Hippolyte et Aricie 2019 Reviews

★★★★ 
The Stage
Yehuda Shapiro
14th August 2019

‘Stylish and vividly theatrical condensed version of Rameau’s baroque masterpiece’
‘Hippolyte et Aricie, a take on the Phaedra story first seen in 1733, is a landmark opera by a supreme French composer, yet opportunities to see it are infrequent.’
‘While Rameau conceived it as a grand spectacle, Ensemble OrQuesta presents an intimate staging using a condensed version of the score… [and] this production really ramps up when the human relationships take centre stage.’
‘The costumes… are timeless and the body language is highly stylised, but there is visceral immediacy in the confrontation between stepmother and stepson and in the final reunion of the resurrected Hippolyte and his beloved Aricie.’
‘…director Marcio da Silva knows how to create powerful images – such as the manifestation of Neptune’s sea monster, a long black organza tube, manipulated by the members of the chorus.’

Seen and Heard International
Colin Clarke
14th August 2019

Tucked away behind a busy high street in East London is the Arcola Theatre, literally a hidden gem. It is almost as if its positioning shields it from the rather dishevelled, yet somehow characterful, area. This is actually the Grimeborn company’s sixth French Baroque Opera production. Their ethos is to present operas with small forces and in economical and digestible ways. Hence the decision here to omit the prologue and, in reversing the order of Acts I and II, to enable a more chronological unfolding; it also means that the opera begins in the Underworld and reaches in Heaven in the final act.

Hippolyte et Aricie, RCT 43 (with a libretto by Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin) was Rameau’s first opera and therefore also his first tragédie lyrique; it is a piece that therefore formed a vital part of his operatic journey and, indeed, set him on the path to operatic greatness. The first modern performance was in 1903, in Geneva; a 1908 Paris performance used a score edited by Vincent d’Indy. The primary source is Racine’s Phèdre, although Rameau’s version includes a happy ending, with Hippolyte rising from the dead.

The production is by Marcio da Silva, who also takes the role of Thésée. The small stage space is used to great effect, with a swing at the back on which L’Amour (Katherine McRae) often observes the action. The stage space and multiple entrance points provide all that is needed to take this story of humans and Gods and Goddesses to transportative levels; this, and some excellent, atmospheric lighting (there is no separate credit for this, so one assumes it was part of a combined effort). Simple props serve well, thanks to the Designer, Christian Hey – the message is: the emotion is in the voices.

While the couple of Hippolyte and Aricie, and their trials and travails, power the action, Thesée (Phèdre’s husband) also has a large role to play, as does Phèdre’s passion for Hippolyte. Phèdre commits suicide (she seems to stab herself in the neck in this production) while Diane protects the lovers, enabling their eventual union after rising from the dead.

Rameau’s score contains a huge amount of music that is simply beautiful. Elegant and graceful, it is also capable of conveying the deepest of emotions. Take, for example, Aricie’s Act II aria ‘Temple sacré, séjour tranquille’, sung in the Temple of Diana. Its simplicity of utterance belies the sophistication of its melodic material. The singer taking the role of Aricie was the astonishing American-Italian soprano Juliet Petrus, who exudes a purity, both vocal and dramatically, entirely apposite to the role. (The programme booklet tells us, interestingly, that she is “the leading Western interpreter of contemporary Chinese vocal music.”).

The role of Hippolyte is written for an haute-contre. The English tenor Kieran White, who has recently debuted as a soloist with Ton Koopman in Bach’s St Matthew Passion and studies with the distinguished haute-contre Jean-Paul Fouchécourt in Lyon, has the perfect combination of stamina and expression. His voice is clear and expressive. His touching Act IV aria, ‘Ah! faut-il, en un jour’ revealed the extent of his lyric talents. The combination of White with the Aricie of Juliet Petrus was perfect casting; one could really invest in their love, their movements often choreographed as mirror images. Their voices blended beautifully in the tenderest, love-drenched moments

The character of Phèdre was taken by the Korean-American soprano Alexandra Bork, who exudes stage presence, her vengeance aria ‘Périsse la vaine puissance’ eminently convincing, her Act III pleas for mercy ‘Cruelle mère des amours’ dramatically gripping. Brazilian bass Marcio da Silva, who studied in Toulouse, France, was a fine presence and in commanding vocal form as Thésée, who in Act I is found in the Underworld, pleading for the life of his friend Prithous. Of the smaller roles, Angharad Davies (who will join the Aurora Festival in Stockholm as a Young Artist) was a stand-out, her Priestess strong vocally and dramatically; also, Jessica Summers, as Une Matelote, exuded vocal confidence. John Holland-Avery was a strong Pluton.

