Rameau’s first opera Hippolyte et Aricie delivered a lyrical tragedy of such extraordinary intensity it changed the course of French music, stunning and overwhelming its audiences. This breathtaking spectacle involves prince Hippolyte, who asks his mother-in-law Queen Phèdre for help in wooing the beautiful Aricie, not knowing that Phèdre secretly wants Hippolyte for herself. In a single work Rameau re-invented tragédie en musique with dramatic expressiveness and shocking harmonic innovations. It is seen here in an acclaimed Opéra Comique production that personifies Rameau’s assertion that ‘music must speak to the soul, its true aim must be to express thoughts, feelings, and passions’.

Artists

Reinoud Van Mechelen (Hippolyte), Elsa Benoit (Aricie), Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo (Phèdre), Stéphane Degout (Thésée), Séraphine Cotrez (Oenone), Arnaud Richard (Neptune/Pluton), Eugénie Lefebvre (Diane), Lea Desandre (Pretresse de Diane/Chasseresse/Matelote/Bergère), Edwin Fardini (Tisiphone), Pygmalion, Raphael Pichon