Platée

745: Louis XV marries his son, the Dauphin Louis, with the Infanta of Spain Maria Theresa. For the festivities of these royal weddings, a new work commissioned from Rameau was performed in the Grande Écurie de Versailles, transformed into a temporary theater: the Lyric comedy Platée. This grand opera-jester, in which the gods play with a frog into believing that it is loved by Jupiter, is undoubtedly the most extraordinary musical comedy of the 18th century.^E French century — even if the viewers of the premiere thought they recognized the ugly little Spanish princess in the croaking heroine!

This exceptional score features inventive and unexpected rhythms, carried by a dazzling orchestra. She gives La Folie her share of Italian virtuosity, while the title role composes a unique character in the lyrical story. The latter is entrusted to a high-versus tenor who must be ready to embody... a frog, queen of the swamps.

The infernal trio Niquet, Shirley and Dino, after avenging Purcell in King Arthur and rejuvenated Boismortier thanks to Don Quixote, now put on your boots to go down into the swamp of Platée, and deliver his version as crazy as it is “historically informed”, as it should be!

Co-production Opéra Royal/Palace of Versailles Spectacles, Opéra national du Capitole — Toulouse Métropole — Reprise.

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Hilarious production
In a completely different register, the Platée (from 13 to 19 April), entrusted to the amazing trio Hervé Niquet, Shirley and Dino, was another remarkable show of the last seasons. Originally scheduled to be created in spring 2020, postponed for two years due to Covid, this hilarious and colorful production, a happy marriage between the bittersweet fantasy of a Rameau and the uninhibited eccentricity of the comic duo (who none the less know all the tricks of the trade) made the heyday of the Toulouse Capitol as well as the Royal Opera. She too is making a comeback, with a large part of the cast that made her success: The Unpayable Platée on Stilettos by Mathias Vidal, La Folie Punk en Diable by Marie Perbost or even La Junon iconoclaste by Marie-Laure Garnier.

Le Figaro, September 13, 2025