I probably would've seen this earlier, but I was sort of intimidated by the length: it's in two parts on Medici, the first two hours and six minutes, the second an hour forty. The idea of listening to almost four straight hours of Lully was a bit...much for me. However, I needn't have worried, because Medici really botched this one: actually, the first video is the entire thing. So what's the second? Behind-the-scenes stuff? Historical context on Lully? Nope: it's just the entire thing AGAIN, only with the last twenty-five minutes cut off--it stops mid-scene. It's obviously not a big deal, but I don't know how you do that.
This is about Perseus. What a revelation that was. Most of it seems to basically be based on the mythology that most of us know. Juno is pissed off at Cassiopeia for daring to compare her own beauty to that of the goddess. Greek deities were unbelievably petty. So she sends Medusa to terrify the countryside, and efforts to placate her fail. It's up to Perseus to slay the monster, which he does with the help of several other gods. Everyone's happy. But OH NO: Perseus' betrothed Andromeda is to be sacrificed to a sea monster! He slays the monster and stops that from happening. Everyone's happy again. But OH NO: now Andromeda's former fiancé, jealous, tries to mess everything up. Perseus defeats him and his men with Medusa's head (I don't think that part is quite how the story ever went in the mythology). Now everyone's happy forever. FOREVER.
So going in, I was still sort of ambivalent about Lully. But I must say: this opera FUCKING RULES. I loved it so much. It's possible that the first two Lully operas that I saw and was lukewarm about, Cadmus et Hermione and Atys are genuinely not as good...or, it could be that I just wasn't used to the idiom. I don't know. The music here isn't notably different than anywhere in Lully, I suppose, but I thought it was great. The whole thing has a very epic feel: all kinds of gods from machines, a hilarious turn by Medusa and her backup gorgons (all skirt roles), a cool papier-mâché sea monster, tons of great dancing--what's not to like? I feel like the technology used here would have been state-of-the-art in the time of Louis XIV, and it's still very cool today--more so, I feel, than the state of the art for the twenty-first-century would have been.
My only complaint: this production--the only video, naturally--cuts out the traditional prologue in praise of the king. Dude, I thought--did he forget to write one this time? But no; the libretto is freely available online, and you can plainly see that it is indeed present and accounted for. That the wikipedia entry makes no mention of it makes me think that whoever wrote it was basing the entry entirely on this production. I suppose you could argue that, oh, that stuff's gonna be too alienating to a modern audience, but come on--if you're the kind of person to be watching seventeenth-century opera in the first place, I think you can probably handle it.
Regardless, I would still highly recommend it. I now want to watch a WHOLE BUNCH more Lully. And you Lully and Rameau partisans? STOP FIGHTING. Both of your preferred composers are good! You're allowed to like more than one thing! Sheesh!
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