Tragicomic Farces

Garsington stages its first production of Rameau's Platée while Bryn Terfel takes the title roles in Grange Park Opera's Rachmaninov/Puccini bill

Marshware: Samuel Boden (Platée) dresssed for the pool with inflatable peacock. Picture © Julian Guidera

The country house opera season is upon us. Glyndebourne, the 90-year-old kid on the block, opened a month ago - unadventurously, with a generic updated production of Carmen of the kind you could see at any medium-scale opera house (the only ‘festival’ element was supplied by Robin Ticciati’s sensual and colourful conducting of the London Philharmonic). The Johnny-come-lately wannabes, Garsington and Grange Park Operas, followed with far more interesting choices: Rameau’s Platée (Garsington at Wormsley) and an ingenious double-bill of Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, with Bryn Terfel starring in both title roles (GPO at West Horsley Place).

Rameau was a bold choice for Garsington: Platée hasn’t had a professional UK production since the Royal Opera’s in 1997, with the unforgettable Jean-Paul Fouchécourt in the title role. This curious entertainment - written to celebrate the marriage of Louis XV’s Dauphin to Maria Teresa Rafaella of Spain in 1748 - is a problematic rarity for all sorts of reasons. And yet, despite its unflattering tale of a marsh nymph who deludes herself into thinking Jupiter plans to marry her, it was a success at the French court. Rameau revised and revived his comedy twice before the end of his life in 1764.