Jean-Philippe Rameau, Zoroastre (1749, rev. 1756)

Boy, this one is...different. I don't quite understand all the different categorizations that are apparently made regarding these baroque operas; wikipedia calls this and Castor et Pollux "tragédies en musiques," whereas Les Paladins is apparently a "comédie lyrique" and Les indes galantesis an "opéra-ballet." And yet, those latter two basically seem of a kind to me, whereas this and C&P do not seem very similar. So it's very confusing all 'round.

Anyway, this features a lot more singing than Paladins, though possibly not really a lot more plot. Zoroastre is a cool all-around guy who I guess is going to start a religion; he's in love with and is loved by Amélite, but her evil sister Erinice (though honestly, it wasn't clear to me watching that they were meant to be sisters) is also in love with him and wants revenge. He's banished by the evil sorcerer Abramane, and he and Erinice plan their revenge, but it doesn't work because Zoroastre gets the gods to fuck them up. And that is that.

It's not deliriously goofy in the way that Indes and Paladins are, which was kind of disappointing, but hey, there's no reason you have to do what I want. The problem is...it's really a little bit dull. I did actually sorta-kinda get into it at first, but the latter half is a bit of a slog, especially, my goodness, act four, which is just the bad guys talking about how bad they are, and seriously, ALL THEY DO is go on and on and ON about how fucking awesome rage and hatred and vengeance are. There's some decent music, including one particularly badass chorus, but a little of this goes a long way. And this...is not a little of this. Evil is hard to depict effectively, but it's gotta be more than just talking about how evil you are. That's just Skeletor-style evil. And then the ending is hella anti-climactic, not that I was necessarily expecting much at the time. This is basically comparable in length to Paladins,but it feels significantly longer, and the music in general was less interesting to me.

The production--again, a Les Arts Florissants thing--is strikingly minimalistic compared to their other stuff I've seen, with a constrained stage area and just a few sparse backgrounds. It's probably appopriate, given the opera's mood, but I dunno. On the whole, a bit of a disappointment. Well, even Homer nods, is a phrase I've only recently learned and am now trying to use often. Let's hope we can get back on track next time!