The week in classical: Hippolyte et Aricie; Candide review – British stars in Berlin

Staatsoper Unter den Linden; Komische Oper, BerlinSimon Rattle and a top cast cook up a storm in Rameau’s Greek tragedy, while Allan Clayton dazzles in Barrie Kosky’s riotous production of CandideIn Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, an older woman falls for a younger man. He spurns her and loves someone else. Based on Racine and Euripides, it’s a shattering tale. At every opportunity Rameau (1683-1764), that great free-spirit composer of the French Enlightenment, fills his music with weather – tempests, thunderclaps, earthquakes – reflecting the storm of human emotions on stage. For the Berlin State Opera’s (Staatsoper) first ever staging of a Rameau work, conducted by his tireless champion, Simon Rattle, the company chose a designer obsessed with the elements: the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, whose The Weather Project had a sunburst success back in 2003-4 as one of Tate Modern’s early Turbine Hall commissions.The opera was the highlight of the Staatsoper’s first baroque festival, which runs until mid-December. A superb revival of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and a programme of madrigals in the Pierre Boulez Saal by the peerless Voces Suaves also stood out in the opening weekend. Rameau was the draw. In the grand structure of French opera of this period – five acts with dance and spectacle – the allegorical prologue should be extravagant. Continue reading…
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