Platée

[MickyD]

I caught a wonderful live transmission of a new production of Rameau's Platée last night from the Opéra Garnier in Paris, with Mark Minkowski conducting. I'm not usually a fan of modern productions, but this was somehow daft in exactly the right way, matching the comedy of the piece. A dancer in terrific frog costume appeared in the balcony during the opening music to the second act and proceeded to weave his way through the orchestra before grabbing the baton from Minkowski!

Mention should be made of Lawrence Brownlee in the title rôle, who said that it was the most challenging part he's ever played, and from his performance you can understand why.

It was broadcast on Culturebox, another excellent free to view French channel - would that the BBC had something similar instead of inflicting the dreaded 'yoof' BBC3 and axing BBC4. I think it can also be viewed on the Mezzo channel. Well worth watching, excellent singing and playing. It brought the house down at the end.

[bluestateprommer]

Found this Mezzo TV link for this production:

https://www.mezzo.tv/en/Opera/Rameau%27s-Plat%C3%A9e-at-the-Op%C3%A9ra-de-Paris-9333

I'd seen this Laurent Pelly staging at Santa Fe Opera back in 2007 (!), with Jean-Paul Fouchecourt as Platee.

[AuntDaisy]

Thanks MickyD & bluestateprommer.

Is it this video? (Not sure it's a legitimate Opera website.)

https://www.operaonvideo.com/platee-paris-2022-minkowski-brownlee-fuchs-vidal-di-pierro-van-mechelen/

Found the frog baton nicker ~2:36:30 (~156mins). Brilliant! What does Mark M say afterwards?
Looking forward to watching this.

[RichardB]

That production has been around for a while. It was released on DVD in 2002 with Paul Agnew in the title role.

[AuntDaisy]

That production has been around for a while. It was released on DVD in 2002 with Paul Agnew in the title role.

Thanks RichardB. The 2002 production is on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqQgCK2J7fY

Those costumes have lasted well

[MickyD]

Thanks folks, I didn't know this had already been staged...I caught it on Tuesday night, a live transmission as part of France's Fête de la Musique célébrations. Must try and watch again to hear what Minkowski said!

[AuntDaisy]

Thanks folks, I didn't know this had already been staged...I caught it on Tuesday night, a live transmission as part of France's Fête de la Musique célébrations. Must try and watch again to hear what Minkowski said!

It's a wonderful performance - thanks for pointing it out.
My schoolboy French failed miserably with Minkowski's post-frog comments

Doing my homework & listening to the 2010 EMS on Platee - with Minkowski.

[Nick Armstrong]

That production has been around for a while. It was released on DVD in 2002 with Paul Agnew in the title role.

Yes, we went to see it (in Ghent, I think) - absolute hoot and one of my opera-going highlights

[LHC]

I saw Platee when the Royal Opera performed it at the Barbican in 1997 with Jean-Paul Fouchécourt as Platee. A different production from the Paris Opera's (by Mark Morris rather than Laurent Pelly), but also very funny.



Its a wonderful piece, and its a shame its not been revived.

[Maclintick]

absolute hoot and one of my opera-going highlights

One of mine too -- a real treat for aficionados of operatic amphibians. Like LHC I saw it in the Mark Morris-directed ROH production at the Barbican Theatre, a comic tour-de-force from Fouchécourt as the lovelorn frog & a terrific supporting cast -- can it really be 25 years ago ?!

[MickyD]

I first saw it in the early 1980s at Sadler's Wells as part of the English Bach Festival, with Jean-Claude Malgloire conducting. But a much more restrained HIP production ! Malgloire went on to record it for CBS a few years later, but it was quickly eclipsed by the Minkowski recording. Just recently there's been a new recording from Christie, which I have yet to hear.
I first heard excerpts of the piece when I attended evening classes on Rameau's opéras given by Nicholas Anderson - the only recording then was the very first by Hans Rosbaud.

I love the music, but still find the cruelty within the plot rather unsettling.

[RichardB]

I love the music, but still find the cruelty within the plot rather unsettling.

Agreed. It's one of Rameau's most "unenlightenment" works, in comparison with Les indes galantes or Zoroastre.

[Maclintick]

I love the music, but still find the cruelty within the plot rather unsettling.

Cruelty in opera -- surely not !! By comparison with late 19th & early 20th cent norms -- Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Janacek inter alia -- Platée seems innocuous. I'm with Jonathan Cross here, who argued in a polemical article "Firing the Canon" in Opera magazine that "women as eternal victims" misogynist baggage should be left on the conveyor-belt of history.... & Rousseau was a great admirer of Platée, by the way.

[RichardB]

Rousseau was a great admirer of Platée, by the way.

Rousseau wasn't exactly woke when it came to extending his views on equality to include that between men and women, was he? I wish the plot of Platée (such as it is!) didn't hinge so centrally on denigrating its unprepossessing title character, whatever their gender. At the present moment in history, sensitivities to such things are high because there are still issues in society over misogyny (not to mention other kinds of inequality) which are not progressing towards justice - indeed, as we see in the US Supreme Court, things are in some parts of the world regressing in an alarming way. If and when all of that is overcome, it will be possible to see something like Platée as harmless, but at the moment it's difficult I think to defend its victim-shaming, however beautiful and inventive the music. As with Wagner, it's complex. I haven't read Jonathan Cross's article but I suspect I wouldn't agree with much of it!

[MickyD]

It's true that some operas show cruelty, but normally for reasons of love, hate, jealousy etc. I'm not saying those actions are justified in any way, but one can maybe understand the circumstances that lead to them. What sets Platee apart for me is that the cruelty is purely gratuitous bullying just because the character is ugly and thus made a figure of fun. I find that very uncomfortable.