Search - Jean-Philippe Rameau, William Christie, Les Arts Florissants :: Rameau - Castor & Pollux

Castor et Pollux ranks high in Rameau's output, the product of consolidated artistic successes he had with Hippolyte et Aricie and other lighter, more-dance oriented works. It was one of the first Rameau operas recorded complete in a set by Nikolaus Harnoncourt that was sometimes so rough, it left aural splinters. This recording by Les Arts Florissants perhaps goes too far in the other direction: its suaveness sometimes threatens to negate the drama in this story of a man who rescues his slain brother in the underworld amid the usual romantic conflicts. The cast catches a number of early-music notables at the beginning of their careers, including Howard Crook, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, and Mark Padmore. Indeed, when this set was first issued in 1993, one never imagined that it would come to be regarded as something close to a dream cast. --David Patrick Stearns