersonation and deception, magic flowers and offers of immortality. The role of Zaïs is far more demanding than the others, so it would be quite unfair to quibble about the use of a score. Budd has the notes and carries them with fine flow: Zaïs must be quite some guy. Interestingly, Rameau seems to give more gravitas to the male characters than to the women,  allowing Riches and Stout some very good moments. The choruses were the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment and Les Plaisirs des Nations.

The dancing gives visual content to abstract ideas. I thought of the way French philosophy predicates on formal logic and precision. Boulez, for example, studied and conducted Rameau. Eventually, love wins out. Zaïs and Zélidie are miraculously time shifted into  barren desert. Thunderclaps in the orchestra and whirling winds. These could hardly be staged realistically in the short time frame Rameau gives them, but the storm is more allegory than nature. This is an aesthetic very different indeed from later forms of opera. Hopefully the Rameau Project will enlighten us further. Cuthbert Girdlestone's monumental biography of Rameau remains the cornerstone, but much has happened in Rameau studies since it appeared in 1959. Graham Sadler's new book is eagerly awaited.

Please see my other pieces on Rameau : Platée (Prince kisses Frog), Hippolyte et Aricie
 Les Indes Galantes, Castor and Pollux.(Shocking but Not Wrong)...

Les Indes Galantes Rameau Barbican review

Titan of French Baroque, Rameau Les Indes Galantes was brought to the Barbican Hall London by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques.  Les Talens Lyriques have a distinctive bright sound, which suits Les Indes Galantes well.  This performance was part of a tour Les Talens Lyriques created for a fully staged production with dancers for Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, The Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Staatstheater Nürnberg. Although the staging, directed by Laura Scozzi is somewhat controversial, it follows the score (if Persian women need disguises, why not burkas?)  This isn't a piece for po-faced solemnity. Good natured humour is very much a part of the Baroque sensibility. 

 At the Barbican in London, we had a concert performance, without costumes or dancers, or dancers without costumes. But Les Talens Lyriques and the soloists were so lively that some of us in the audiences (like me) couldn't help but dance along in our seats. 

In 1990, Rousset worked as William Christie's assiatnt when Les Arts Florissants created Les Indes Galantes at Aix-en-Provence, so wonderfully preserved on DVD. For Les Talens Lyriques, he has chosen a  performing edition, based on a 1750 copy of the 1735 manuscript in the archives in Toulouse, This was created by Paul Dukas initially in 1902. "La version de Toulouse me semble intéressante comme témoignage de la conception très fluctuante qu’avait Rameau de son propre opéra", says Rousset.  Composers in the past weren't dogmatic or rigid, but understood performance values. In this version, the third Entrée, Les Fleurs, is less florid, but the compensation is overall clarity. In this performance I was struck by the deft interaction between instruments and voices, "dancing" invisibly. The instruments "sing" too- the two musettes in the Prologue suggest shepherds piping rhythms for nymphs and shepherds to dance to. The antique trumpet called out plaintively. The percussionist beat out thunder with kettledrums, and blew the primitive "wind" machine. Even if the Volcano didn't blow us off our seats, the details elsewhere were deft, as agile as intricate dance steps. The "Hymen" music in Les Sauvages felt like earthy celebration and the final Chaconne restored grace and order.

Five of the original six soloists came to London, ensuring fluent, idiomatic singing. Amel Brahim-Djelloul was a vivacious Hébé, Phani and Fatime, her sparkling tone creating personality. Judith Van Wanroij was a striking Émilie and Atalide: both roles benefiting from the richness of her voice, which fills a niche in the repertoire. Benoît Arnould created the gruff macho in Bellone, Huascar and Alvar. Thomas Dollé sang Osman and Adario with well-judged roundness. 

Most impressive of all, Anders J Dahlin, whose timbre is so beautiful, one would enjoy anything he sang for sheer delight. All his roles - Don Carlos, Damon, Valère and Tacmas -  are men is stress situations, their constancy being tested. Dahlin injects just the right amount of tremolo that he makes the characters feel dramatically real. He's also a natural actor - his body language is so expressive that his slightest gesture amplifies what he's singing. It's a pity we don't hear more of him in this country because he has that balance of lyricism and thoughtfulness that makes roles come alive. As he was singing, I pondered the difference between "English" and French Baroque. Would that we could hear Dahlin more frequently in this country!  

Please also see my review of Hippolyte et Aricie at Glyndebourne (William Christie)

Les Indes Galantes Rousset Les Talens Lyriques

On Thursday, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques bring Rameau's Les Indes Galantes to the Barbican Hall, London. MY REVIEW IS HERE. This is an extension of their tour which has taken in the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, The Opéra Ntaional de Bordeaux and the Staatstheater Nürnberg. They are using a version established by Les Talens Lyriques based on the manuscript stored at the Toulouse library.  If you like nudity, the fully staged version is currently available on medici TV. 

At the Barbican, we're getting a concert performance, with a different cast. The staged version, directed by Laura Scozzi, frames the opera/ballet in a  woodland grove, where the nymphs and satyrs of Classical Antiquity cavort. The nymphs here aren't painted images, nor statues, but dancers Nothing inappropriate per se.  Hébé wears a little shift because: singers don't do naked. 

In a few hours we'll travel across continents and through time and spaces to locales the locals would never recognize. The first Entrée, Le Turc généreux unfolds on a beach. Émilie, in orange silk, is sunning herself, oblivious to the gathering storm clouds. So she gets picked up by a Turk, as does happen to tourists in the Med. But Rameau throws in a jolly little riff and Osman relents. Osman and Valère are mates, after all : "Au plus parfait bonheur il a droit de prétendre, Si la vertu peut rendre heureux"   

The William Christie/ Les Arts Florissants Les Indes galantes (Serban 2002) was so audaciously spectacular that all else pales in comparison.  Who can forget  the "clouds" flats floating in space, the volcano and the Inca headresses ?  Or the Red Indians with bison heads ? This new staging goes, instead for more down to earth humour. The trio of tourists who dance throughout the entire opera/ballet tell us we're with the Incas of Pérou because they drink cocoa, and wear souvenir hats. You can tell that this Les Fleurs is set in Persia because the women wear burkas, and that Les Sauvages are American because they go in for tacky advertisng signs. All a bit jokey, but what is Les Indes Galantes but humorous fantasy ?  If this staging is weak, at least we can listen better to the singers, and to Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. The dancing in this version  is livlier and more  naturalistic than in Chrsitie/Les Arts Flo, though they saved a bit on costumes !