Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra & State Opera Choir

The French Baroque opera Hippolyte et Aricie carries its audience away into a world of wonder with magnificent dance and choir scenes and an astonishing variety of musical forms.

Jean-Philippe Rameau, a French contemporary of Bach and Handel, revolutionised the music of his time with radically novel, sometimes dissonant harmonics, extraordinarily colourful and complex orchestral movements, diverse rhythms and dramatic intensity.

Ólafur Elíasson, who created the set design for the opera Phaedra and the ballet Tree of Codes, is responsible for the set and costume design. In his art, he deconstructs natural phenomena and reimagines them with the use of colour, light, reflections and motion. Elíasson never approaches a work of art as an autonomous entity, but instead seeks to engage in a mutual dialogue with the audience.