Rameau's last and best opera

With a performance of Jean-Philippe Rameau' s Les Boréades, György Vashegyi once again demonstrates his love for French baroque opera.

Sabine Devieilhe in Rameau's masterpiece
For unclear reasons, Rameau's 1763 swan song Les Boréades was not performed in its time. According to one theory, the liberty and Masonic sympathies of the composer and his presumed librettist De Cahusac would have been too great. It was not until 1982 that the first complete staging of this masterpiece took place. With this title, the Matinee continues the rediscovery and performance of important French Baroque repertoire. The extraordinary cast of singers is led by star soprano Sabine Devieilhe.

The most beautiful melodies of the eighteenth century.
In Les Boréades, Rameau succeeds - more so than in his earlier tragédies-lyriques and opéra-ballets - in forging together orchestral music, dance and song in one natural dramaturgical form. Whirling sixteenths runs characterize the storm scenes, while colorful clarinets and bassoons enrich the many dances. Ripe virtuosity sometimes combines Rameau with boldly unpolished dance music full of infectious syncopations. And as a finale: at the beginning of the fourth act, the composer writes one of the most beautiful melodies in Baroque music with his elegiac Entrée of Polyhymnia, the muse of dance and sacred chants.