HIPPOLYTE ET ARICIE A CHEQUERED STORY, OPERAVISION

 The dream of opera

It was a dream that accompanied Jean-Philippe Rameau for a long time: he wanted to write an opera. Born in Dijon in 1683, Rameau had made a name for himself as an organist, composer of keyboard music and author of works on music theory. But an opera? He was 50 years old when his first work, Hippolyte et Aricie, was finally staged. The first performance took place in 1733, and Rameau made two complete revisions to this work before his death in 1764. U-turns and surprises also determined the preparation of the Mannheim premiere, directed by Lorenzo Fioroni and conducted by Bernhard Forck. It was planned for March 2020, but will finally take place in spring 2021.

Two lockdowns later: A new beginning for Hippolyte et Aricie

Shortly before the first main rehearsal in March 2020, work on Hippolyte et Aricie at the Nationaltheater had to be suspended due to the pandemic. A fundamental reworking and rewrite became necessary in order to give the project a future. One particular question was burning under everyone's nails: How can Hippolyte et Aricie's world still be told while observing safety distances, hygiene rules and reduced numbers of people? Can closeness and intimacy, but also group scenes, be portrayed at all under the given circumstances?

Yes, they can! Artistic and technical departments worked out a concept to make precisely that possible. For instance, the concept specifies how the individual choral groups are to be distributed in the stage and auditorium so that there are no queues either on or behind the stage. Singing takes place in the boxes behind plexiglass panels. Safety masks and gloves are integrated into costumes, the stage set is rearranged so that it can be managed by a smaller technical team. The longing for contact and the upheaval between past and future become the central scenic motif - and the core of the Hippolyte et Aricie's story.

Faultlines: Order and chaos

In the prologue that Rameau and his librettist Simon-Joseph Pellegrin place at the beginning of their opera in the original version of 1733, the two gods Amour and Diane are pitted against each other: While the latter stands for the chaste command of impulse and passion, Amour is out to cause trouble. As is well known, he shoots his arrows blindly - and whoever they hit can no longer be helped. In order to resolve this conflict, the two gods need help, which appears to them in the form of Jupiter. As the wise father of the gods, he orders a compromise. On one day of the year, love should be allowed to do its mischief. At the end of this day, however, marriage must take place.

Although the authors deleted the prologue in later versions and it is only included in parts in the new Corona-proof version in Mannheim, it nevertheless demonstrates a principle that determines the plot of the opera Hippolyte et Aricie and thus also the thrust of Lorenzo Fioroni's production. It is about the conflict between chaos and order, between individual passion and an individual destiny suspended in the overall order.

Phaedra against the rest of the world?

Her adulterous passion for Hippolyte plunges Phaedra into chaos. It ends in suicide. The 'innocent' love between Hippolyte and Aricie, on the other hand, is rewarded by the gods. Hippolyte is to succeed his father Theseus and, as a good ruler, guarantee the preservation of order in the future. In absolutist France, this was a happy ending of almost compelling logic.

But the fact that Rameau provides Phaedra with the most beautiful music, which contrasts the loud outburst with the most fragile introspection, shows that his view of the characters is much more differentiated. The opera - whose origins lie in a decidedly courtly art form that had to culminate in the praise of the ruler - manages to track down the radical power of the human being and to celebrate it in its unconditionality, to make us empathise with it and to make us question the order of the world with Phaedra. And yet not to damage its very foundations.

Caught between Versailles and street fighting

This struggle between order and chaos, between hierarchy and overthrow, between Ancien Régime and Revolution is reflected in Lorenzo Fioroni's visual and directorial language. The production is based on the idea of the baroque festival, in which 'reality' and 'enjoyment of art' merge into one. Stage and auditorium become a common space, which is determined as much by observation and amazement as by presentation and performance. Images of the façade and interiors of the Palace of Versailles bring the time of Louis XIV to life in fragments. Just as Phaedra wins our sympathy, our sympathies also go out to the aged king, who looks back at us from all the god figures from Jupiter to Pluton. He knows that his time is over - and yet he fights and dances on. This determination begs for respect. With Hippolyte and Aricie, this ruler is confronted by two young, modern people who seek their own way into the future and in the process suffer injuries from which they do not easily recover. Amour, in the guise of Oenone, drives the game of passions, while Theseus, as a real politician, comes to terms with the circumstances and finds his own advantage in them. The result is a vista that traces the fault lines between history and the present and in doing so tells a touching story of human love and suffering.

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