Rethinking Rameau: On Bringing Two Rarely Seen Opera-Ballets to the Stage

Photo: Philippe Delval

By Sophie Daneman

Daphnis et Églé and La naissance d’Osiris—two unfamiliar titles, two works that have rarely seen the light of day. Setting them alongside Rameau’s immense tragédies-lyriques one might be tempted to dismiss them as flimsy entertainments, but on closer inspection they reveal a world full of charm, humanity, sensuality, and grace—products of a genius in his 70s with all the wealth of his life and art behind him. These are not pieces written for the opera houses of Paris but for the private, more intimate, court performances at Fontainebleau. Away from the glare of the Paris critics at a time when the musical world was in the throes of the tumultuous Querelle des Bouffons (a battle of musical rivals France and Italy), Rameau was able to experiment with more European styles and, despite the obvious constraints of space (possibilities for “les merveilles” being somewhat limited), there is a great sense of freedom that emanates from these scores—Rameau making his own journey through the culturally diverse world of the Age of Enlightenment.

In Context: Mark Morris: Two OperasAn evening of Britten and Purcell

The choreographer presents a double-bill: Britten’s Curlew River, featuring the MMDG Music Ensemble, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, featuring mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Context is everything, so get closer to the production through our series of curated links, videos, and articles. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought by posting in the comments below and on social media using #MMDG.

On Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River

Choreographer Mark Morris, who has captivated audiences for over 35 years with his unwavering commitment to music, returns to BAM March 15—19 with a career-spanning double bill that perfectly embodies his trademark blend of emotion and rhythm, movement and music. In the first act, the vocalists and orchestra of the MMDG Music Ensemble unite onstage to tell Benjamin Britten’s haunting parable of maternal grief in Curlew River. Below, scholar Hugh Macdonald reviews the origins of Britten’s stirring (and oft-overlooked) music-drama.

TMC Fellows perform Curlew River at Tangelwood. Photo: Hilary Scott

Dictionaries of opera all have an entry “Curlew River,” but it is not really an opera. Britten called it a “parable,” along with its two successors The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal Son. Designed for performance in church and not in the theater, these three works fall in the sequence of Britten’s operas between A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Owen Wingrave, and belong to an important phase in his life when he was re-thinking the issues of music theater and, more broadly, the direction of his style. All three are presented in a Christian context, and although the two later works are based on biblical stories, the origin of Curlew River lies far from the Christian tradition in which Britten was brought up.