Hippolyte et Aricie at Glyndebourne

[aeolium]

I loved the music and the dancing, and the designs were often strikingly colourful and imaginative, but in the end that damned fridge for me cast a baleful shadow on the whole production, dominating every scene in one way or another, whether as fridge, Hades, cut-open apartment (Theseus' palace?) and mortuary. And it seemed all to do with the director's concept of the goddess Diana as a malign inhibiting force compared with the liberating Cupid. The finale was more like a funeral than the happy ending with dea ex machina. But surely that concept was the opposite of what Rameau (or his librettist, following Racine) intended, particularly for an age where unrestrained passion was seen as bringing misfortune and divine retribution - as it did for Phaedra and Theseus.

[doversoul1]

Well, I’ve just watched part one through the Guardian’s link. I am not opera literate enough so it’s my loss but I agree with MickyD. What a waste of the great music and the wonderful musicians. Hippolyte and Aricie remind me of Tony and Maria, and how am I to keep reminding myself that I am watching a king and a queen when all I can see is a tatty 1960s (or is it 50s?) sitting room? Yes, I am aware that the story of the opera has many implications to life in modern time etc., etc., but then, if that’s what I want, I’d just listen to the/a recording and think about things myself. And the ballet is underwhelming-ly (or should it be overwhelmingly?) un-spectacular. And I hate dead animals being used (it makes no difference if they are not real). Yes, it is all my loss but I am not going watch part two. I was bored by the end of part one.

All the same, I hope Caliban and Bax of Delight will enjoy the performance. I expect Watching live is something completely different.

[Bax-of-Delights]

I have avoided the live streaming deliberately so that I can come to it with fresh eyes...

The reviews on the Glyndebourne website are, shall we say, less than flattering and although my evening is just next Thursday I notice that there are plenty of seats still available - some 130 or so - although the rest of the run is virtually sold out. I'm wondering what's different about August 1st as opposed to the other dates.

[Bax-of-Delights]

So, up and to Glyndebourne. Perfect weather with the somehwat oppressive heat tempered by a cooling wind.

Amazingly this was Glyndebourne's first shot at French baroque - as it was mine - and to judge by the reaction of the general audience it was a definite success. Bearing in mind that the fundamentals of French baroque demanded spectacle and divertissement in addition to the interaction between Gods and humans we certainly got that last night. If one accepts the premise of French baroque as fantastique then placing the godess Diana in a fridge and Pluto at the gates of Hell (the back of the fridge with all the dusty mechanical bits and pieces) is not as bonkers as it might seem on paper.
The final scene in a mortuary - another part of Diana's kingdom - was the one that, in my opinion, doesn't quite work. The dance interludes that had interspersed other scenes take on a darker hue here and one wondered for the first time -amazingly for such a convoluted work - what the hell was going on. There was someone singing from the open door of one of the cold storage units but as we were placed to one side of the auditorium and the surtitles offered nothing we had no idea who was proclaiming and about what (but I have been told it was the "nightingale" aria).

William Christie and the OAE worked wonderfully and the singers engaged fully with Christie's precise directions.


All in all a pretty good spectacle and in this household, a hit.

[jean]

There was someone singing from the open door of one of the cold storage units but as we were placed to one side of the auditorium and the surtitles offered nothing we had no idea who was proclaiming and about what (but I have been told it was the "nightingale" aria).

I asked earlier in the thread if anyone could tell me who this was, but nobody replied.

[Nick Armstrong]

I asked earlier in the thread if anyone could tell me who this was, but nobody replied.

I shall make it my business to try and discover the solution to the mystery when I'm there on Sunday

Good to read your report, Baxo. I am attempting to whet the edge of my critical faculties whilst simultaneously prising open my mind ready for the visit (ouch! I think I pulled a muscle! )

[doversoul1]

jean (if you still haven't found out)

Who was it who slid out of her mortuary fridge to sing that lovely aria about nightingales?

L'Amour or Cupid

[David-G]

I was interested to read your report, B-o-D.

