Rameau’s success was
hard won. It wasn’t until his first
opera, Hippolyte et Aricie in
1733, that he achieved a measure of
fame but he had to wait until he was
fifty. Four years later came Castor
and Pollux and it exacerbated the
divide between supporters of the established
verities of Lully and the adherents
of the new school as exemplified by
Rameau, a schism not as bloody as the
religious feuds of the time but every
bit as ideologically entrenched. By
1754, when he came to revise the work,
French opera was beginning to feel the
strength of the prevailing Italian wind
and so Rameau and his original librettist,
the well-known poet Pierre-Joseph Bernard,
reworked the opera extensively. The
plot was tightened, the prologue dropped
and a new Act One was written. The version
recorded here is in an edition by the
conductor Kevin Mallon and is based
on a copy of the 1754 version and he
has restored the Act V Chaconne, which
wasn’t in the edition he consulted.
Since there’s no mention of percussion
in the score Mallon has added some and
this is especially notable, as the notes
rightly suggest, in the thunder passages.
The original 1733 edition
has been recorded by forces under William
Christie on Harmonia Mundi, Concentus
Musicus Wien and Harnoncourt on Teldec
and the English Bach Festival and Charles
Farncombe on Erato. The later version
has been recorded before – I’ve not
heard it – by Musique du Lumière
and Jean-Christophe Frisch on Astrée.
Mallon and his forces clearly took the
opportunity to work on their interpretation
through a series of live performances
and it shows in tight concision and
good ensemble work – deft playing and
musical, adaptable singing. Since there
is so much declamatory writing and since
recitative is dominant over set-piece
arias the cast needs to be properly
attuned both to razor-sharp linguistic
inflection and to general pacing of
the recitativo core of the work. This
is especially true when it comes to
the revised libretto; whether in the
original or even in the 1754 version
Bernard’s text is one of the most convincing
in eighteenth century French opera.
We can tell from the
off that the orchestra is ready for
the colourful writing. The characterful
bassoon writing in the Act I Overture
is especially noticeable and the string
players make a good and well-shaped
contribution throughout. The cast is
generally fine as well. Meredith Hall
copes well with the tessitura of her
dual roles but does sometimes sound
a little taxed up top in her Act I Scene
I passages. Actually she and Monica
Whicher’s Télaïre are rather
similar sounding sopranos – difficult
always to differentiate. As Castor Colin
Ainsworth has a light, young-sounding
and entreating tenor – though his vibrato
does have a habit of opening out at
phrase endings and the divisions of
the Act I Quel bonheur cause
him a few uneasy moments. Whicher’s
finest moment probably comes in Act
II’s Tristes apprêts, which
she sings with moving power. As with
Castor, so with Pollux – Joshua Hopkins’
attractive, warm baritone shares a tendency
to slightly undisciplined terminal vibrato
(sample Act III’s Présent
des dieux). The smaller roles are
all sensitively taken.
The combination of
the balletic, purely orchestral and
juxtaposed aria and recitativo elements
creates an organically satisfying and
enlivening work There’s fine animation
in the drum and fife exploits of the
martial Dance and Tambourin of Act I,
the dramatic chorus that opens Act II,
the excellently galvanic rhythm of the
same Act’s Scene IV, the good violin
solo in the same act, and the affectingly
wandering harmonies of Castor’s Act
IV Scene IV Séjour de l’éternelle
paix. The acoustic is sympathetic,
and Mallon’s direction idiomatic and
well paced. He has clearly worked extensively
with his young Canadian cast on the
question of apposite ornamentation and
the results are persuasive. At Naxos’s
superbudget price this twofer gets a
warm recommendation.
Jonathan Woolf
Arcadia Ensemble/Kevin Mallon 