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JEAN-PHILLIPPE RAMEAU’s PLATEE A French Baroque opera in 3 acts.

This is a live DVD recording of a 2002 performance of the opera from L’Opera National de Paris- Palais Garnier.

Premiered at the Versailles in 1745. This fascinating work is a French Baroque opera in the style of ballet-buffo (comic play with heavy emphasis on dancing). It is shock full of great dance scenes, but it also features some of the most jaw droppingly florid arias and descriptive Baroque music around. The story is preposterous, there is no human character in sight, and the title role of the frog princess presumably wooed by Jupiter is played by a tenor! Gotta give it to the French to come up with that.

Synopsis:
This opera starts with a long prelude with the drunken and over-indulged gods embarrassing each other with tales of their infidelities (oh the Life of Riley... how wonderfully boring to be gods!). Momus starts mumbling of how jealous Jupiter’s wife Juno is, so all joins in the conspiracy to “create a new form of entertainment by waging a war against absurdity without sparing any god or mortal.” You know not to take things seriously in this opera when you see the drunken Thespis hanging on to his liquor bottle while singing Charmant Bacchus, Dieu de la liberte, Pere de la sincerite! (Charming Bacchus, God of liberty, Father of sincerity ... is Mel Gibson listening?).

This new form of entertainment to wage war against absurdity takes on the absurd plan hatched by Citheron to convince the ugly frog princess Platee that Jupiter is smitten with her and is proposing marriage. After much psychedelic music and dancing, Juno herself arrives to stop the marriage (that is nothing but a joke), not realizing that the bride to be is a frog. Juno and Jupiter kiss and make up, leaving Platee justifiably angry at the whole thing and stomps back to the swamp (but not before airing her frustrations out in a wonderful aria that threatens to end the opera before the real ensemble finale Chantons Platee, egayons nous (Let’s sing, Platee, amuse us) is reached).

CAST:
Platee (A frog princess) ::: Paul Agnew (tenor)
La Folie (Thalie) ::: Mireille Delunsch (soprano)
Thespis/Mercury ::: Yann Beuron (tenor)
Jupiter ::: Vincent Le Texier (bass)
Juno ::: Doris Lamprecht (soprano)
L’Amour/Clarine ::: Valerie Gabail (soprano)
Momus ::: Franck Leguerinel (baritone)
Citheron/a satyr ::: Laurent Nouri (baritone)
Conductor: Marc Minkowski / Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble
Stage Director/Choreographer: Laura Scozzi

This is a beautifully musical and psychedelic work by Rameau. Great dancing numbers and one catchy tune after another. It is lively staged in front of a tiered stadium as if the performers are watching the audience for entertainment, and choreographed by Laura Scozzi in everything from modernly dressed gods in a stadium in the prologue to the outlandish frog (and other animals) and bizarrely costumed nymphs. A bit like hearing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons set to a stage full of neon colored frogs. It’s all tres jolie and absurd, just the way it’s supposed to be!

On the musical front, Maestro Marc Minkowski is ‘The Master’ of French Baroque music. His enthusiasm for the score is evidence in how springy the orchestra (of period instruments) plays and it is infectious to hear. All the descriptive musical motifs come to life (dissonance swamp animal cries and all) under his baton. And with all that enthusiasm he never gets carried away and neglects his singers either. A highly amusing and flighty read that fits the piece to a tee.

Paul Agnew’s Platee is absolutely wonderful. He plays the ugly (but doesn’t quite know it) frog princess as if he is simply expressing his own 2nd over-indulged girlie frog personality! A wonderfully hilarious acting performance to go with a lyrically beautiful vocal one. What little trill (rapid singing of 2 alternate notes to highlight a passage... very much an essential technique in singing Baroque music) he can do is more than off-set by everything else he brings to the role.

La Folie of Mireille Delunsch steals a scene with her big and wonderfully florid Act II number Essayons du brillant, donnons dans la saillie! and is generally wonderful through out. Doris Lamprecht is vocally sumptuous as Juno. There is just no weak link in this strong acting and singing cast. Yann Beuron is dashing (and glittery in his gray suit) as both Thespis and Mercury (and who makes me quite nervous watching him descending to the swamp from the roof on this thinly cabled chandelier) and well matched by his partner in crime Laurent Nouri’s Citheron who sings well, though doesn’t quite have the low basso notes required for his role.

All in all, this is a brilliant performance of a delightful opera. The story is not what you’ll watch this for, it’s the dancy and charmingly and absurdly humorous 2+ hrs of music that’s quite criminally neglected these days. The performance captured here is about as good as it gets. Highly recommended for lovers of opera (old and new) and dance. This film was telecast in France in 2003 and very deservingly won the FIPA d’Argent award there.

1 DVD. Sung in French with subtitle in: English, French, Spanish. Only track listing included. No extra feature. Run-time: 159 min.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4