“A nymph reigning over a watery empire” or an “absurd Naiad”? Who exactly is Rameau’s strange creature sung by a countertenor and who shatters the conventions of opera? The ugly and conceited frog Platée is the victim of a machination of the gods who make her believe that she is loved by Jupiter. In this opera, composed to mark the marriage of the Dauphin Louis, son of Louis XV, to the notoriously unbecoming Princess Maria Teresa of Spain, Jean‑Philippe Rameau turns irony into the principal weapon of his score.

This cruel yet moving farce returns to the stage of the Opera in a delightfully whimsical production by Laurent Pelly.