Friday night is Platée night

Comedy had traditionally played little part in French opera. Lully soon eliminated comic episodes from his tragedies; from then until the appearance of this work, only a handful of operas had comic themes. The theme for Rameau’s Platée is the mock marriage between the god Jupiter and an ugly marsh nymph, who is totally convinced of her own charms. As such, the story seems grotesquely ill-suited to the occasion for which the opera was commissioned – the wedding of the Dauphin and (an unsightly?) Spanish princess Maria Teresa – though it was well enough received at the time. While all this may seem rather perverse, the cruelty of laughing at an unattractive and hopelessly vain woman is kept at a distance by the role of Platée being sung by a tenor. And whatever the comedy in Platée’s plight, our sympathies are with the nymph throughout. A first production for Garsington Opera, this Platée is the chance to indulge in grand choruses and fabulous dances played out in a French Baroque world of glamour and deception. Critically acclaimed from the summer 2024 Festival, the production is directed by Louisa Muller, designed by Christopher Oram, and conducted by Baroque specialist Paul Agnew (a former Platée himself) making his Garsington debut with The English Concert. Slippedisc streams this baroque opera courtesy of OperaVision.

Sung in French.  Subtitles in French and English

The Plot:  Platée is a character whose self-deception and entrancement places her in the middle of a heartless plot, devised by the gods to cure Juno of her obsessive jealousy over Jupiter and his romantic attachments. Jupiter pretends to fall in love with Platée only to abandon her once Juno arrives, proving she has no reason to be jealous.

Streaming this Friday 15 November at 1900 CET   /  1800 London   /   1300 New York