Ligeti - Essais, and Rameau - Pigmalion
Paris-Châtelet, June 12 2005 For the Rameau: Conductor: Hervé Niquet. Production, choreography and video: Karole Armitage. Pigmalion: Cyril Auvity. Céphise: Valérie Gabail. La Statue: Cassandre Berthon. L’Amour: Magali Léger. Orchestra and Chorus of the Concert Spirituel. Ballet de Lorraine. You wouldn’t normally find me writing about ballet at all. I wouldn’t want people to think I’m gay. But Pigmalion , termed an “acte de ballet,’ is a typical Rameau blend of dance and song, and Rameau is, to me, the greatest of all French composers… And Cyril Auvity is a very cute little teno… oops. Ahem, ahem. In an interview published in anticipation of this performance, Hervé Niquet said that to him, Pigmalion was the greatest of all Rameau’s stage works, concentrating all the facets of the composer’s genius into just 50 minutes. He said that it required an unusually lavish orchestre à la française . He also said he’d be using singing dancers, as Rameau did in his day, for the female roles. What...