Jean-Baptiste Lully, Cadmus et Hermione (1673)

The wikipedia entry on French opera says that this is "often regarded as the first French opera in the full sense of the term." That's an awful lot of qualifiers, but I suppose it's probably safe to regard it as historically significant.

So this starts with a prologue featuring nymphs and satyrs and Pan himself frolicking around and singing about how great frolicking is, and also being in love. Then, Envy tries to ruin their party, and they're scared, but Apollo stops him, and they're happy again. Per the wikipedia entry, Apollo is meant to represent Louis XIV, 'cause you GOTTA praise the king. I guess. It's just hard to conceive of: can the level of megalomania that would accept that as a fitting tribute REALLY be real? Well, I guess if you've been inculcated into that milieu from the beginning, it can.

Anyway, then we're off to the main thing. Cadmus is the legendary founder of Thebes. He's also the brother of Europa, kidnapped by Jupiter, and he's off to find her and bring her back, and he's ALSO in love with Hermione, daughter of Mars and Venus, but she's supposed to marry a bad giant, so he has to win her in spite of the odds. Various gods take sides. There's the bit with a dragon's teeth that turn into warriors when planted. And there's also his comic-relief sideick Arbas. I mean, I wouldn't say hilarious relief, but give them a break; they were still trying to work these things out. In any event, then everyone is happy, as seems to always be the case in these baroque operas.

I like the music here. I have to say, as much as this would've annoyed both Lully and Rameau partisans, I don't really see any particular difference between the two. I mean, maybe if I listened to them back-to-back, I would, but they really are pretty similar. Anyway, I liked the Rameau music, and I like the Lully, but I do have to say about this one: it isa little boring. My favorite part was actually the prologue (which, unlike the rest, features rhyming singing); after that...eh. It's okay. But, as I say...a bit dull. That may be in part due to the production itself (this one). It's a very traditional thing, but it really does come across as a bit silly, the way its stylized; not a problem I had with Castor et Pollux. These early operas really don't have the sort of heightened emotion that you generally associate with the form, so a lot of the time it's a bit of a tall order for them to be super-engaging. Or so I think. But whatever the case, I didn't love this.