Early Opera Company

One of the UK’s most exciting Baroque ensembles returns to the splendour of Middle Temple Hall for a feast of French baroque music, bringing with them a superb cast. Jean-Philippe Rameau described music as ‘the language of the heart’. His sudden and unexpected entrance into the world of theatre at the age of 50 revolutionised French baroque opera. Rameau’s operas raised the artform to a new level with their sumptuousness, drama, impressive and unforgettable musical vistas and choral tableaus. Fifteen years on, he wrote his hugely popular, one-act masterpiece, Pygmalion. The story is based on the myth of Pygmalion as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses - in which a sculptor falls in love with his own statue of a woman... The concert opens with a suite of ravishing instrumental music from Rameau’s lyric tragedy, Les Boréades – the composer’s last work. Early Opera Company Conductor - Christian Curnyn Pygmalion - Samuel Boden L’Amour - Rachel Redmond Céphise - Jessica Cale Statue - Lauren Lodge-Campbell