Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, perhaps his greatest opera, was the single work for which he was most esteemed in his lifetime. The Opera Company and The Rameau Project are joining forces to give the professional UK premiere of the sumptuous original 1737 version of this masterpiece in a brand new edition by conductor and Rameau specialist Jonathan Williams.
Poster designed by Guido Martin-Brandis
Opera Now article, May 2022
introduction
This ambitious project brought to life Rameau’s magnificent third opera, Castor et Pollux in its revolutionary 1737 version, and offered British audiences a rare opportunity to hear this opera with internationally acclaimed performing forces.
The libretto, written by soldier-turned-poet Pierre-Joseph Bernard, is one of the finest that Rameau set. It tells how Jupiter rewards the twin brothers with immortality by transforming them into twin stars destined to be an eternal and shining example of filial love. Inspiring Rameau to some of his finest music, Castor et Pollux was rightly hailed as his ‘crowning achievement’.
Articles on Rameau and Castor et Pollux written by Guido Martin-Brandis and Jonathan Williams were featured in Opera Now magazine and Ox magazine in May 2022, which go into depth about the particularly challenging and rewarding process of staging a work by Rameau. You can read Guido’s programme notes, an expanded version of the article here.
Cast and creative team
Conductor: Jonathan Williams
Director: Guido Martin-Brandis
Castor: Rory Carver / Xavier Hetherington
Pollux: Jack Lawrence-Jones
Phebe: Galina Averina
Telaire: Hilary Cronin
Cupid: Harry Grigg
Venus/Ombre/Suivant: Jenni Harper
Minerva: Emily Gray
““Jonathan Williams... led his forces with an interpretation of captivating vigour and charm
Guido Martin-Brandis took a simple and sincere approach to the drama and relationships... economically and eloquently traced
Joyful and touching.””
““As a staged production of the opera, Guido Martin-Brandis’s direction... bringing characterisation and choreography that was subtle and evoked something of the authentic nature of stagecraft in Rameau’s day.””
Hilary Cronin as Telaire
History of the Project
Castor et Pollux: Rising Stars is a three year project exploring Rameau's Castor et Pollux, providing opportunities for the finest young voices in Britain to be trained in the authentic Rameau style, and culminated in the UK professional premiere of the 1737 version of the opera. A further aim is to fully stage the opera in the coming years.
Jack Lawrence-Jones as Pollux
In Autumn 2020 at the historic Beckington Abbey and Heath Street Baptist Church we offered a delicious "taster" menu of arias and dances from the full opera, as part of the Baroquestock Festival 2020, which was rapturously received. Rameau's music, endlessly inventive and fresh, was performed by a corona-safe band. They were joined by two singers, Hilary Cronin and Xavier Hetherington, singing some of Rameau's most inspired lyric creations.
In December 2021 we performed the devised music-theatre piece Rameau’s Roots, about Rameau’s early life in the travelling theatre, featuring music from Act II and Act V of the opera. The show received a ★★★★★ review in Opera Now Magazine (“I can’t imagine anything more happiness enhancing… a transporting little delight”). Read more and see pictures here.
Then in May and June 2022, the pandemic behind us, we performed the opera semi-staged at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford and at the Stour Music festival, garnering excellent reviews and extremely enthusiastic audience responses.
The production was filmed and was available to stream from on the Oxford University Torch website.
The Rising Stars program will continue on to future Rameau projects, and has already lead to a production of Rameau’s Pygmalion and Nelée et Myrthis at the Theatre Basse Passiere. Follow us on instagram for updates and the latest news.
past performances
September 20th 2020, A taste of Castor et Pollux, Beckington Abbey
October 3rd 2020, A taste of Castor et Pollux, Heath Street Baptist Church
December 8th 2021, Rameau’s Roots, Heath Street Baptist Church, staged
May 15th 2022, Castor et Pollux, Sheldonian Theatre Oxford, Semi-staged
June 18th 2022, Castor et Pollux, Stour Music Festival, Semi-staged
Videos and more information
Click below to hear Rameau’s music and find out more from our conductor and director.
“When all is said and done - the quality of the music, the quality of the voices (and that really was something) - what marked this production was the pacing of the accompanied recit. So often this drags along and stage directors are confused by its apparent lack of drama. Here, it was dynamic, breathing forwards and backwards with the natural drama of the text and as a result, the whole thing made was ‘alive’.”
Our Mission
To bring this masterpiece to the British public, in a respectful, reverent, beautiful production, with the highest possible musical standards.
To train the best young singers and instrumentalists in the UK to sing and play this unusual repertoire, and in so doing, develop a group of world class British “Ramistes” who understand the style and can perform in this repertoire, which is growing in popularity internationally.
To create the first modern critical edition of Rameau’s original 1737 version of the work.
To encourage and enable more performances of Rameau’s operas in the UK.
—————Rameau’s Rising Stars————-
ABOUT The OPERA COMPANY
Founded by director Guido Martin-Brandis in 2017, The Opera Company produces innovative new productions of the greatest works in the repertoire and exciting new pieces that explore the frontiers of what opera can do. With a passionate belief in strong story telling as the foundation of great drama, The Opera Company combines beautiful visuals, subtle acting, detailed interpretation, and superlative singing and music making, to bring music and stage together into a moving whole. Recent Productions include The Cunning Little Vixen, and Onegin and Tatiana, for Grimeborn Operea Festival, at the Arcola Theatre.
““Precisely what Grimeborn does well, a serious, original idea done to the highest standards.””
““A Vixen of Vivid intensity. Guido Martin-Brandis’s new production... gets to the heart of the matter. Martin-Brandis provides a piano quintet arrangement so skilful that you forget about what’s missing.””
About The Rameau Project
Founded and directed by Jonathan Williams, The Rameau Project is a major multidisciplinary research project devoted to the operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). The Project began in November 2012 when the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Jonathan gave the première of his Bärenreiter edition of Rameau’s Anacréon (1754).
From this auspicious start has grown a collaboration which has so far given rise to two conferences, the first UK studio recording of a Rameau opera since 1980, numerous radio broadcasts, dance workshops in the UK and Paris, and the performance with eighteenth-century choreography of three Rameau operas at London’s South Bank, all with Jonathan and the OAE. Jonathan has subsequently run Rameau workshops for postgraduate HIP students at RAM and with gifted musicians on the OAE Experience Scheme. Most recently, Jonathan has conducted fully staged productions of Les fêtes d’Hébé at the Opéra de Bastille and the Royal College of Music and Dardanus with English Touring Opera.
“Wonderfully idiomatic conducting from Williams”
““Williams, who knew the score backwards, and whose skill at releasing its energy, caprice, novelty and depth, was the best of all the pleasures of the evening.””
About the Rameau Project Orchestra
The Rameau Project Orchestra has a mission to bring Rameau’s operas to the British public. Lead by Sarah Bealby-Wright, this internationally acclaimed group of baroque specialists with an expertise in French baroque music, it will bring Rameau’s Castor et Pollux to life in the 2021-22 season.
Castor and Pollux, Filippo Tagliolini, c.1790