This was actually Rameau's first opera, although interestingly enough, he didn't write it 'til he was fifty (okay, forty-nine--it debuted soon after his fiftieth birthday). It's based on Racine's Phèdre, more or less.
It opens with a prologue where Cupid and Diana are arguing: which is better, cool indifference or passionate desire? This is a theme that persists through the opera, though it feels somewhat arbitrary. But anyway, Theseus is supposedly dead, so Aricie, a young woman he'd made take religious orders, may, she hopes, be free to marry his son, Hyppolite. Problem is, his wife Phèdre has conceived a passion for her step-son, to his dismay. Other problem is, Theseus turns out not to be dead. He comes back and sees his wife with his son and gets the wrong idea about the latter and so has to go into exile. He seems to have been killed (and is killed in Racine, but the conventions required, for reasons I don't quite grasp, for opera to have a happy ending), but he comes back, and as punishment Theseus won't be able to see him again, but he's able to marry Aricie, so hurrah.
I had somewhat mixed feelings about this. I watched this performance,which really goes for broke on the weirdness: the first thing you'll notice is that the prologue takes place in a giant refrigerator filled with giant, realistic groceries. I don't mind; the spectacle is kind of fun. You might think it would clash with the basically serious story, but it's okay. And there's a lot to like here, two things in particular. First, you have Sarah Connolly, absolutely riveting as Phèdre, this pathos-ridden mixure of terrifying rage and vulnerability. Second, there's the entire second act, which takes place in Hades with Theseus trying to rescue his dead friend. On the one hand, this whole act is totally pointless: it's not in Racine and it doesn't have anything to do with the main plot or relate thematically drive the drama forward in any way. And yet, it's just awesome, and François Lis (who also plays other gods elsewhere in the opera) is terrific fun as Pluto. Also, there are people dressed in giant spider costumes. Also, it takes place behind the refrigerator of the prologue, around the motor. It's great, I like it, thumbs up. So the drama's cooking right along, and the third act, where Theseus becomes enraged at his son, seems to promise great things.
And yet...the back half of this is rather less compelling than the front. For one thing, Phèdre just disappears at the end of act four, apparently having committed suicide as in the play, though it's not explicit here). And then we focus more on our young lovers, who are just not that interesting, and their romance is just kind of a boring muddle. This production attempts to temper the happy ending: Hippolyte and Aricie are together thanks to Diana, so therefore there's no more passion to the relationship, and that's...sad, I guess, but I really don't think this works, and maybe you don't like the conventions of French baroque opera here, but I really, really think you need to just go with them. It would be more fun for all. The last thing you see before the curtain is Cupid danging from a rope having been hanged, which...come on. You're harshing my mellow here, guys. This was the first-ever Rameau production at Glyndebourne, and I have to call it a qualified success, though to be fair, I think the source material was at issue as well. Still, saul good; Rameau was still learning the ropes, lets say. Anyway, glad to have seen it.
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