Rameau / Choir & Orchestra Pygmalion / Pichon - Hippolyte Et Aricie - DVD

Rameau's first opera Hippolyte et Aricie delivered a lyrical tragedy of such extraordinary intensity it changed the course of French music, stunning and overwhelming it's audiences. This breathtaking spectacle involves prince Hippolyte, who asks his mother-in-law Queen Phdre for help in wooing the beautiful Aricie, little knowing that Phdre secretly wants Hippolyte for herself. In a single work Rameau re-invented tragdie en musique with dramatic expressiveness and shocking harmonic innovations. It is seen here in an acclaimed Opra Comique production that personifies Rameau's assertion that 'music must speak to the soul, it's true aim must be to express thoughts, feelings, and passions'.