In its final opening of the season, the Santa Fe Opera has outdone itself and then some. I can honestly say that this staging of Platée by Rameau is the most hilarious opera I have ever seen anywhere. No academic resuscitation of a quarter-millennium old work, this is a brilliant rejuvenation of exciting, vibrant music. And if ever there were a production to which to take the kids to introduce them to opera, THIS IS IT! 

Platée is the story of a vain and haughty, but acutely unattractive marsh nymph who is made the butt of a joke which Jupiter and company design to play on his ever-jealous wife Juno. The work opens with a Prelude describing the birth of comedy, as playfully and ironically we see on stage an audience looking back at us. There then proceeds the ultimate game of musical chairs, the laughter all but obscuring the Overture. That’s only the beginning of the fun.

Billed in Rameau’s time as a ballet bouffon or comic ballet (ballets in those days frequently included singing), the frequent instrumental sections provide choreographer Laura Scozzi a wealth of opportunity to display some of the most comically outrageous dancing you will ever see, as the immensely talented corps de ballet twist and contort their bodies into emphatic postures. Until you’ve seen a frog breakdance, you’ve not yet lived!

Done in modern dress combined with wonderfully ridiculous costumes (frogs, frogs and more frogs), the staging never violates the original spirit of this high satire. There is really too much for anyone to see in any one showing.

While comedy reigns supreme, there is superb singing throughout. Jean-Paul Fouchécourt has made a career of portraying comic characters, but this must undoubtedly be his greatest triumph. He plays the female Platée in drag and his smooth, mellow tenor has an unmistakable timbre that suits the nymph perfectly. Actually he is almost too appealing, causing us to feel unwarranted sympathy for the creature’s ultimate fate. His/her aria  Quittez, Nymphes (Nymphs, leave your dark homes) is not only a marvel of masterful baroque execution but accompanied by an adorable froggy-dance.

Soprano Heidi Stober as Folly has the two big arias. At first she narrates the story of Apollo and Daphne (just coincidentally another of this summer’s SFO roster), not only tossing off difficult passages with ease but animating the narrative with gesture, even incorporating conductor Harry Bicket into the act. Later, the treacherous Amour, amour ends in a top note that will leave you breathless.

High soprano Leena Chopra, first as Love, then as Clarine, gives the beautiful aria with oboe obbligato Soleil, fuis de ces lieux! (Sun, leave these places!)

Resonant bass Wilbur Pauley as the pompous Jupiter, and dulcet lyric tenor Norman Reinhardt as Thespis, then Mercury both complement the principals.
Also in the cast, welcome returns from last year, are David Pittsinger the dashing Escamillo in Carmen, and Joshua Hopkins the every-man Papageno from The Magic Flute.

MANY more surprises await. Who would have thought that an all-but-forgotten baroque opera could produce this kind of riot?

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