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Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Rameau: Les Surprises de l'Amour
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:
I had wanted to present "Love's Surprises" next Sunday the 14th as a Valentine's Day audio treat, but due to preemption on the lovers' holiday, I decided to air this French opera-ballet ahead of time today.
Les Surprises de l'Amour premiered in 1748 at Versailles to celebrate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. It seems to have particularly pleased the French king's paramour, Madame Pompadour. She saw to it that it was produced for her private Théatre des Petits Cabinets in the royal palatial complex. Rameau largely reworked the score of the work for public performance at the Paris Opera in 1757, and reworked it further in 1758 for yet another staged revival.
It is that final version you will hear as recorded in 2013 for the Spanish classical record label Glossa, and issued that same year in a three-CD package. Sebastien d'Hérin leads the period instrument players and choir of Les Nouveaux Caractères. Writing in Fanfare magazine (Mar/Apr, 2014 issue) reviewer Barry Brenesal pronounces the Glossa release "...one of the best recordings of a Rameau stage work in several years." After listening to Les Surprises de l'Amour I think you'll come to agree with me that Jean Phillippe Rameau (1683-1764) is the greatest composer of the French baroque.