We left at the interval...

Opéra Comique (Salle Favart), Paris, Wednesday March 19, 2025 Conductor: Raphaël Pichon. Production: Claus Guth (revived by Romain Gilbert). Sets: Étienne Pluss. Costumes: Ursula Kudrna. Lighting & Videos: Bertrand Couderc. Samson: Jarrett Ott. Dalila: Ana Maria Labin. Timna: Julie Roset. Achisch: Mirco Palazzi. Elon: Laurence Kilsby. L'Ange: Camille Chopin. Premier Juge/Un Convive: Richard Pittsinger. Deuxième convive: René Ramos Premier. La mère de Samson (spoken role): Andrea Ferréol. Un sans-abri (spoken role): Pascal Lifschutz. Samson as a child: Isaac Muniesa. Ensemble Pygmalion. Photos: Stefan Brion Back to Rameau again this week with Samson , my third Rameau production in as little as three months, after Les Fêtes d'Hébé in the same house, and Castor et Pollux at the Palais Garnier. All three are linked, as Rameau reused music from the aborted Samson in each of the others. Samson as presented by Raphaël Pichon and Claus Guth is not an attempt to reconstitute the...

ONP Garnier, Paris, Thursday January 23, 2025 Conductor: Teodor Currentzis. Production: Peter Sellars. Sets: Joelle Aoun. Costumes: Camille Assaf. Lighting: James F. Ingalls. Choreography: Cal Hunt. Video: Alex MacInnis. Télaïre: Jeanine De Bique. Castor: Reinoud Van Mechelen. Pollux: Marc Mauillon. Phébé: Stéphanie d'Oustrac. Mars, Jupiter, un athlète: Nicholas Newton. Minerve, Une Suivante d’Hébé: Claire Antoine. L’Amour, Le Grand-Prêtre, un Athlète: Laurence Kilsby. Vénus, une ombre heureuse: Natalia Smirnova. Utopia Orchestra and Chorus.    Photos: Vincent Pontet/OnP   I’m on a sort of Rameau binge at the moment. Since enjoying Les Fêtes d’Hébé just before Christmas, I’ve been reading his biographies, first in French, by Sylvie Bouissou, editor-in-chief of the Rameau Opera Omnia project, which is producing critical editions of all his works in partnership with Bärenreiter, and now in English, by Simon Trowbridge, who, being less of a specialist, focuses slightly mo...

Opéra Comique, Paris, 17 December 2024 Conductor: William Christie. Production: Robert Carsen. Sets and Costumes: Gideon Davey. Lighting: Robert Carsen, Peter Van Praet. Choreography: Nicolas Paul. Video: Renaud Rubiano. Hébé/Naïade: Emmanuelle de Negri. Sapho/Iphise/Eglé: Lea Desandre. L'Amour/Le ruisseau/Une bergère: Ana Vieira Leite. Momus/Mercure: Marc Mauillon. Hymas/Tirtée: Renato Dolcini. Le ruisseau/Lycurgue: Cyril Auvity. Eurilas/Alcée: Lisandro Abadie. Thélème: Antonin Rondepierre. Le Fleuve: Matthieu Walendzik. Les Arts Florissants. Photos: Vincent Pontet William Christie turned 80 on December 19 this year. He chose, as his present to himself, to perform Rameau’s Les Fêtes d’Hébé in a new staging by Robert Carsen, at the Opéra Comique - Christie's thirteenth production there since the famous Atys of 1987. In doing so, he offered a magnificent Christmas present to us all. As this is one of Rameau’s best, but not best-known, works, I’ll begin with a little bit about ...

