Opéra Royal - Rameau: LES BOREADES

Cultural

To mark the ensemble's tenth anniversary, a nocte temporis continues its exploration of French Baroque opera with Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Boréades.

A masterpiece of its genre and the last work by the undisputed master of French Baroque opera, Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Boréades tells the story of the thwarted love between Alphise, a young princess, and one of the sons of Boreas, the god of the north wind. Avant-garde, critical and irreverent towards the ruling powers, the work was neither performed nor published during the composer's lifetime, who died a few months after the premiere was cancelled.

Reinoud Van Mechelen, a flamboyant performer of this repertoire on the world's greatest stages, had already recorded some excerpts from Les Boréades in the second part of his trilogy on haute-contre (Jéliote, haute-contre de Rameau). He now tackles this musical masterpiece with his musicians from a nocte temporis, accompanied by a cast of remarkable soloists and the Namur Chamber Choir.