(Hippolytus and Aricia) was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was premiered to great controversy by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on October 1, 1733. The French libretto, by Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, is based on Racine's tragedy Phèdre. The opera takes the traditional form of a with an allegorical prologue followed by five acts. Early audiences found little else conventional about the work.
Background Rameau was almost 50 when he wrote Hippolyte et Aricie and there was little in his life to suggest he was about to embark on a major new career as an opera composer. He was famous for his works on music theory as well as books of harpsichord pieces. The closest he had come to writing dramatic music was composing a few secular cantatas and some popular pieces for the Paris fairs for his friend Alexis Piron.Alexandre, p. 36 Yet Rameau's eagerness to write an opera is shown by a letter he wrote in October 1727 to Antoine Houdar de la Motte asking for a libretto. It was a strange choice; once famous for providing the texts to such works as André Campra's L'Europe galante (1697) and Marin Marais's Alcyone (1706), Houdar de la Motte had written nothing for the musical stage for almost 20 years. Nothing came of the request and there is no record of any reply, but the fact that Rameau carefully preserved his own letter among his personal papers proves how much the project must have meant to him.Bouissou (2014), pp. 183–187. Bouissou explains that Houdar de la Motte's refusal need not suggest any contempt for Rameau on his part. Houdar probably felt unable to fulfill the request because he had gone blind and was long out of touch with the operatic world.
The turning point finally came in 1732. In February that year, Michel Montéclair's Jephté premiered at the Paris Opéra. Rameau was said to be so impressed by the opera that he approached its librettist, Pellegrin, for a of his own. The result was Hippolyte et Aricie.Alexandre (1994), pp. 36–37. Alternatively, Sylvie Bouissou notes that Rameau was engaged in theoretical polemics with Montéclair and wanted to rival him on the stage as well (Bouissou, p. 306). In spring 1733, the new opera was given a run-through either at the house of Rameau's patron, La Pouplinière,Girdlestone, pp. 13–14 or at that of the Prince de Carignan.Alexandre (1994), p. 37 It went into rehearsal at the Opéra in July. Even at this stage, there were problems; Rameau had to cut the second Trio des Parques ("Trio of the Fates") in the second act, because the performers found it too hard to play.According to writing in 1741, quoted by Alexandre (1994), p. 39.
In 1744, Rameau recollected: "I have been a follower of the stage since I was 12 years old. I only began work on an opera when I was 50, I still didn't think I was capable; I tried my hand, I was lucky, I continued."Rameau, letter to Abbé Mongeot (29 May 1744), quoted by Alexandre (1994), p. 36.
Performance history
Reception: versus Tragédie en musique had been invented as a genre by Lully and his librettist Quinault in the 1670s and 1680s.For a full discussion of the background see the chapter on "Lulli's Tragédie en musique" in Girdlestone, pp. 104–126 Their works had held the stage ever since and come to be regarded as a French national institution. When Hippolyte et Aricie made its debut, many in the audience were delighted, praising Rameau as "the Orpheus of our century".Graham Sadler (1993), p. 830 André Campra was struck by the richness of invention: "There is enough music in this opera to make ten of them; this man will eclipse us all".Girdlestone, p. 191
Others, however, felt the music was bizarre and dissonant; Hippolyte was the first opera to be described as baroque, then a term of abuse. They saw Rameau's work as an assault on Lullian opera and French musical tradition. As Sylvie Bouissou puts it:Sylvie Bouissou, booklet notes to William Christie's recording of Rameau's Castor et Pollux (Harmonia Mundi, 1993), p. 16.
Structurally, Hippolyte followed the model established by Lully: a French overture followed by a prologue and five acts, each with its own containing dances, solos and choruses. Musically, however, it was totally different, especially the orchestration. Rameau had rethought everything apart from the recitative and (short arias inserted into the recitative), from the (dances and descriptive music) to the accompaniments to the vocal music (arias, ensembles, choruses). The dominant feeling among those hostile to the opera was that there was an excess of music: too much accompaniment, too many and too many notes. The music was too difficult to perform, it was too "learned", it lacked true feeling and contained an abundance of dissonances and exaggerated virtuosity.Bouissou (2014), pp. 314 ff.
