Platée

Platée ("Plataea") is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto "Platée ou Junon Jalouse" ("Plataea, or Juno Jealous") by Jacques Autreau (1657-1745) and had d'Orville modify it. [Girdlestone p.436] The ultimate source of the story is a myth related by the Greek writer Pausanias in his "Guide to Greece".

Rameau's first attempt at comic opera, the plot concerns an ugly water nymph who believes that Jupiter, the king of the gods, is in love with her. ["Viking" p.838] The work was initially called a "ballet bouffon", though it was later styled a "comédie lyrique", putting it in the same category as Rameau's "Les Paladins". It was written for the celebrations of the wedding of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XV of France, to the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, who, according to contemporary sources, like the title character was no beauty. Instead of getting the composer into trouble, the entertainment at Versailles seems to have been well received, and Rameau was appointed a few month later to the position of Composer of the King's Chamber Music with a sizable annual pension.

The opera was first performed on 31 March, 1745 at the Grande Ecurie, Versailles.

Background to the opera

Comic opera was relatively rare during the Baroque era in France and the musicologist Cuthbert Girdlestone expresses his surprise that none of Rameau's contemporaries seem to have remarked on the innovative nature of "Platée". [Girdlestone p.336] Rameau may have been inspired by a revival of an earlier comic opera, "Les amours de Ragonde" by Jean-Joseph Mouret, in 1742, [Ivan A. Alexandre p.28] or by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's comic opera-ballet, "Don Quichotte Chez la Duchesse" from 1743.

Performance history and reception

"Platée" was one of the most highly regarded of Rameau's operas during his lifetime. It even pleased critics who had expressed hostility to his musical style during the Querelle des Bouffons (an argument over the relative merits of French and Italian opera). Melchior Grimm called it a "sublime work" and even Rameau's bitter enemy Jean-Jacques Rousseau referred to it as "divine". [Girdlestone p.439] The reason for this praise may be because these critics saw "Platée", a comic opera, paving the way for the lighter form of "opera buffa" they favoured. [Girdlestone p.440]

The work received one performance at the marriage festivities at Versailles in 1745. Little is known about the cast of this production, except that the title role was taken by the tenor Pierre Jélyotte, a famous character actor. Rameau revised the opera in collaboration with the librettist Ballot de Sovot and presented it at the Opéra in Paris on 4 February, 1749. It was revived again in 1754 as part of the continuing "Querelle des Bouffons", pitted against Leonardo Leo's Italian "opera buffa", "I viaggiatori". It was last performed complete during Rameau's lifetime in 1759.

The next production would not take place until 1901 in Munich, in a heavily adapted German version by Hans Schilling-Ziemssen. The French version reappeared at a production in Monte Carlo in 1917 but "Platée" only returned to France at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1956 with young tenor Michel Sénéchal as the queen of frogs, a part which Mr Sénéchal took again in the Opéra Comique in 1977. The opera made its debut in the United Kingdom in 1983 and in the United States in 1987.

"Platée" came back to the Paris Opera in April 1999 in a version that was to become later a DVD, with Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, then Paul Agnew, in the title part in a production by Laurent Pelly conducted by Marc Minkowski. The opera was also presented as a co-production of New York City Opera and the Mark Morris Dance Group, directed by Mark Morris during the 1997 Edimburg Festival, a production that toured often from then in London and the USA. It was also staged by the Santa Fe Opera as part of the Summer 2007 Festival season in an adaptation of the Paris Opéra production also directed by Laurent Pelly, with many of the same production team, and conducted by Harry Bicket. Among the singers who were regarded as remarkable in the title role, were Michel Sénéchal, Gilles Ragon, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, and Paul Agnew.

Roles

ynopsis

Prologue

After a night of partying, the Chorus wakes Thespis from a drunken sleep. When Thalie and Momus arrive, they seek Thespis' help in planning the presentation of an entertainment in which they will recreate a long-ago attempt by Jupiter to cure his wife, Juno, of her jealousy. Initially left out of the planning, a furious Love arrives on the scene and proclaims that it will be impossible to stage the event without her: "how could there be a play without the inspiration of love?" she asks [Mays,p.56] . All four then layout the plan.

Act 1

In the middle of a raging storm, Mercury comes down from the heavens and explains to Citheron that it is caused by Juno's jealousy and that he has been sent by Jupiter to find a way of taking his mind off the problem. Citheron's solution is to propose the enactment of the plan put together by the four conspirators: Jupiter will pretend to fall in love with the ugly marsh nymph, Platée - who is convinced that everything that comes near her pond is madly in love with her -and, when Juno finds them together and about to marry, she will realize that her jealousy is baseless and the couple will be re-united.

After Platée arrives, Mercury leaves to inform Jupiter. While she seems to believe that it is Cithéron who is in love with her - in spite of his denials - she is delighted to hear from Mercury that Jupiter will soon descend from the heavens and declare his love: "The god of thunder, drawn to earth by your beauty, wishes to cast at your feet both his heart and the Universe" [Mays, p.57] A new storm created by Juno bursts forth, but Platée is not put out and the marsh creatures retreat to their watery homes.

Act 2

Having sent Juno off to Athens, Mercury and Cithéron find a hiding place to observe the proceedings. Accompanied by Momus, Jupiter arrives, revealing himself first as a donkey (to the accompanying sounds of donkey braying from the orchestra), then as an owl, and finally, in person in a clap of thunder and bright light. An extended "divertissment" proceeds during which a show-stopping highlight has La Folie (Madness) singing the story of Apollo and Daphne as a warning to Platée not to get involved with Jupiter. Dancers and singers alternately praise and mock Platée.

Act 3

As people arrive for the marriage of Jupiter and Platée, a furious-at-being-tricked Juno has returned from Athens but she is persuaded to hide until the right moment. Momus appears, poorly disguised as Love, and offers "gifts" to Platée. Jupiter and Platée begin to take part in the wedding ceremony, but, stalling after his initial "I swear", he awaits the arrival of Juno. When she finally sees Platée and removes her veil, she realizes that it was all a joke. The gods ascend back to heaven and the humiliated Platée leaps back into the pond.

elected recordings

References

ources

*Alexandre, Ivan A., Notes from the CD recording of "Platée" conducted by Marc Minkowski
*Girdlestone, Cuthbert, "Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work", New York: Dover Publications, 1969 ISBN 0486214168
*Holden, Amanda, et al (eds.), "The Viking Opera Guide", London: Viking, 1993 ISBN 0670812927
*Mays, Desirée, "Platée", "Opera Unveiled", Volume 9, Santa Fe: Art Forms Inc., 2007 ISBN 9780970782267
*Sadler, Graham, et al, "The New Grove French Baroque Masters: Lully, Charpentier, Lalande, Couperin, Rameau", Scranton, PA: Norton & Co, 1986 ISBN 0393303527

Links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/classic/opera/stories/s1480306.htm "Platée short plot summary"]
* [http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/cddvd/rameauplatee.htm "DVD review of Platée"]
* [http://jp.rameau.free.fr/platee.htm "Platée libretto" (in French)]
* [http://spikesworld.spike-jamie.com/opera/PLATEE.pdf Platée plot summary]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=42:69375 description of Platée]