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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 Phédre for help in wooing the beautiful Aricie, little 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’.

Master of 18th century French opera, Rameau wrote for the stage for three decades (1733-1764). His thirty or so operatic works give considerable space to the haute-contre voice, the quintessence of most of the title roles: Platée, Dardanus, Hippolyte, Pygmalion… Mathias Vidal, a brilliant representative of this haute-contre tessitura, is one of its foremost specialists. Having sung the majority of Rameau’s operas on stage, he is an obvious paradigm of their characters. Together with Gaétan Jarry, he has conceived a programme of the most dazzling and expressive arias, to which have been added scenes accompanied by a chorus. This anthology brings to the fore the radiant voice of this pillar of the Royal Opera of Versailles. For this passionate singer of the French repertory, to record a recital dedicated to Pierre de Jelyotte, Rameau’s haute-contre, makes the theatricality of his music resound to a thrilling climax!

With the creation of his masterpiece Les Indes galantes in 1735, Rameau renewed the genre of opera-ballet with the presentation of separate independent tableaux, to include a series of crazy love stories involving exotic peoples, treated in various manners: dramatic for The Generous Turk, tragic for The Incas of Peru and comic for The Savages. A phenomenal success with 320 performances! The young Valentin Tournet has chosen the 1761 version, which includes the Prologue followed by three Entrées. In The Incas entrée, the Earthquake and the descent of the High Priest into the underworld are extraordinary moments. The Turkish entrée opens with unbridled passion, dominated by a storm scene of extreme beauty. Finally, the famous Dance of the Savages could in itself sum up the whole of French opera of the 18th century. A splendid vocal cast makes splendid use of the evocative powers of the French language, at the heart of an orchestra at the service of Rameau’s delightful music, whose colors and sumptuousness shimmer thanks to Valentin Tournet.