Rameau meets The Kardashians: Platée opens Garsington Opera's season

It’s not the plot most people would choose for an opera to be performed at a royal wedding and, by all accounts, Rameau’s Platée didn’t go down too well with Louis XV. After a prologue relating “The birth of comedy”, Jupiter is hacked off at Juno’s perpetual jealousy, so a gang of the Thunderer’s acolytes hatch a plot: they will invite Juno to a fake wedding of Jupiter to the ugliest creature they can find, which turns out to be the swamp-nymph Platée. After many entanglements, Juno sees the error of her ways. 

Improbable as the plot line may seem, Platée is a masterpiece of unashamed, over-the-top entertainment, which didn’t take long to capture the hearts of the Parisian public of the day. All the early opera standards are there (rage arias, laments, thunderstorms, dance numbers), but what makes the opera special is Rameau’s dazzling music, full of colour, full of orchestral effects and still with a big heart, as eloquent in eliciting sympathy for the characters as it is sharp-edged when poking fun at them.

At Garsington last night, Paul Agnew and The English Concert gave us a Rameau masterclass. Agnew’s style on the podium is likeable, uncomplicated and precise, which translated into music played with the utmost clarity and vitality. The string playing was gloriously together, navigating the twists and turns of the score with aplomb. Woodwind instruments added delicious colour; a solitary tambourine marked many of the dance rhythms with period flair.

On several occasions, however, the orchestra were put at something of a disadvantage by the frantic pace of Louisa Muller’s staging. Muller was quite effective at creating comic mayhem, with dozens of chorus members and dancers zooming around at high speed, which was fine in itself but could become distracting. It made a bad impression in the overture, where the stage movement seemed to be making a deliberate effort to distract us from what was some truly wonderful playing.

Muller puts us on the set of a reality TV show (Baroque opera meets The Kardashians), with more gold lamé costumes, bouffant hair and fake tans than is good for anyone’s health. Jupiter is a narcissist to the max, flanked by a pair Ray-Ban wearing heavies, the Naiads are bathing beauties lounging around the swimming pool. Video screens display both technical video production stuff and the tackiest of tacky CGI of the gods in golden chariots. The idea is bright, breezy and fun, and it provides a good fit to the story as well as plenty of opportunity for visual gags, which come thick and fast.

Dance music is a key part of the joy of Rameau, and the production featured eight dancers. However, no choreographer was credited, only a movement director, Rebecca Howell. The dancers seemed sadly under-used, with the first identifiable danced number not appearing until late in the first half. Rather, they were mostly used as part of the complex stage movements, which were virtuosically manic, but whose purpose was less than clear.

Vocal performances were mixed, with some singers struggling to generate enough volume at the low ends of their register. The title role is scored for a high tenor in drag: Samuel Boden sang the role creditably and acted it superbly (the gag is that Platée may be the ugliest creature on the planet but believes herself to be irresistible). The pick of the singers was Robert Murray in the two roles of Thespis (the inventor of comedy) and Mercury (who leads Jupiter’s gang of supporters). The best single aria came from Holly Teague in the minor role of Clarine, a gorgeous rendition of the lament “Soleil, fuis de ces lieux”.

Platée is in a specific dramatic style of its period, in which a flawed, arrogant character is treated with the cruelty their arrogance deserves. Rameau seems to subvert that cruelty by giving his heroine some very lovely music, which contributes to making the ending difficult for modern sensibilities. After all that cruel baiting, a humiliated and miserable Platée is left to return to her swamp.

This production has a lot going for it: fabulously performed music, an engaging performance in the title role and an entertaining scenario with great visuals and plenty of comic gags. On this first night, it didn’t quite gel into a full-on triumph, but it should improve during the run.