Warsaw Chamber Opera (Warszawska Opera Kameralna) - Dardanus / Pygmalion - 19 November 2017
After the great success of Armide I was interested to attend this performance of mainly dance sequences or interludes from the Rameau operas Dardanus and Pygmalion. This would be an all Polish rather than co-production. Romana Angel,t he distinguished dancer, choreographer and founder of the famous Cracovia Danza , the only professional Court Ballet in Poland, was the Director and choreographer of the production. The Australian conductor Benjamin Bayle directed Musicae Antiquae Collegium Vasoviense. Marlena Skoneczko designed the flowing rather Boucher-style costumes. The librettist of Rameau's third tragedie en musique was Le Clerc de la Bruère who was a dilettantish young nobleman of twenty-three who among his country pursuits of hunting and riding, indulged literary activities. He died of smallpox in 1754 in Rome at the age of thirty-eight. We were not presented with the entire opera (the plot has definite limitations and has rather senseless infantile aspects) bu