Director Robert Carsen and his creative team flood the stage with summer blossoms, drifts of autumn leaves, winter snows and thunderous spring storms. The cast of 140 are attired in elegant costumes inspired by late 1940s Dior. This mythical tale of a young queen, Alphise, determined to abdicate rather than contemplate an enforced marriage to a descendant of Boreas, is nothing less than highly-charged.
Ground-breaking modern dance ensemble La La La Human Steps, choreographed by Édouard Lock, perform dance ‘divertissements’ in this strikingly beautiful staging.

Barbara Bonney, Paul Agnew, Toby Spence, Stephane Degout, Laurent Naouri, Nicolas Rivenq, Anna-Maria Panzarella, Jael Azzaretti
Opera National de Paris / Les Arts Florissants / William Christie
featuring La La La Human Steps
Stage Director Robert Carsen
TV Director Thomas Grimm


Plus


THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE – 60 minute documentary on the background of the production, including interviews with Robert Carsen, William Christie, Barbara Bonney, Paul Agnew and Laurent Naouri and other members of the cast.

28 page, full colour illustrated booklet in English, French and German and complete libretto.

Les Boréades, posthumous work by Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1764. Source: French National Library Manuscript, Paris, Res.Vmb Ms4, (c) 1982 Alain VILLAIN Editions STIL, Paris.


Reviews
'It’s possible to recreate everything about an eighteenth century opera except the audience,’ says director Robert Carsen in a documentary included with this DVD. ‘My work is for modern audiences.’ And how. Les Boréades (1763) is Rameau’s last opera, and tells the story of Alphise, a queen torn between her obligation to marry a Boréade (a descendant of the god Boreas) and her love for a poor young Apollonian priest. In this brilliant production, Carsen goes to the heart of the drama by turning the piece into a contest between the forces of tradition and innovation, with the Boréade court dressed in severe, tightly tailored 1940s Dior and the Apollonians in loose white linen. Michael Levine’s stylised, bold designs allow the story to unfold with gripping clarity and, remarkably, some of the spectacular set-pieces (especially the storm in Act III) work even better on DVD than in the theatre itself. Barbara Bonney is vocally and dramatically stunning as Alphise and the haut-contre (high tenor) Paul Agnew is equally good as her lover. Conductor William Christie responds to Rameau’s varied and colourful score with élan, and Édouard Lock’s choreography - a version of classical ballet, deconstructed and then pumped with amphetamines – is breathtaking.'
Classic fM

‘Agnew turns up again as a mellifluous, and here thoroughly masculine, tenor lead in another remarkable Rameau recording from the French capital, Robert Carsen’s stunning 1940s Dior-clad staging of Les Boreades, filmed last-year at the Paris Opera, where this sublime Baroque masterwork was making its belated debut after being unaccountably abandoned in rehearsal a year before its composer’s death and then left unseen for another 219 years.’
The Independent

‘The music is top-drawer Rameau, with exquisite airs, vigorous choruses and, as you would expect, lots of ballet. The writing for orchestra is outstanding.
Barbara Bonney, is touching as the queen who prefers to abdicate rather than give up her love. She is riveting in her first air, ‘Un horizon serein’, with its graphic depiction of the wind whipping up the sea. Paul Agnew is nowhere finer than in the desolate landscape of Act 4, producing beautiful mezza voce at ‘Je vole, amour, où ru m’appelles’. Toby Spence and Stéphane Degout make a properly creepy pair of suitors.
William Christie conducts with all his customary dedication. The sheer exhilaration of the chorus in Act 3 has to be seen to be believed, with Agnew and Spence shooting the coloratura across like something out of Rossini. This is a serious attempt at interpreting Rameau in modern terms.’
The Gramophone

Awards & Accolades:
10 de Classica Répertoire (September 2004)

CHOC du Monde de la Musique (July/August 2004)

Classic fM Best Buy (August 2004)

10 in Luister (2004 Netherlands)

CAT NO: OA 0899 D
FORMAT: All Formats
REGIONS: All Regions
PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9
LENGTH: 218 MINS
SOUND: DOLBY 5.1 SURROUND / DOLBY STEREO
SUBTITLES: EN/DE/FR/ES
RELEASED: 01/05/2004
NO OF DISCS: 1