The paladins, as video game aficionados know, were knights of Charlemagne's court, French counterparts to the Knights of the Round Table. In Rameau's opera, they are the basis for a broad medieval spoof that came down in bits and pieces from Ariosto through various hands, some of them unknown. Here, it receives a valuable new recording from rising young Baroque opera conductor Valentin Tournet and his vocal-orchestral group La Chapelle Harmonique. The opera, which Rameau called a tragédie lyrique , isn't quite in Monty ...
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The paladins, as video game aficionados know, were knights of Charlemagne's court, French counterparts to the Knights of the Round Table. In Rameau's opera, they are the basis for a broad medieval spoof that came down in bits and pieces from Ariosto through various hands, some of them unknown. Here, it receives a valuable new recording from rising young Baroque opera conductor Valentin Tournet and his vocal-orchestral group La Chapelle Harmonique. The opera, which Rameau called a tragédie lyrique , isn't quite in Monty Python territory, but at times, for instance, with the unmotivated entrance of a troupe of Chinese entertainers during a magical episode in the third act, things approach that. This was Rameau's last publicly performed opera, premiered when he was in his late 70s, and it was an uncharacteristic flop. Perhaps it was the overloaded nature of the whole thing, or perhaps the new stylistic breezes blowing in from Italy. It is, however, highly entertaining and loaded with good dance...
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