We were told prior to the performance that Helen May (Diane) had experienced some health problems that day but would still sing. I’m not sure I would have known if I hadn’t been told: her final Act ‘Peuples toujours soumis à mon obeissance’ held the authority it needed. A fine selection of singers, therefore: I am particularly keen to hear more of the singers for the two titular characters and Alexandra Bork.

The reduced orchestra (no hunting horns here) comprised two violins, two violas, one cello, a harpsichord and an archlute/Baroque guitar. The instrumental contributions obviously play a vital part in Rameau’s word, but here there were far too many instances of false intonation. The spirit was there, but not always the execution, sadly. The voices carried the evening triumphantly, though, the choruses brilliantly done, with huge character as well as vocal prowess from the soloists.

Incidentally, the 1968 recording of Hippolyte et Aricie has been released on Decca Eloquence this year (review to follow): the cast includes Robert Tear as Hippolyte, Angela Hickey as Aricie and John Shirley-Quirk as Thésée. A DVD of the Glyndebourne production conducted by William Christie with a cast including Christiane Karg (Aricie), Stéphane Degout (Thésée) and Sarah Connolly (Phèdre) is reviewed on MusicWeb International here; with what is obviously a controversial production set against musical excellence, it sounds mouth-watering. All of this enthusiasm would not be possible, of course, without Grimeborn’s Hippolyte et Aricie; it was an enthusiasm felt as one once more negotiated the ‘scenic’ route to the train station, and one that continues on.

Early Music Reviews
Andrew Benson-Wilson
13th August 2019

As the name of suggests, Grimeborn is not Glyndebourne. Its mid-summer season is based at the Arcola Theatre, a converted textile factory in Dalston, East London, and focuses on new operas and experimental productions of more established repertoire. The cramped space forces directors, singers and instrumentalists to rethink opera presentation. There is only space for very few instrumentalists in a tiny gallery which is only accessible by ladder. The singers are performing within a few feet of the audience, which sits on three sides of the small central stage area, creating directorial issues in how the singers relate to the audience. It is about as far as you can get from the ideal space to perform French Baroque opera, with its enormous casts of singers and dancers, large orchestral forces and elaborate stage settings, but that is exactly what Ensemble OrQuesta are doing in their production of Rameau’s tragédie en musique: Hippolyte et Aricie. 

Rameau came to opera composition late, writing Hippolyte et Aricie, his first when he was nearly 50. It was first performed at Paris’s Académie Royale de Musique in 1733 to a very mixed reception. It is the first known description of a piece of music as being Baroque, although this was intended as an insult, based on its complexity, disregard for musical conventions of the time, excessive ornamentation, and the use of dissonances and colourful orchestrations. It set the pattern for the post-Lully style of French opera. Not surprisingly, Ensemble OrQuesta’s Grimborn showing was a much-shortened affair (lasting nearly two hours), omitting the Prologue but preserving elements of all five acts together with some of the dance music, albeit with a series of tableaux rather than actual dancing.

It is not an easy work to stage, or for audiences to follow, with its convoluted mythological plot of Gods and humans. Director Marcio da Silva omitted the prologue, which would have given us the chance to work out who Diana. L’Amour and Jupiter were, and Diana’s promise to protect Hippolyte and Aricie. He also changed the order of Act 1 and 2, starting in the Underworld without the earthly backstory of Act 1 and its introduction to the main characters of the opera. They are Thésée, King of Athens, his wife Phèdre, and his (but not Phèdre’s) son Hippolyte. Hippolyte loves Aricie, but she is the daughter of Thesée’s enemy. The relationship between these two couples forms the main plotline but is complicated by the fact that Phèdre has taken a fancy to her stepson, Hippolyte. In the original Act 1, Phèdre hears that Thésée has gone to the Underworld and is probably dead., enabling Phèdre to offer Hippolyte the crown of Athens, and herself. Although starting in Act 2 made for a dramatic opening, it is a bit of a red-herring as far as the main plot was concerned, introduced ideas and Gods that are not really relevant to the rest of the piece.

