<<  -- 3 --  Robert Anderson    A PARISIAN DISCO?

Les fleurs of the third entrée are of course roses, which can still be savoured delectably in Iranian Shiraz. It is devised as an act of little drama but much misunderstanding, which is cleared up before anything catastrophic can occur. After the first performance, indeed, drastic alterations were made, as the Parisians had viewed with hilarity the spectacle of a transvestite hero. One of the pieces abandoned was a quartet of surpassing beauty, the only piece of its kind in all Rameau's œuvre. William Christie as musical director has rightly insisted on restoring it so that it can stand out as the high point Rameau originally intended [listen -- 'Tendre amour, que port nous ta chaîne', DVD2, Troisième entrée, chapter 7, 0:00-1:44].

Les sauvages was an afterthought from six months after the première; but its inspiration goes back more than ten years to the dancing in Paris of two American Indians, which Rameau commemorated in a harpsichord piece. It is now basic to the 'Pipe of Peace' ceremony that crowns the heroine's sensible choice of the noble savage rather than competing Europeans from France and Spain. Musically the crux of the matter is 'notes inégales'. Notes can undoubtedly be made more unequal than others, so much so in William Christie's view that Rameau's even quavers and marking of 'doux' (sweetly) can be hijacked from the libretto's 'peaceful forests' into the vibrant atmosphere of a Parisian disco and so provide copy for the 'Swinging Rameau' of the final documentary. The Adario of Nicholas Rivenq and Patricia Petibon's Zima, as also the orchestra and chorus of Les Arts Florissants, would triumph in any location [watch -- 'Forêts paisibles', DVD2, Nouvelle entrée, chapter 14, 0:00-1:32].

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