I shall also be there on Sunday.

[jean]

L'Amour or Cupid

Thank you!

I thought it was, but then, at the very end, Cupid appeared (didn't she?) hanging from a noose so the chronology there was a bit skewed if she'd already been placed in the mortuary.

Lovely voice, especially in that aria, I thought.

[doversoul1]

I wasn’t going to watch the second half but I am now too curious to ignore it. But how do I get the second part? This is the instruction in the caption but I haven’t got a player control, as I am watching it on my PC.

To watch the second half of the performance click on the playlist icon on the right hand side of the player controls panel

[Bax-of-Delights]

I wasn’t going to watch the second half but I am now too curious to ignore it. But how do I get the second part? This is the instruction in the caption but I haven’t got a player control, as I am watching it on my PC.

To watch the second half of the performance click on the playlist icon on the right hand side of the player controls panel

DS:

You can watch it at the Glyndebourne site here:

http://glyndebourne.com/production/hippolyte-et-aricie?tab=group-watch-online

If you hover your mouse at the bottom of the screen you will see a bar pop up. There's a grid on the right-hand end (six little boxes, three above three). Click on that and you will get the option of going straight to Act 2 in the little picture highlighted. (It runs an ad for Donizetti first so don't get fooled...!)

[doversoul1]

DS:

You can watch it at the Glyndebourne site here:

http://glyndebourne.com/production/hippolyte-et-aricie?tab=group-watch-online

If you hover your mouse at the bottom of the screen you will see a bar pop up. There's a grid on the right-hand end (six little boxes, three above three). Click on that and you will get the option of going straight to Act 2 in the little picture highlighted. (It runs an ad for Donizetti first so don't get fooled...!)

Ah! I was indeed fooled.

Thank you!!

[Nick Armstrong]

I shall also be there on Sunday.

How was it for you?

I thought it was truly terrible - the production was an incoherent, pimped-up shambles, I thought. It made it hard to appreciate the many beautiful aspects of the musical performance, and of the piece. It seemed to me to be just expensively-dressed, camp eye-candy (to borrow a well-judged word from the Telegraph review), fed to the audience out of fear that this dusty old French baroque might bore the tuxedo'd picnickers (many of whom duly greeted gimmick after gimmick with the simpering murmurs of appreciation). It made me

The pink floodlight, mincing sailors and glitter ball for one of the dance numbers was the absolute low point (despite some stiff opposition from giant sausages and broccoli, and singing bluebottles).

Put me in a real mood of irritation, and I'd have left had I not been in good company. I'm disinclined to set foot in an opera house for a long time.

Apart from that, I had a lovely day!

[kuligin]

I attended on Sunday, and I enjoyed more than I anticipated. When the production was faithful to the music it worked suprisingly well. The fridge was a silly conceit, I could not stand the sausages etc, but at least the dispute between Cupid and Diana was made clear.

The real problem was the Act 5 Morgue Set. It ran totally counter the music, the context of the song of the nightingale was lost, the dances were inappropriate for a mussette, in fact this wonderful work ended on rather a low note

I suppose it depends on expectations, having seen Orfeo completely destroyed by Opera North, and ENO do the same to Partenope, and the dreadful Glyndebourne Rinaldo, and Les Palladins in the nude, I was fearing the worse. There is something about Baroque Opera that brings out the worst in producers, I think Caliban is right, they, the directors, think our attention span is so poor we can not cope with da capo aria, or recitative or whatever

The Singing, the Orchestra and Rameau's music were all superb

[Nick Armstrong]

...having seen ... Les Palladins in the nude

That must have been liberating, compared with Glyndebourne where the need to wear a DJ in the boiling heat is so constraining...

Sorry... Seriously, was that the Christie-led one in the early 2000s which was on at the Barbican, having transferred from the Châtelet? Lots of video projections of animals and people bouncing around in the clouds against a sky-blue back-drop? I went to that, actually I thought it was rather exhilarating, I seem to remember!