Ensemble OrQuesta arranges opera academies, where singers sign up for training courses that culminate in a public performance. A list of four such academies was advertised on the back of the programme, with tuition fees ranging from £500 to £750. I am not sure if any of the singers in the production were part of an academy, but the standard of singing and acting suggested that some were relatively inexperienced in the craft. But the good ones were very good, notably the director Marcio da Silva who stole the opening Act as a powerful Thésée in the Underworld. Aricie was the very impressive Juliet Petrus, the clarity and stability of her voice being just the thing for negotiating the complex French ornaments. Kieran White was Hippolyte, a role intended for the very French haute contra voice which he copes with well. Alexandra Bork was a powerful Phèdre. Diane and L’Amour were Helen May and Katherine MacRae (not Kathleen Nic Dhiarmida, as previously stated), both impressive.

The instrumentalists had a rough time of it, jammed into a tiny gallery and trying to replicate the sound of a large Baroque orchestra. There were pairs of violins and violas, cello, archlute, guitar and harpsichord, the busiest being harpsichordist Seb Gillot, cellist Erlend Vestby and Cédric Meyer, archlute. Kieran Staub conducted, pinned up against a steel column with his back to the singers and, I assume, a camera link to a screen as the timing seemed pretty accurate. Intonation wasn’t always of the finest, but I was impressed with the attempt to produce the sound of the two musettes that feature strongly in Rameau’s score. 

Given the implications of the space, this was an impressive version of a complex work which played to a capacity audience. A simple staging was inevitable, and effective use was made of the tiny performing area. For some reason, all the singers were barefooted, said feet very quickly turning into various shades of black, all too visible when they were sprawled on the floor, as many of them were in the various tableaux that took the places of the intended dances.

★★★½ 
Planet Hugill
Robert Hugill
17th August 2019

A welcome opportunity to see Rameau's first opera in a dramatically punchy, small-scale production.

Having performed Lully's Armide and Cavalli's Serse at the 2017 and 2018 festivals, respectively, Marcio da Silva's Ensemble OrQuesta returned to the 2019 Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre with Rameau's first tragedie en musique Hippolyte et Aricie. Directed by Marcio da Silva and designed by Christian Hey, the production featured Kieran White as Hippolyte, Juliet Petrus as Aricie, Alexandra Bork as Phèdre, Marcio da Silva as Thésée, Helen May as Diane, Katherine McRae as L'Amour, Oğuzhan Engin as Mercure, John Holland-Avery as Pluton and Oscar Smith as Tisiphone. Kieran Staub conducted the instrumental ensemble.

Originally written in 1733,Hippolyte et Ariciewas performed in Rameau's 1757 revision, which removed the prologue and re-instated some of the more controversial passages which had been cut from the original version. Marcio da Silva's edition of the score trimmed it somewhat, giving us around two hours of music. The dance element was reduced (movement was provided by the singers themselves) and we missed Thésée's crucial Act 5 scene where he expresses remorse.

The opera's librettist, Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, was an experienced opera hand and he created a highly effective tragédie en musique but in doing so diluted the focus of Racine'sPhèdre, so that Phèdre's husband Thésée plays a major role in the opera. He gets a whole act to himself when he descends to the Underworld to rescue his friend. And in need of a happy ending (always a must in tragédie en musique), Pellegrin built up the relationship between Hippolyte and Aricie making it the thread on which the opera hangs, and by having Diane save Hippolyte at the end and restore him to Aricie. The result can be frustratingly diverse, with characters appearing and disappearing.

Marcio da Silva's version was powerful and dramatically punchy. The orchestral forces were similarly reduced with an instrumental ensemble based on a string quintet, arch-lute/guitar and harpsichord, all perched precariously on the theatre's balcony. Conductor Kieran Staub was also up there, which meant he communicated with the singers only via monitor. This was, I think, a mistake and ensemble suffered in the larger scale moments.

