Zoroastre (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

Drottningholm and Rameau go very well together

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 11 April 2013]

There may be an overuse of shaky overhead shots when arguably there didn't need to be any in the first place, and while the choreography is much more thoughtful and comfortable-looking than that of the Castor Et Pollux production also on DVD not all of it seemed relevant to the drama.

However, this is a fine production from Drottningholm, and one of the better Rameau performances overall on the Rameau Opera Boxed Set available. The production values are faithful in look to its period setting, and even the smallest of details are paid very close attention to. The costumes and sets look beautiful and the lighting likewise. The staging is thoughtful and draws you in, the Black Mass sequence is genuinely chilling, and so does most of the camera work. The orchestra are outstanding(helped by the resonance of the sound quality), playing stylishly and with firm but always pleasant tone, and Christophe Roussert's conducting(one of the highlights of the Castor Et Pollux DVD) shows a highly musical and involved conductor with an evident love of the score, very like William Christie actually.

And the performances are top-drawer, with top marks going to Anna Maria Panzarella, who sings with command and relish and makes a highly emotionally complex role(from glee and hate to pathos and love) always thrilling to watch. Sine Bundgaard has a somewhat nervous start but very quickly improves into a performance that is really quite moving and attractively sung. Anders J Dahlin's tenor voice shows a flute-like beauty and flexibility and he personifies good nobility. Evgueniy Alexiev seems to be enjoying himself as Abramane and his more robust voice is actually very well suited for the role. The imposing Lars Arvidson, possessing a rich but period-appropriate bass voice, takes on two roles and does so with intelligence and foreboding.

Overall, a fine performance of Zoroastre apart from the overhead shots and some choreography. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Slighthly too black and white

[Dr_Coulardeau · 10/10 · 24 February 2021]

This opera is a real surprise. For one, there is not too much dancing. The plot and the text are essential. The few dancing scenes have few dancers and some of these scenes with the choir on the stage turn all the people there into the performers of some kind of easy physical demonstration that is essentially waving hands, some arm movements and slow evolution, marching on the stage. On the other hand, there are several storms, earthquakes, and supernatural interventions of demons from hell. These are rendered with the soundtrack added to the music and some lights. One of these episodes is entirely densified with some red light that only touches the edges of the actors, all in black, giving a ghostlike, or demon-like if you prefer, atmosphere. Very little mechanical effects or other technical interventions. The whole opera tries to be as realistic and moderate as possible as for special effects. That is good because this opera is definitely not in line with the famous love ballet-operas Rameau is celebrated for.

The plot smells and feels as if it were giving us a preview of some revolutionary crisis in Europe, or anywhere else you may like. One woman, Érinice, who loves Zoroastre but is rejected by him because he loves Amélite, decides to get into an alliance with Abramane, a man she does not love at all, but she intends to use him for her vengeance and to get her on the throne that normally should go to Amélite. Note, and it is not the first time, Rameau states a situation where a woman is a legitimate heir to the throne, whereas in France it was impossible because of a Salic tradition that prefers male successors. This opera is a horrible drama of jealousy and spite. Some people cannot admit they may not get what they want, and when love is the prize, they may not get who they want. Then they become vengeful and their only objective is to destroy the people they want, and those do not want them. This couple, reinforced by some supernatural demons are absolutely frightening, not so much in their make-up as in what they say. A simple direct language that tells everyone what they are going to do, what is coming to this world when an alliance against the rightful leaders of a country decides to use all powers, and particularly the power of a mob of violent criminals who only find their pleasure in harming and destroying other people to endanger, dethrone if necessary, execute and assassinate all those who may resist them, with only one objective to seize power and crush down any opponent. This is a conception of history and politics which always has some support in any society because in any society there are a fringe of discontented people who are ready to turn violent and destructive. Sigmund Freud in a pamphlet published before the arrival of Hitler, "Civilization and Its Discontents," that was written in 1929 and first published in German in 1930 as "Das Unbehagen in der Kultur," shows how in our modern societies all sorts of discontented people can join forces in order to destabilize and bring down any legitimate and duly elected government or social order. They do not have all the same discontentment, or the same vision of life, religion, political affiliation, or culture. It does not matter. They ask for a referendum on anything whatsoever, knowing that the discontents plus those who are really against the question asked in the referendum will be a majority and will bring the referendum down. It worked perfectly well in Italy. It worked perfectly well in Great Britain with Brexit. It worked perfectly well in 2016 in the USA with Trump. Then it is extremely difficult to reverse the situation such movements create.

