Opera Scotland

Zoroastre 2001Les Arts Florissants

Read more about the opera Zoroastre

Too many years had passed since the first visit of Les Arts Florissants to Edinburgh, when the Rameau piece had been rather outshone by Charpentier's Actéon. Zoroastre proved to be a wonderful opera, full of grand effects and clearly the work of a master. This was a highly memorable concert performance of a great rarity. The works of Rameau are still almost unknown in performance in Scotland. The cast were doing a series of performances around Europe, with a recording to follow a week later, and the singers were all well inside their roles, happily creating characters even within the limits of a concert stage. As expected, William Christie drew beautiful sounds from his band of specialists.

Mark Padmore was superbly confident in the high-lying title role, and Anna Maria Panzarella was particularly striking as Érinice. However there was no weakness in any part of this delightful event, with Gaëlle Méchaly and Nathan Berg being real creatures of the stage..