Marcio da Silva's production was simple and largely abstract, with some simple but effective touches such as the fabric used for the monster at the end of Act Four, and a great use of masks (very useful when singers play multiple roles).

Da Silva himself made a powerful Thésée, successfully holding the focus of the act based in Hades. Alexandra Bork was a gutsy Phèdre, giving use some powerful interventions into the action, and a moving final scene. I wondered whether Bork might be more comfortable in later periods of music, and her performance prized dramatic emotion over style.

Kieran White displayed a fine haut-contre tenor, perhaps with a little too much edge for the small theatre space. But he was a fine stylist, and his contributions were always a pleasure to listen to. Juliet Petrus mad a neat and charming Aricie. Aricie is a somewhat passive character, but Petrus made her agreeable and stylish, though I could have wished Petrus' neat account of Aricie's final showcase aria had had a bit more bravura about it.

The smaller roles were all characterfully taken, with Helen May and Katherine MacRae both mellifluous Diane and L'Amour (respectively), and John Holland-Avery was a striking Pluton. I very much enjoyed Jessica Summers' aria as a sailor and wished we would have heard more of her.

Fringe performances of Rameau are always something of a challenge, but then performances of his operas in the UK are so rare that such events are always greatly welcome. But the correct style does not always come naturally to singers and lacking a long rehearsal period, a performance relies on individuals' feel for Rameau's music.

This was a brave performance which prized dramatic emotion over innate style, and occasionally the qualities in the music which make up Rameau's genius were in danger of being lost. In an ideal world Ensemble OrQuesta would have been able to perform this opera on a larger scale with a longer rehearsal period. But economics said otherwise, and what they achieved was impressive.

If you want a sense of large scaleHippolyte et Ariciewith style, try Jonathan Kent's 2014 production at Glyndebourne [available fromAmazon on DVD]. But whilst musically superb with an elaborate staging, the results go no further in making Rameau's fascinating but problematical first opera work as a dramatic entity, and I must confess that I am still waiting for my ideal production.

The Reviews Hub
Maryam Philpott
14th August 2019

Being the mortal offspring, lover or interlocutor of a Greek God never turns out well and Prince Hippolyte is doubly damned – not only the grandson of Neptune with a famous father, but also a devotee of Diane to whom he pledged early allegiance. Stage adaptations of Greek plays continue with some frequency but the French-language opera Hippolyte et Aricieis rarely performed, so this new version at the Arcola’s Grimeborn Festival will be a first for many.

As convoluted plots go this is a particularly knotty affair. Before the opera begins, King Thésée (Theseus) has descended into the Underworld to rescue his friend from the dark lord Pluto. Granted three wishes by his father Neptune, Thésée escapes only to find his wife in a compromising position with his son Hippolyte. But Hippolyte is in love with Aricie who renounced her plans to be a virgin attendant to Diane when she fell in love. Naturally enough, chaos ensues.

Director Marcio da Silva is surprisingly open about the opera’s failings in the programme notes. Described as over-orchestrated after its first performance in 1733, its heavily baroque music has a stately quality that can overcomplicate an overcomplicated story. da Silva has transposed the first two Acts to improve clarity, playing Thésée’s hellish escapade as a dark opener prior to the lovers’ first meeting, but without a rudimentary knowledge of Greek mythology and the synopsis, the narrative strands would be far harder to follower.

It doesn’t help that in blocking this 2 hour and 15 minute show, too little attention has been paid to audience sightlines with the far bank of the Arcola’s three-sided auditorium faring the worst as scenes are performed in the opposite direction or on the diagonal. Again and again and again performers stand with their backs to the audience, entirely obscuring the singer or action. It is clearly a deliberate choice to have the cast perform to the back wall as though the Gods resided there, and if they do they have a far better view than anyone else.

