Rameau's first comic opera comes to the Liceu conducted by William Christie

Jean-Philippe Rameau was fifty when he started composing for the stage. Thanks to the efforts of researchers, his music is more familiar to us nowadays than it was to his contemporaries. The sparklingly entertaining Platée is a flagship work of the Enlightenment, a jewel of Baroque opera and the most joyful and amusing of Rameau's creations. Every scene contains a blend of iconoclastic topics, choruses, dancing and a liberal dose of irony.

The plot tells how the water nymph Platée craves for Jupiter's love and how he deludes her. In the end, when the fake wedding is underway, the trickery is revealed and the humiliated Platée leaps back into her pond. Over 275 years later, the charm of the score and its freewheeling music is still irresistible.

Towards the end of his life, Rameau was asked what he liked better: the sound of applause or the music of his operas. He paused for a moment and then answered: "I like my music much better".

Platée

COMÉDIE LYRIQUE (BALLET BOUFFON) COMPRISING A PROLOGUE AND THREE ACTS (1745)​
Libretto by Adrien-Joseph le Valois d’Orville based on Platée ou Junon jalouse by Jacques Autreau.
World premiere: 31/03/1745 at La Grande Écurie de Versailles.
First performance at the Liceu.

Les Arts Florissants' Orchestra

Dessus de violon
Emmanuel Resche
Sophie de Bardonneche
Myriam Gevers
Guya Martinini
Augusta Mckay Lodge
Christophe Robert
Tami Troman

Catherine Girard
Sophie Gevers-demoures
Jeffrey Girton
Théotime Langlois de Swarte
Michèle Sauvé

Hautes-contre de violon
Galina Zinchenko
Simon Heyerick
Lucia Peralta

Tailles de violon
Martha Moore
Myriam Bulloz
Jean-Luc Thonnerieux

Violoncel
David Simpson, baix continu
Elena Andreyev
Damien Launay
Cyril Poulet
Alix Verzier

Contrabaix
Jonathan Cable, baix continu
Joseph Carver

Flauta
Serge Saitta
Olivier Riehl

Oboè
Elisabeth Baumer
Neven Lesage
Yanina Yacubsohn

Fagot
Claude Wassmer
Niels Coppalle
Evolène Kiener

Percussió
Marie-Ange Petit

Clavicèmbal
Benoît Hartoin, baix continu

Les Arts Florissants' chorus 

Sopranos
Eugénie de Padirac
Ellen Giacone
Maud Gnidzaz
Cécile Granger
Violaine Le Chenadec
Juliette Perret
Virginie Thomas
Julia Wischniewski
Leila Zlassi

High Tenors
Camillo Angarita
Sean Clayton
Constantin Goubet
Marcio Soares Holanda
Renaud Tripathi

Tenors
Davy Cornillot
Edouard Hazebrouck
Jean-Yves Ravoux
Bastien Rimondi
Michael-Loughlin Smith

Basses
Justin Bonnet
Anicet Castel
Laurent Collobert
Simon Dubois
Christophe Gautier
Julien Neyer