Rameau Operatic Arias

The Opera Lafeyette with its conductor Ryan Brown is among the finest early music ensembles performing today. I have been fortunate enough to see them several times, performing Gluck, early Mozart and, in this CD, Rameau. The ensemble frequently performs with a period dance company which adds to the enchantment.

On a chilly February afternoon in 2005, I attended the live performance on which this CD is based. The great Haute Tenor Jean-Paul Fouchecourt together with Brown and his ensemble brought magic to a dreary afternoon. As was the recital, the CD is devoted entirely to opera arias by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 -- 1764) who has been aptly described as the greatest composer who is relatively unknown to a large public. Rameau wrote a celebrated treatise on harmony and many instrumental works; but he came into his own only after he reached the age of 50 with a long series of operas. A Haute Tenor named Jelyotte (1713 --1797) had leading roles in many Rameau operas. Fouchecourt on this CD recreates the arias first sung by Jelyotte.

This CD consists of arias from nine Rameau operas and ballets, including five arias from the opera Platee which Fouchecourt has sung with the New York City Opera. Most of the works are based upon classical themes, and many were performed in the first instance for the Court of Louis XV. Platee, for example, is a comic opera about how Jupiter pretends to fall in love with a frog nymph in order to placate the jealousy of Juno. Fouchecourt sings the female role of Platee. The arias range from the comic, as in Platee, to the tragic and the yearning. The CD includes a beautiful romantic aria from the opera Castor and Pollux and another from Zoroastre. The ballet "Les Festes de l"Hymen de l"Amour" includes love aria, as is appropriate for a work performed at the marriage of the French Dauphin.

Fouchecourt sings with lyricism, strength, lightness, and impeccable diction. He also displays a sense of humor, which was even more apparent in the live performance I heard. The orchestration is imaginatively done. Rameau's music is eloquent, harmonically adventurous and moving. It reminded me a great deal of his successor, Gluck, who wrote for the French stage late in life. Fouchecourt, Brown, and the Opera LaFayette have, in fact, collaborated on a performance of the Paris version of Gluck's Orfeo, also available on Naxos, which will appeal to those listeners interested in this CD.

This CD is essential listening for lovers of the French baroque and for admirers of Fouchecourt. For listeners new to this period of music, this CD constitutes an ideal introduction. The CD includes texts and translations for all the arias in addition to brief plot summaries of the operas and ballets from which they are drawn.

Robin Friedman

› Go to Amazon.com to see the review  5.0 out of 5 stars