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Saturday, March 5, 2016

Campra's Festive Prologues & Entrées

Photo: Vincent Pontet
By Christopher Corwin

Before William Christie and Les Arts Florissants performed the Paris Opera’s production of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Atys to BAM for the first time in 1989 (it returned with Opéra Comique’s production in 1992 and 2011), those in the US curious about French Baroque opera had to be content with a handful of recordings, as live performances were few. LAF’s visits have since revealed further gems from this late-17th to early-18th century repertoire by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Jean-Philippe Rameau. In April the group returns to the Howard Gilman Opera House for three performances of a well-known, yet rarely performed work from that era, André Campra’s Les Fêtes Vénitiennes, in a production by Opéra Comique.

Opera as an art form began to first coalesce in Italy in the late 16th century; the French had a later start. Pomone by Robert Cambert, considered the first French opera, appeared only in 1671. But soon Lully established its proscribed form—the tragédie en musique, a complex five-act musical drama proceeded by a mythological prologue. The opera’s serious dramatic action, however, was regularly interrupted by divertissements, extended “entertainments” that were often pastoral in nature.

Reinoud Van Mechelen and Rachel Redmond. Photo: Vincent Pontet
However by Lully’s time, Italian opera had become focused on star singers fueled by the wild popularity of castrati, male singers surgically “altered” as youngsters to preserve their high voices. The French rigorously rejected this brutal practice along with other common tropes of Italian opera—ironic, as Lully was born in Florence. His model for opera, much beloved by Louis XIV, nearly always included dance (a French passion) and a chorus, both rarely found in Italian works of the time.

Lully’s death in 1687 along with Louis’ declining influence fueled a shift away from long, formal tragédies. The ambitious Campra had moved to Paris in 1694 to become the maître de musique at Notre Dame Cathedral, but his duties there failed to staunch the allure of the theater. Giving in to temptation, in 1697 he composed the wildly successful L’Europe Galante, the first-ever opera-ballet. Rather than tell one story, this new mode instead included several entrées or short discrete acts, each with its own plot and characters. Rather than kings and gods, they depicted average citizens engaged in romantic, often comic imbroglios.

Seen as the font of mystery and sensuality, Italian culture was now embraced. One of the entrées of L’Europe Galante is entitled “L’Italie,” and “Le carnaval de Venise” proved to be Campra’s next runaway success. Like the tragedies, opéra-ballets featured ballets and choruses, but included shorter, sprightlier arias, or ariettes, sometimes sung in Italian.

After those early successes, Campra composed several serious operas in the Lullian style. But the public hungered for his lighter works, so he returned to opera-ballet in 1710 with Les Fêtes Vénitiennes or “Venetian Festivities.” After its premiere, Campra kept tinkering, and all told wrote two prologues and eight entrées for it.

Photo: Vincent Pontet
The version BAM audiences will hear will include the original prologue, “The Triumph of Folly over Reason during Carnival” but just one of the original entrées, “Serenades and Gamblers.” Two of the later acts have been added, “The Ball” and “The Opera,” the latter features a delicious opera-within-an-opera.

Like its predecessors, Les Fêtes Vénitiennes proved enormously popular, racking up more than 300 performances over the next 50 years and even lending its name to a celebrated painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau. However, like all of Campra’s theatrical works, it disappeared for more than two centuries until the renewed interest in French baroque opera began in earnest in the 1960s and 70s.

Les Arts Florissants presented the greatest opéra-ballet of all-—Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes—at BAM in 1993. Although the group has performed Idoménée, his magnificent tragédie, along with the composer’s sacred works and cantatas, Les Fêtes Vénitiennes is its first Campra opéra-ballet. Premiered last year at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Les Fêtes arrives in a ravishing and witty production by Robert Carsen whose previous collaborations with LAF of Handel’s Orlando (1996) and Rameau’s Les Boréades (2003) traveled to BAM. Ed Wubbe’s essential choreography will be danced by members of the Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. The charm of Campra’s beguiling ariettes (short arias) and the infectious verve of his dance music assure that a delightful discovery awaits BAM audiences in April.

Les Fêtes Vénitiennes comes to the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House April 14—17, and great tickets are still available.

Christopher Corwin writes frequently about opera for Parterre Box, and his work has also appeared in Musical America and San Francisco Classical Voice.

Reprinted from March 2016 BAMbill.

1 comment:

  1. Perhaps the article should begin with more accuracy..."Before William Christie and Les Arts Florissants..." we had these productions by Americans and the leading roles in Atys were sung by the same leading singers in these productions, many of the performances in Manhattan:

    TERPSICORE by George Frederick Handel ,Marymount Manhattan Theater New York City with James Richman conducting Concert Royal, stage direction and choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1987.

    LES ARTS FLORISSANTS by Antoine Charpentier, commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. with Ken Slowik conducting, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1986.

    SCYLLA ET GLAUCUS by Jean-Marie Leclair, commissioned by the Opera de Lyon, English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, stage direction by Philippe Lenael, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1986.

    LES FETES D’HEBE by Jean Philippe Rameau, commissioned by the E. Nakamichi Baroque Festival, Los Angeles, Concert Royal conducted by James Richman, stage direction by Roland Julien, choreography by Ann Jacoby and Catherine Turocy, 1986.

    LES PETITS RIENS by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, commissioned by the OK Mozart Fextival in Oklahoma conducted by Ransom Wilson, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1986.

    ARIODANTE by George Frederick Handel commissioned by the Spoleto USA Festival, Charleston, South Carolina, Concert Royal conducted by James Richman, stage direction and choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1985.

    ORFEO ED EURIDICE by Christoph Willibald von Gluck, Marymount Manhattan Theater, New York City; Concert Royal conducted by James Richman, stage direction and choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1984.

    HIPPOLYTE ET ARICIE by Jean Philippe Rameau, commissioned by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Opéra de Lyon and broadcast on European television, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, stage direction Pier Luigi Pizzi, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1983.

    IL PASTOR FIDO by George Frederick Handel, commissioned by the Castle Hill Early Music Festival, Massachusetts with Concert Royal conducted by James Richman, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1983.

    LES BOREADES (world premiere) by Jean Philippe Rameau, commissioned by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Opéra de Lyon, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, stage direction Jean Louis Martinoty, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1982.

    PROLOGUE AND LES INCAS DE PEROU by Jean Philippe Rameau (from Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes), Concert Royal conducted by James Richman, Pace University, New York City; stage direction by John Haber, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1982.

    PYGMALION by Jean Philippe Rameau, commissined by l’Institut de Musique et Danse Anciennes de l’Isle de France, Théâtre de Paris, Grand Théâtre de Versailles; broadcast on French television; La Chapelle Royale conducted by Philippe Hereweghe, stage direction Philippe Lenael, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1982.

    PYGMALION by Jean Philippe Rameau at Pace University Theater in New York City with Concert Royal conducted by James Richman; stage direction by John Haber, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1980.

    DIOCLESIAN by Henry Purcell commissioned by Castle Hill Early Music Festival in Ipswich, Massachusetts, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1978.

    ARMIDE by Jean-Baptiste Lully commissioned by Prince Georges County Opera, Baltimore, choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1978.

    LA DANSE by Jean Philippe Rameau, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City with Concert Royal conducted by James Richman, stage direction and choreography by Catherine Turocy, 1977.

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