Audiences and music critics soon split into two factions: the traditionalist and Rameau's supporters, the or (a play on the French word for 'chimney sweeps'). Cuthbert Girdlestone described the quarrel thus:Girdlestone, p. 482; quoting Observations sur la littérature moderne (1749)
There continued to be heated controversy with each new Rameau opera in the 1730s, reaching a peak with the premiere of Dardanus in 1739. Thereafter, it died down as Rameau's reputation became more established, but there were still hints of the dispute as late as the 1750s.Graham Sadler (1980), p. 219
Revised versions Rameau revised Hippolyte for a revival in 1742. Apart from small changes in detail, he substantially reduced the role of Phèdre, replacing her act 3 aria "Cruelle mère des amours" with a recitative and completely suppressing her death scene in act 4. These changes were so drastic – the musicologist Sylvie Bouissou describes them as "blasphemy" – that the soprano Mlle Chevalier refused to sing the role of Phèdre. The revised version made its debut on 11 September 1742. In spite of initial criticisms of poor singing, it was a great success, running for 43 performances in 1742 and 1743.Bouissou (2014), pp. 342–343
Rameau revised the work again in 1757 for a run which lasted for 24 performances.Alexandre (1994), p. 40 By this time, his reputation as the foremost French composer was so firmly established that he was confident enough to restore some of the most daring music from the original version, including the "Trio des Parques" and Phèdre's arias. In line with the practice he had adopted since Zoroastre in 1749, he completely cut the prologue.Bouissou (2014), p. 344 There was another revival at the Paris Opéra in 1767, after Rameau's death, which lasted for 14 performances. After that, the work disappeared from the stage until the 20th century.
Modern revivals The first modern performance took place in Geneva in March 1903 under the direction of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, the founder of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.Haskell p. 133
Hippolyte returned to the Paris Opéra after a 150-year absence on May 13, 1908. The production did not impress critics such as Henri Quittard and Louis Laloy. They attacked what they regarded as poor staging, acting and choreography, but their harshest criticism was reserved for the alterations to the score made by Vincent d'Indy. Laloy condemned the production for focusing on the recitative at the expense of the arias. He remarked:
There was no attempt to use Baroque instruments and the harpsichord was barely audible in the huge auditorium of the Palais Garnier. The singers suffered from poor intonation despite the assistance of a double string quartet during the recitatives.Haskell, pp. 134–135
Hippolyte et Aricie appeared with increasing frequency on stage and in concert in the second half of the 20th century with performances under Jean-Claude Malgoire and Charles Mackerras, for example. John Eliot Gardiner conducted it at Aix-en-Provence in 1983 and Lyon in 1984 in a staging by Pier Luigi Pizzi. Pizzi's production was taken up by William Christie at the Opéra Comique in Paris in 1985 and by Jean-Claude Malgoire at Lausanne and Reggio Emilia in 1987. Marc Minkowski conducted concert performances at several locations, including Versailles, in 1994. William Christie again conducted the opera at the Palais Garnier, Paris in 1996 in a production by Jean-Marie Villegier which subsequently toured Nice, Montpellier, Caen, Vienna and New York. In the 21st century there have been performances conducted by Jane Glover, Ryan Brown, Emmanuelle Haïm, Raphaël Pichon, György Vashegyi and William Christie (this time at Glyndebourne in 2013).Page at Le magazine de l'opéra baroque
The work
Libretto At the age of 69, Pellegrin had a long career as an opera librettist behind him,Beginning with Salomon's Médée et Jason in 1713 (Bouissou, p. 308) so it was unsurprising Rameau should have approached him for his debut, especially given his authorship of Jephté. Distant models for Hippoyte et Aricie were Hippolytus by Euripides and Phaedra by Seneca the Younger, but the most important source was Jean Racine's famous tragedy Phèdre (1677). Such a classic of the Grand Siècle would have been well known to the audience so adapting it might be seen as a deliberate provocation to the conservatives.Girdlestone, pp. 127–130Staffieri (1994), p. 45
There are several differences between Hippolyte et Aricie and Phèdre. Some of these are due to differences in genre between French Classical drama and tragédie en musique. Racine observes the Aristotelian unities of time and space: the action of his play is confined to a single location and takes place within 24 hours. On the other hand, each act in Pellegrin's libretto has a different setting. Pellegrin also provides a happy ending, at least for the lovers Hippolyte and Aricie, whereas Racine is wholly tragic; Hippolyte does not rise from the dead.Staffieri (1994), p. 46 Pellegrin's drama has a major change in focus: Racine's play centres on Phèdre; she is still important in Pellegrin's version, but he pays much more attention to Thésée. For instance, the entirety of the second act is devoted to Thésée's visit to the Underworld. Graham Sadler writes:
He goes on to describe Theseus as "one of the most moving and monumental characterizations in Baroque opera."Sadler (1980), p. 258
Music The overture begins conventionally enough, in traditionally noble Lullian style, but the technical complexity of the ensuing fugal movement must have disturbed conservative critics worried that Rameau's music would be overly (learned).Graham Sadler in the notes to the recording of Rameau's overtures by Christophe Rousset (Decca L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1997), p. 5 Since the death of Louis XIV the allegorical prologue no longer had any social or political function. Instead, Pellegrin uses it to foreshadow the action of the main opera by showing Destiny ordering Diana and Cupid to unite their efforts to ensure a happy outcome for Hippolyte and Aricie's love. The music of the prologue creates a "light and airy" atmosphere. The two gavottes in the soon became immensely popular.Bouissou (2014), pp. 319–320