Platée and Beyond at Garsington 2024
It always feels like the beginning of summer when I zip along the M40 to the Getty family’s stunning Wormsley Estate for the opening of the Garsington Opera season. The 2024 Season runs from Wednesday 29 May to Wednesday 31 July kicking off with Rameau’s Platée (reviewed below). Founded in 1989 by Leonard and Rosalind Ingrams at Garsington Manor, near Oxford, The Garsington Summer Opera Festival moved to the Wormsley Estate in 2011 after Leonard’s death. It’s the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the British summer opera season, a collective endeavour by like-minded people to create something magical and of the highest quality in the glorious landscape of the Chiltern Hills.
Platée is followed by a revival of John Cox’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro featuring stunning designs from Robert Perdziola – 30 May – 23 July 2024. Director/designer Netia Jones has created a magical take on Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (co-production with Santa Fé Opera) – 16 June – 19 July 2024. Christopher Alden’s take on Verdi’s first comic opera Un Giorno di Regno runs from 29 June – 22 July 2024, and composer Andrew Norman’s A Trip to the Moon (30 July – 31 July 2024) inspired by Georges Méliès’ seminal 1902 silent film of the same name, is this year’s community opera continuing Garsington’s laudable outreach programme. If you haven’t experienced the magic of opera at Garsington then you should save up as it is a real treat.
Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Platée was first performed in 1745 at the Grande Écurie, Versailles, for the wedding of the 15-year-old Dauphin Louis, son of Louis XV, to the 18-year-old Spanish Infanta María Teresa Rafaela. With three acts and a prologue, Platée was the first of Rameau’s two comic operas – a rarity in the world of Baroque music – and is the first French Baroque opera to be staged at Garsington. The story of Platée originates from the myths in Pausanias’ Guide to Greece with an original libretto by Jacques Autreau being reworked for the composer by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d’Orville. The plot hinges around the theme of jealousy, specifically that of the goddess Juno who is mindful of her husband Jupiter’s libidinous tendencies. The prologue sets up the narrative with Thespis, the inventor of comedy, Momus the god of satire, and Thalie, the muse of comedy, hatching a plan to cure Juno of her jealous feelings by having Jupiter fall for Platée, a delusional wood-nymph who believes that every man is in love with her. They hope that when Juno realises who her husband is ‘in love’ with she will realise the error of her ways.
Director Louisa Muller and designer Christopher Oram pull off a neat contemporisation of the classical myth by placing the story of Platée in the world of reality TV. We are in the Olympus TV studio where a set has been created for a reality show entitled Jupiter and Juno. The cast makes up the show’s protagonists, production team and crew. Even conductor Paul Agnew enters the spirit by wearing an Olympus TV t-shirt. The set has a post-modern feel with classical columns, a modern kitchen and bar and a pool spread along the Garsington Pavilion’s spacious stage. There is a large video screen placed above the mid-stage area that plays trailers and shows graphics from the show, all presented with deliciously camp classical production values. It’s an excellent example of how a modern production concept can add value by creating a recognisable modern cultural framework for a work that is nearly 300 years old. Baroque opera productions can be very static and the langours of mid-opera ballet divertissements that add nothing to the plot can be overwhelming at times. Muller and her team have filled the stage with dancing, comedic business and deliciously tacky visual invention – in a production that fizzes with energy and good humour with the audience enjoying themselves.
British tenor Samuel Boden is brilliant as the tragi-comic figure of Platée. Donning a series of ridiculous costumes his voice is that of a classic lyric tenor, mellifluous and sweet sounding, whilst eating up the high notes and complex semiquaver patterns of Rameau’s melodies as he milks the comedy in heels and a very silly peacock outfit.
The imposing figure Ossian Huskinson oozes macho confidence as Jupiter, bare-chested and decked out in gold slippers and a dressing gown. He makes a triumphal entrance in a golden golf buggy with golden wings. He’s Jupiter after all… Huskinson’s bass-baritone matches the character, resonant and full-toned and secure across his whole tessitura.
Annabel Kennedy, a 2024 Alvarez Young Artist, takes on the role of Juno, Jupiter’s wife, who is constantly being played by her husband’s henchmen. Kennedy, in a gold lamé dress, has a warm mezzo voice with a hint of huskiness about it that is beguiling.
Tenor Robert Murray as Thespis and a playful Mercury, baritone Jonathan McGovern as Momus, and bass Henry Waddington as a Satyr and as Chitheron, the initial and unwilling object of Platée’s affections, are a fine-voiced comic trio who enable Jupiter’s deceptions. Waddington’s vocal sound is rich-toned and expansive voice and his growing panic at having to manage Platée’s romantic assault was deftly handled. Jonathan McGovern’s voice has a splendid heroic ring to it and when dressed up as a fake Cupid he channeled his inner comic putto to perfection. Robert Murray, eschewing his usual more heroic sound, displayed a beauty of tone in the role of Mercury whilst delivering a shambling, chaotic characterisation as a drunken director.
A special nod must go to Canadian Soprano Mireille Asselin as La Folie. She has a purity of tone and an innate Baroque sensibility that charms even as she descends in a lift dressed as a DJ dropping tunes in a DJ booth. Conductor Paul Agnew, a specialist in French Baroque repertoire, brings Rameau’s wonderfully comic score to life, expertly controlling the ebbs and flows with subtle shifts in dynamics and tempo with the English Concert creating a gorgeously rich ensemble sound. The Garsington Opera Chorus is well-drilled and makes a thrilling noise with a powerful sense of dynamics and internal balance. This production of Platée is a fabulous way to open the Garsington season. For a hugely enjoyable evening of music in a wonderful location, it’s unmissable.
Booking for Garsington is online and the Wormsley Estate is close to the M40 at junction 5 or can be visited by train to High Wycombe and then a pre-booked bus.
29 May – 30 June 2024
Wormsley Estate, Stokenchurch Buckinghamshire HP14 3YG
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