Rameau | Platée

1745: Louis XV marries his son, the Dauphin Louis, to the Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain. For the royal wedding festivities, a new work commissioned from Rameau was performed in the Grande Écurie at Versailles, which had been transformed into a temporary theater: the lyric comedy Platée. This grand comic opera, in which the gods trick a frog into believing she is loved by Jupiter, is undoubtedly the most extraordinary musical comedy of the 18th century.^T he French century—even if the premiere audience 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. It gives La Folie her share of Italian virtuosity, while the title role creates a unique character in the history of opera. The latter is entrusted to a high-tenor who must be ready to embody... a frog, queen of the swamps.

The infernal trio of Niquet, Shirley, and Dino, after avenging Purcell in King Arthur and rejuvenating Boismortier with Don Quixote, are now putting on their boots to head down into the swamp of Platée, delivering a version as crazy as it is “historically informed”—just as it should be!

Co-production Opéra Royal/Château de Versailles Spectacles, Opéra national du Capitole — Toulouse Métropole — Revival.

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Hilarious production
In a completely different register, Platée (from April 13 to 19), entrusted to the amazing trio of Hervé Niquet, Shirley, and Dino, was another remarkable show from recent seasons. Originally scheduled to premiere in the spring of 2020 and postponed for two years due to Covid, this hilarious and colorful production—a happy marriage between the bittersweet fantasy of Rameau and the uninhibited eccentricity of the comic duo (who nonetheless know all the tricks of the trade)—was a smash hit at the Toulouse Capitole as well as the Royal Opera. It is now making a comeback, with much of the cast that made it a success: the priceless Platée in stilettos by Mathias Vidal, the devilishly punk La Folie by Marie Perbost, and the iconoclastic La Junon by Marie-Laure Garnier.

Le Figaro, September 13, 2025