Five key facts about a work being performed this month (Choice 20)
Composed by Rameau in just eight days,
Pigmalion is a one-act opera in a form known as acte de ballet which includes songs, duets, choruses and pageant-style dance episodes. Becoming popular in the later part of the Louis XV’S reign, these brief operas were ideal for summer performances. Pigmalion received its first performance in August 1748 in Paris, becoming one of Rameau’s bestloved works. Although many of these small operas were incorporated into larger works,
Pigmalion remained a one-act masterpiece.
The opera has a libretto by Sylvain Ballot de Sauvot and is based on the myth of Pygmalion from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The opera’s libretto revolves around the sculptor Pigmalion who creates a beautiful statue and falls in love with it. Despite his girlfriend Céphise’s pleas for attention, he asks the goddess Venus to make his statue into a real person. After a touch of divine intervention, the statue springs to life and Cupid drops in to join the celebrations.
The title character is written for the
haute-contre voice, a type of high tenor that featured in French opera until the later part of the 18th century. Lully wrote for this voice type too, as did the composer Charpentier who was himself a haute-contre.
The statue’s transformation into human form is a wonderful opportunity for a ballet sequence, as she tries out her first steps before mastering a range of dance moves.
Pigmalion has undergone a resurgence in recordings in recent years, with a notable release by Les Arts Florissants under William Christie in 1992 on Harmonia Mundi. Soprano Carolyn Sampson sings Pigmalion’s aria
‘Du pouvoir de l’amour’ on her Hyperion collection of love songs from Rameau’s operas (Hyperion CDA68035).