Name: Platée
Start: 2020-12-14T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2020-12-31T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Theater an der Wien

Organization

Chorus master

Erwin Ortner

Singer

Tenor

Cyril Auvity

Thespis

Bass-baritone

Marc Mauillon

Cithéron

Soprano

Emmanuelle de Negri

Amour

Ilona Revolskaya

Thalie

Padraic Rowan

Momus

Un Satyre

Set designer

Gideon Davey

Lighting designer

Robert Carsen

Peter van Praet

Choreographer

Nicolas Paul

Dramaturge

Ian Burton

Costume designer

Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Jupiter

Mercure

Emilie Renard

Junon

Marcel Beekman

Platée

Clarine

Jeanine De Bique

La Folie

Stage director

Conductor

William Christie

MusikTheater an der Wien

Others

Les Arts Florissants

French

Platée -  (Platea)

Vienna

Austria

Theater an der Wien

Jupiter, supreme of the gods and most unfaithful of all husbands, wants to drive out the jealousy of his wife Juno once and for all - so that he can then pursue his extramarital interests unmolested by her. At the moment, however, he is not pursuing any such amorous project, Juno is nevertheless full of distrust and anger towards her husband and destroys the earth with wild storms. It has already ruined the entire harvest, and people are threatened with starvation. The state of affairs is intolerable and gives Jupiter another reason to have to talk his wife out of her frenzy. On his behalf, Mercure and his friend Cithéron devise a treacherous plan to heal Juno and save the people in distress. Cithéron has been stubbornly pursued with love by the ugly swamp nymph Platée for some time now. She is completely convinced that no man could resist her beauty and elegance and does not understand Cithéron's rebuffs. Now he sees an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, namely calming down Juno and getting rid of Platée. The vain swamp nymph is led to believe that Jupiter has fallen in love with her and wants to marry her. The father of the gods, initiated into the plan, plays his role in mythological tradition: he appears courting Platée as a cloud, sings tender love songs to her as a donkey and an owl and finally overwhelms her with his Olympian splendor. Platée is smitten with such honor and enthusiastically falls for Jupiter's feigned love. A big wedding celebration with lots of dancing, a big buffet and illustrious guests is planned. Meanwhile, Mercure and Cithéron have discreetly informed Juno about her husband's alleged new affair. Shortly before the fictitious wedding ceremony, she bursts into the party and, in a rage, rips the veil off the supposed bride. In view of Platée's ugliness, however, Juno immediately has to laugh at her own deluded jealousy and is reconciled with Jupiter. The weather on Earth is finally fine, Cithéron and Jupiter are in peace, only Platée is sitting lonely and humiliated in her swamp again when the whole company of the gods returns to Olympus. In view of Platée's ugliness, however, Juno immediately has to laugh at her own deluded jealousy and is reconciled with Jupiter. The weather on Earth is finally fine, Cithéron and Jupiter are in peace, only Platée is sitting lonely and humiliated in her swamp again when the whole company of the gods returns to Olympus. In view of Platée's ugliness, however, Juno immediately has to laugh at her own deluded jealousy and is reconciled with Jupiter. The weather on Earth is finally fine, Cithéron and Jupiter are in peace, only Platée is sitting lonely and humiliated in her swamp again when the whole company of the gods returns to Olympus.

Jean-Philippe Rameau's ballet bouffon Platée formally purports to be a tragédie, a serious French opera: it consists of a prologue, three acts with much dancing, and the plot is drawn from ancient mythology. The reason for its creation would actually have required a serious, albeit well-ending piece, because Rameau wrote this opera for the wedding of the French heir to the throne in March 1745 in Versailles, one of the last great festivals of the Ancien Régime. But Platée is not a glorifying homage opera for courtly society, but a sophisticated satire on human vanity and arrogant hubris. No wonder that this intrigue about the ugly, narcissistic swamp nymph - sung en travestie by a tenor - found little approval in Versailles. It was only a series of performances in Paris in front of a middle-class audience that made Platée one of Rameau's most successful pieces from 1749 onwards. One enjoyed the finely composed, subtly comical music and the language and sound games – the croaking of the marsh frogs, the yelling of Jupiter in the form of a donkey. But it's not just the loud, burlesque elements that characterize the work; Rameau not only portrays the clumsy, provincial Platée, who dreams of a more glamorous existence, as stupid and rightly humiliated, he also describes her grief when she is so brutal laughed at and ridiculed, and how pitiable the bad end of their unexpected ascent is. So this ballet bouffon contains a serious core, in that the apparently cheerful ending reveals the egocentric cold-heartedness of the powerful, rich and famous as more blameworthy than the narrow vanity of the swamp nymph. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who otherwise thought little of Rameau, hailed Platée 1750 "as the very finest piece of music that has been heard on our stages to date." Karl Lagerfeld, the god of fashion, who has meanwhile really been transported to Olympus, appears as Jupiter. A brilliantly meaningful translation of this satirical opera into our time. In Robert Carsen’s 2014 production, the mythological events take place in the world of Parisian haute couture, and fashion god Karl Lagerfeld, who has meanwhile really been transported to Olympus, appears as Jupiter. A brilliantly meaningful translation of this satirical opera into our time. In Robert Carsen’s 2014 production, the mythological events take place in the world of Parisian haute couture, and fashion god Karl Lagerfeld, who has meanwhile really been transported to Olympus, appears as Jupiter. A brilliantly meaningful translation of this satirical opera into our time.

Production booklet

Further reading