Calendar
Calendar

Castor et Pollux

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Rameau explores the ruthless mechanisms of human passions with tenderness and subtlety.

Reinoud Van Mechelen, Tassis Christoyannis
Reinoud Van Mechelen © Senne an der Ven, Tassis Christoyannis - DR

Cast

Judith van Wanroij | Télaïre 
Véronique Gens | Phébé
Reinoud Van Mechelen | Castor
Tassis Christoyannis | Pollux
Olivia Doray | Minerve / A constellation
Jehanne Amzal  | L’Amour
Hasnaa Bennani | Venus / Follower of Hébé / Une ombre heureuse 
David Witczak | Mars / Second Athlete / Jupiter 
Antonin Rondepierre | First Athlete / High Priest 

György Vashegyi | direction
Orfeo Orchestra
Purcell Choir

Sung in French with French and English subtitles

About

As a creator, Rameau was often a polemical figure; during his lifetime, he attracted plaudits and mockery in equal measure. This first version of Castor et Pollux dates from 1737 (a second version appeared nearly twenty years later in 1754) and reveals the quality of Rameau’s meticulous attention to musical detail. It also illustrates his desire to renew the traditional sound inherited from dances and ballet at the court, an experiment which the daring composer had already tested in Hyppolyte and Les Indes Galantes. Here, theatre and music combine voluptuously whatever the emotion – love, duty or jealousy. The work alternates between powerful ambiances and surprising colours. This prodigious French seventeenth century creator possesses the unrivalled gift of invention, surprise and seduction

Coproduction Théâtre des Champs-Elysées / MUPA, Budapest / Orfeo Music Foundation, Budapest

You may also like

Iphigénie en Aulide

Christoph Willibald Gluck

Iphigénie en Aulide is one of the most dazzling works by Gluck, the last representative of the French Grand Siècle.

Thésée

Jean-Baptiste Lully

The art of lyric tragedy in the French style in which Lully’s music is a natural pairing for Quinault’s verses.

Médée

Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Of all the versions, Charpentier’s masterpiece celebrating the glory of Medea is among the most faithful to the grandiose nature of the ancient myth.

Continue without accepting

We respect your privacy

With your consent, we use cookies or similar technologies to store and access personal information such as your visit to this website. You can withdraw your consent or object to processin based on legitimate interest at any time by cliking on "Find out more" or in your privacy policy on this website.

Welcome to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées website

The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and its partners set cookies and use non-sensitive information from your device to improve our products and display personalized advertising and content. You can accept or refuse these different operations. To find out more about cookies, the data we use, the processing operations we carry out and the partners with whom we work, you can consult our cookies dedicated page.