ONP Garnier, Tuesday June 21 2022 Conductor: Mark Minkowski. Production and Costumes: Laurent Pelly. Sets: Chantal Thomas. Lighting: Joël Adam. Choreography: Laura Scozzi. Thespis: Mathias Vidal. Un satyre, Cithéron: Nahuel di Pierro. Momus: Marc Mauillon. Thalie, la folie: Julie Fuchs. L'amour, Clarine: Tamara Bounazou. Platée: Lawrence Brownlee. Jupiter: Jean Teitgen. Mercure: Reinoud Van Mechelen. Junon: Adriana Bignagni Lesca. Chorus of the Opéra National de Paris. Les Musiciens du Louvre. Photos: Guergana Damianova/ONP Preparing to write this post about the Paris Opera's current revival of Laurent Pelly's near-legendary production of  Platée , I was surprised not to find it already described somewhere on my blog. I know I did write it up: I still remember struggling to explain how the set, rows of theatre seats one above the other, breaks up and moulders away into the marshes as the evening progresses. But it must have been back in the days when websites sometimes ine...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Monday December 2 2019. Conductor: Alexis Kossenko. Platée: Anders J. Dahlin. Amour, La Folie: Chantal Santon-Jeffery. Jupiter: Thomas Dolié. Thalie, Clarine, Junon: Hasnaa Bennani. Un satyre, Cithéron: Arnaud Richard. Thespis, Mercure: Nicholas Scott. Momus: Victor Sicard. Les Ambassadeurs orchestra and chorus. With its lively and rather cruel comedy, Platée seems a daring, even rash sort of choice for a concert performance, even with some comical stage business. Monday night's performance wasn't wholly successful, for various reasons, though the absence of sets and costumes did make it possible to focus on the many marvels and musical jokes of Rameau's astonishing score - one of his very best. Rameau calls for a special and often elusive kind of declamatory oomph and éclat that only some of the cast could deliver in full. Best-cast, to me, was Thomas Dolié, a perfect Rameau baritone, mordant, supple and eloquent. Chantal Santo...

ONP Bastille, Monday September 30 2019 Conductor: Leonardo García Alarcón. Production: Clément Cogitore. Choreography: Bintou Dembélé. Sets: Alban Ho Van, Ariane Bromberger. Costumes: Wojciech Dziedzi. Lighting: Sylvain Verdet. PROLOGUE Hébé: Sabine Devieilhe. Bellone: Florian Sempey. L'amour: Jodie Devos. ENTREE I – Le turc généreux (The Generous Turk) Osman: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Émilie: Julie Fuchs. Valère: Mathias Vidal. ENTREE II – Les incas du Pérou (The Incas of Peru) Huascar: Alexandre Duhamel. Phani: Sabine Devieilhe. Don Carlos: Stanislas de Barbeyrac. ENTREE III – Les fleurs (The Flowers) Tacmas: Mathias Vidal. Ali: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Zaïre: Jodie Devos. Fatime: Julie Fuchs. ENTREE IV – Les sauvages (The Indians) Adario: Florian Sempey. Damon: Stanislas de Barbeyrac. Don Alvar: Alexandre Duhamel. Zima: Sabine Devieilhe. Cappella Mediterranea. Namur Chamber Choir. Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine/Paris Opera Children’s Choir. Compagnie Rualité dancers....

Opéra de Dijon - L’Auditorium, Dijon, Sunday March 24 2019 Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Production: Barrie Kosky. Sets and costumes: Katrin Lea Tag. Lighting: Franck Evin. Choreographie: Otto Pichler. Alphise: Hélène Guilmette. Sémire, Polymnie, Cupidon, Nymphe: Emmanuelle De Negri. Abaris: Mathias Vidal. Borée: Christopher Purves. Borilée: Yoann Dubruque. Adamas, Apollon: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Calisis: Sébastien Droy. Dancers: Yacnoy Abreu Alfonso, Julie Dariosecq, Benjamin Dur, Anaëlle Echalier, Lazare Huet, Anna Konopska. Orchestra and chorus: Le Concert d’Astrée. Rameau hasn’t been getting his due lately in Paris (or else I’ve been missing things, as I do). The last time I saw any staged was well over four years ago. So although this is a very busy period at work, when I saw Dijon, his home town, was putting on Les Boréades with what looked like a strong cast, I booked for the Sunday matinée . I’m glad I did, as this was one of the best Rameau productions I’ve seen. I...