Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie

[D. Bucklige]

Among my top ten list of favorite operas. I could listen to this endlessly. The Wm. Christie/Les Arts florissants recording is my favorite.

But here is a rather a more recent performance. From this year (2012) in fact, with Anne-Catherine Gillet and Topi Lehtipuu in the title roles.

Beautifully done by all involved. Rameau gives me goose-bumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPJm0...eature=related

[Tarantella]

Agreed; this is stunning music. That high tessitura that Rameau maintains in vocal line and woodwinds is what gives his music that unique 'fingerprint'. Les Arts is THE sublime baroque ensemble for opera, IMO. My fave of his operas is "Pygmalion" - the cutting action of the sculptor's chisel can be heard in the overture!! Incredibly, Jean-Philippe didn't compose any theatrical works before he was 50 years old.

I taught "Pygmalion" for extension English preliminary matriculation and used Shaw's play and Rameau's opera for 16/17 year olds to study in a unit called "Appropriation". We started with Ovid's "Metamorphosis" and the poem "Pygmalion" (circa AD45) and worked our way from there.