Designer Christian Hey has delivered visions of heaven and hell, dividing characters and scenes into clear black and white sets – Thésée and his Queen Phédre, as well as the creatures of Pluto’s lair, are dark, malevolent presences, scrabbling in the dirt, while the lovers, Diane and her attendants have white gowns and floral adornments. The first scene change is cumbersome but in the second half the pastoral design allows the different Acts to flow much better.

Ensemble OrQuesta offers training opportunities to young singers and among them Kieran White’s Hippolyte is a strong tenor and ardent admirer to Juliet Petrus’ Aricie – as is the way their roles are reasonably insipid but are charming together. But it’s really the villains who shine; da Silva is excellent as Thésée, conveying a large backstory of troubled parentage and fame in a small role while Alexandra Bork’s Phédre is hugely sympathetic as melancholy monarch whose every word is dripping in torment.

Under Kieran Staub the eighteenth-century composition is very interesting, full of varying speeds and lightness in the harpsichord (Seb Gillot) that plots the changing mood. Rameau’s opera is of its time, over-earnest about innocence and love while Pellegrin’s libretto in translation is sometimes a little archaic in construction and language which adds to the overall confusion. Nonetheless, Ensemble OrQuesta are pushing boundaries and championing up-close opera in its original language.

★★★
ReviewsGate
William Russell
14th August 2019

Premiered in 1733 this is the first opera to which the word baroque was applied. It is, to be honest, pretty hard going although it gets an efficiently staged and well sung and played production directed by Marcio da Silva. The plot is part, although not all of the problem. But it is complicated, being one of those tales of Greeks going to the Underworld, falling out with the Gods and lovers generally having a pretty bad time. As well as directing the evening da Silva plays Thesee – he also plays baroque guitar in the orchestra when not on stage – who has been to the Underworld to do various things leaving Phedre, his queen to reign in his absence. Hyppolyte, his son by another wife, is in love with Aricie who has been compelled by the goddess Diana to take a bow of chastity. Phedre, told erroneously that Thesee has died, offers herself to Hippolyte with whom she is in love, but he declines and when Thesee returns he is forced to flee for his life.Thesee thinks he has assaulted his wife. Hypppolyte and Aricie run away to Diana’s sacred grove but she is still against the match and he is abducted by a sea monster. Phedre kills herself, after explaining things to Thesee, and the lovers are mysteriously reunited in Diana’s grove – or something like that. Kieron White is a splendidly romantic Hyppolyte, da Silva a sonorous Thesee and Alexandra Bork is a dark and dangerous Phedre. It all works well enough, but even with sur titles it gets hard to follow, and creating a sea monster is beyond the company’s resources. The Grimeborn season is, however, about bringing the old, the new and the rare to the attention of audiences. Rameau’s opera is well worthy of that attention and the orchestra do a fine job with the score.

★★★ 
The Evening Standard
Nick Kimberley
14th August 2019

Grimeborn — Hippolyte et Aricie review: Baroque opera in Dalston? It's worth the trip.

Jean-Philippe Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie had its glamorous premiere in 1733, in the Palais Royal in Paris. The composer probably didn’t imagine his opera turning up on the backstreets of Dalston, but here it is, part of Grimeborn, Arcola Theatre’s annual festival of out-there opera productions.

Hippolyte was the first opera to which the word “baroque” was applied. It wasn’t a compliment, but it gives a clue to Rameau’s highly stylised musical and dramatic language.

Marcio da Silva’s staging (sung in French) doesn’t really manage to turn the Arcola’s far from palatial setting into a living theatrical space. Movement is often exaggerated slo-mo, while interaction between characters is chilly rather than emotive, despite some fine singing. As Hippolyte, Kieran White displays ardour and elegance, while Alexandra Bork makes Phèdre a dangerously deep-voiced fanatic.

Besides directing, da Silva takes the role of Thésée, delivered with sonorous gravitas, and when he’s not singing, he slips into the orchestra to play baroque guitar. Beyond that, he also provides the orchestral reduction (played by his own outfit, Ensemble OrQuesta, Kieran Staub conducting) that makes this chamber presentation affordable. Moments of cranky intonation lend a not-inappropriate rustic feel, but the vibrancy of Rameau’s original surfaces only intermittently. Still, Rameau in Dalston? As the French say, “Ça vaut le voyage”.