Alphise Barbara Bonney Semire/Amour/Polymnie Heidi Grant Murphy Abaris Charles Workman Calisis Jeffrey Francis Borilee Russell Braun Boree David Wilson-Johnson Adamas/Apollo Lorenzo Ragazzo Pleasures and Graces, Priests of Apollo, People of Bactria, Seasons, Muses, Zephyrs, Hours, Arts, Winds and attendants of Boreas Conductor Simon Rattle European Voices Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment Les Boreades is roughly Zoroastre with wind as the emblem of the bad guys instead of fire as the emblem of the good guys. Although it was Rameau's last work (which gets it into this year's Proms), he worked on it for the final fifteen years of his life and it's partly the recombinant mixture as before. The blustery bad guys, helped by sweeping winds in the orchestra and a proper wind machine and thunder, kidnap the queen of Bactria, who wants to marry Abaris, a beloved stranger instead of a descendant of the North Wind, as she's supposed to. Amour gives Abaris a silver arrow, he charms and calms the winds, and turns out to be Apollo's son by a nymph descended from Boreas, which makes him both cool with convention and enlightened. There are dances during the hunt with which the action begins, at court before the presumed wedding of Alphise and one of the Boreads, during a show in the second part of act four (because you have to have one, but it's an allegory of Zephyrs and Arts, that is, civilized winds), and at the end for the marriage of Alphise and Abaris. And there's a cracking musical storm. But innovation is business as usual for Rameau. There's a lot that looks forward to Gluck, in the through-composed ariosos, but also in the sense of pain that underlies what looks like a fluffy decorative plot. It's not so far from Iphegenia in Tauris, with a civilized queen struggling against primal forces in nature and in humanity. And in a way it's more radical, since it takes on the question of class and the relationship between power and marriage: the Boreades are regarded as the natural rulers in Bactria, but they are by definition violent, and we see Alphise's dynastic marriage as an outrage from the start. In this production, from Salzburg, she doesn't want Abaris once she learns that he is also a Boreade. This is perhaps justified by the low key music at the end -- a very quiet duet and a gentle, moralizing aria by Abaris -- but it is also consistent with the persistent worry that being a Boreade is inherenently to be violent. I hadn't realised that Simon Rattle has been guesting with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment since 1992. They are, strikingly, about as good as their conductor, and tonight they delivered snapping, cracking winds, a brutal bouree for the abduction of Eilithyia in a ballet, and graceful airs. They didn't quite have the electricity which could have made the performance truly disturbing, but they and Rattle found all the strange shapes in the music. The singers were mainly from the Salzburg production, and they worked well together. Barbara Bonney was a corporate vice-president of a queen, with a glamourous and expressive tone but no obvious sense of joy or despair. Heidi Grant Murphy looked French, and sang in a perfect French style in her various roles. Charles Workman wasn't always completely secure vocally, but he was fine as an insecure hero discovering courage. The semi-staged version of the production had a raised stage on the main platform, with the orchestra in front. The production began with Grant Murphy Lorenzo Regazzo as Apollo and David Wilson-Johnson as Boreas in the organist's seat, playing chess (reflected in the organ mirror) and drinking champagne. They seemed to be having a great time. Regazzo swaggered down onto the stage and donned shades to appear as Adamas. He was a semi-comic god who you wouldn't really trust to civilize the winds, and his singing was fine but not particularly memorable. Wilson-Johnson was having a rough night vocally, though not having a chance to warm up before his first music in act five can't have helped. He was sinisterly blustery in a nasty childish sort of way. When he tried to make the wind machine work, it was petulance rather than an interest in toys, which is why most people try out wind machines. Jeffry Francis and Russell Braun were funny, stupid and wonderfully theatrical as the Boread suitors. The chorus, European Voices, founded by Simon Halsey from Birmingham, Rattle's old patch, were excellent. They filled all of the necessary roles with a minimum of equipment (masks, party hats) and a lot of vocal skill. Rameau wrote one or two more operas. Let's have a Rameau night every year at the Proms.