Rameau: Zoroastre on Blu-ray
2006(LI) - Christopher Rousset - Les Talens Lyriques + The Drottningholm Theatre Orchestra and Chorus + Jennie Lindstrom and the Drottningholm Theatre Dancers
Zoroastre - Anders J. Dahlin
Abramane - Evgueniy Alexiev
Amélite - Sine Bundgaard
Erinice - Anna Maria Panzarella
Zopire/La Vengeance - Lars Arvidson
Narbanor - Markus Schwartz
Oromasès/Ariman - Gérard Théruel
Céphie - Ditte Andersen
This is Rameau's The Magic Flute. We encounter the same Sarastro a.k.a. Zarathustra a.k.a. Zorastre, fighting evil and darkness as a Freemason. Instead of a magic flute, we have a magic book, and plenty of black magic, with the inevitable triumph of goodness at the end, through the intervention of a Deus Ex-Machina. There is no Queen of the Night, but rather her male counterpart, Abramane.
The goodies are Zoroastre and his love interest Amélite, who is abused and tortured and emprisoned and threatened with various deadly blades throughout the opera, all resulting in numerous opportunities to display her gorgeous cleavage and beautiful little breasts (no nudity, just the top part above the nipples), just as much as her sidekick Céphie, equally well served in the mammary gland department.
The baddies are Abramane and Erinice (nice boobs too), plus a few minions and a cohort of yummy women who act like zombies.
Yummy dancers intervene at various moments, with a weird choreography that seems to be a mix of martial arts with sign language for the deaf.
Camera work includes a very convenient viewpoint from the roof of the theater, which is very instrumental when looking down the cleavage of the various yummy women.
Alma's Boob-O-Meter was blinking and beeping throughout the evening!
The plot is silly, very black and white; black being the baddies, and white being the goodies (I mean, literally; they dress like this as well, I guess the producer thought we the naïve public would have trouble telling the goodies from the baddies if they didn't dress like this
). It is rather slow, and various lead changes occur - the baddies have the upper hand, then the goodies, then the baddies, then the goodies, then the baddies, then the goodies. And have I mentioned that it is all very sloooooooow? (Running time, almost three hours).
So, dreadful, right? No, not really. Rather interesting and enticing - not to forget the gorgeous boobs. The music is very beautiful. The singing is exquisite by almost everybody except maybe the title role who sounds less enthusiastic, sort of business as usual, a pity - good voice but he doesn't seem to be as into it as the other singers. The two female leads have the best singing moments.
The period orchestra does very well, and the staging is very interesting. It's done in one of the last few preserved baroque theathers, and apparently the only one that has all the old machinery intact, with amazingly fast and swift scene changes.
It's staged the way it must have been done at the time of Rameau, minus the weird martial arts and sign language choreography (which I bet wasn't the way the ballets were done - why do everything "period," but pick such a misplaced choreography???).
Technical quality is perfect with spectacular sound and HD image, excellent extras and multiple features/subtitles.
Overall, highly recommended, but you gotta be in the mood for slow baroque opera. If you like boobs, it helps.