The stage director and set-and-costume designer are of course totally responsible for this vision. They chose to oppose the two camps, love and hate if you want, in colors, white for love with now and then some diffused yellow light, and black for hate with now and then some diffused red light. This black and white opposition is too easy to be good because it carries too much innuendo, which is not always innuendo but often has a direct racist meaning. It is obviously difficult to choose one color for evil that would not be black and would not carry any innuendo. But with imagination, a set-and-costume designer should be able to find a proper color, since any color will contrast with white.

That very pessimistic vision announces in French society at the time some discontentment, some unrest, and it is not the Enlightenment, nor the Encyclopedia, nor even the intelligentsia, but the discontentment in France then comes from the countryside, essentially where the serfs want their freedom and their land, as well as in the cities, where all sorts of craftsmen and entrepreneurs want to get rid of corporations, guilds, and other feudal regulations. It actually will bring the monarchy down with an alliance between the Third Estate and minorities in the Second and First estates. But the peace process did not last long and soon the King made the mistake of trying to run away, and the French Revolution turned bloody.

Rameau of course manages a final turn in his dystopia, a turn that comes of course from the gods who kill the four plotters and enables the miracles of bringing all discontents back inline within a union of all the people under the sole banner of love. No demands, no reforms, no whatever a political crisis should bring, just the miraculous intervention of celestial supernatural beings to bring everyone back to love except of course the plotting leaders. That kind of Deus ex Machina has been systematically used since Molière used it in his anti-bigotry play, Tartuffe. In this case, it is the first time in the operas I am watching right now that such a device is used to solve a political rebellion or insurrection. In other operas, it generally is only to solve a love problem. In this case, the love problem is really secondary.

That makes me say - a second time - that Rameau is closer to Beaumarchais than we would think at first. There is in some of his operas some political innuendo about the end of a regime that does not listen to its people. The end is always bad, though Rameau always manages to bring it to a final concluding sequence of love and peace. We could say Rameau is a Hippy Beaumarchais. For Beaumarchais, the privileged have to accept not to take advantage of their privileges. The plot is Beaumarchais's key to reach that ending. Rameau prefers the supernatural dystopian utopia.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

Not Chariots of Fire

[Gyran · 1/10 · 13 June 2016]

I never buy a programme when I go to the theatre or the opera because I believe that, if you can't work out what a performance is about just by watching it, it can't be much of a performance. Fortunately I did read the synopsis of Zoroastre on Wikipedia before I watched it, otherwise I would not have the slightest idea what was going on.

Apparently Rameau's librettist Louis de Cahousac was a keen freemason and the opera is a thinly-disguised advertisement for freemasonry. In this respect it bears some similarity to Mozart's Magic Flute. In this production from the 18th century Drottningholm Theatre all the goodies wear white and all the baddies wear black rather in the manner of a western.

The plot, such as it is, pits the good magician Zoroastre and the Princess Amélite against the evil sorcerer Abramane and Amélite's scheming sister. The Wikipedia synopsis gives the impression that the opera is much more exciting than it really is, with Abramane whizzing around on his flaming chariot. The production does utilise Drottningholm's flying chair here but it is a rather creaky effect. Otherwise the production takes place on a bare stage.

Rameau's music, on the whole, is soporific. I quite enjoyed the duet at Zoroastre's and Amélite's wedding performed by Anders Dahlin and Sine Bundgaard but there are no big arias. As in most Rameau operas, there is a lot of dancing and Rameau seems to reserve his best music for these dances. He seems to be very unimaginative both musically and dramatically compared with, for example, his contemporary Handel.

This is a visually attractive staging, lit from above, emphasising the female singers' décolletage. So, on the whole, this production can only be recommended to dedicated titmen.