Jean-Philippe Rameau, Les Boréades (1764)

Rameau's last opera, only performed posthumously for reasons people don't seem to be quite sure of. At any rate, we can be grateful that it survived to be performed.

The plot is that Alphise, the queen, wants to marry Abaris, but unfortunately he's a commoner and she's only supposed to marry one of les Boréades, decendents of the god. Her determination angers them and Boreas too, so they abduct her, but then it turns out that by a lucky break, Abaris was secretly a Boréade all along. Phew! Of course, saying that the opera has an overall "plot" might be pushing it a bit; it's a jumble, perhaps even more than these things usually are. Lots of things that aren't much more than excuses for some dubiously on-topic singing and dancing about. Still and all, though, the central romance is probably the most dramatically compelling thing in any Rameau I've seen. Naturally, our contemporary sensibilities would prefer that Boreas & Co just get over Abaris being a commoner, rather than oh wait he's secretly not, but that's just not the way these things worked, and it's fine.

The music is gorgeous and inventive; it's gratifying to know that the old man still had it in him. This is a fine production. It's fairly bare-bones set-wise; most of it centers on seasonal weather effects: flowers, leaves, snow, rain. It's frequently visually striking, although I sort of wish it had committed more deeply to the concept. A lot more could be done with it, I feel, and the bit where there's a big ol' table in the middle of the stage doesn't seem really on-point. The dancing...mmm, it's not necessarily my favorite thing, and it doesn't necessarily go with the music as well as one would like, but it's good enough. I like Paul Agnew a lot as Abaris. Very humane, and he has good chemistry with Barbara Bonney as Alphise, which is important for the drama to work. You probably would not guess that he also played the title role in Platée! Also, there's a very nice grace note at the end that I won't spoil even though you're unlikely to see this. You'll never know! It'll haunt you to your grave!