Music of the marsh

Young Chang

Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Platee” may musically be of the Bach and

Handel school, but it doesn’t have a noble sound, said Philharmonia

Baroque Orchestra conductor Nicholas McGegan.

And the story line? Well, the comic opera’s plot is not the classic

tale of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl. Jupiter woos

Platee -- an ugly swamp thing -- just to make his wife Junon jealous.

When Junon reveals Platee’s ugliness during a mock marriage, everyone

ridicules the vain yet unfortunate creature and Platee drags herself back

to the swamp devastated.

Throw into the marsh designer Isaac Mizrahi’s bejeweled costumes, some

modernized classic dance and a cast of frolicking frogs, snakes and other

bog dwellers, and the result -- which will open the six-week Eclectic

Orange Festival tonight -- is just zany.

“It’s certainly very witty,” McGegan said. “And it’s very funny. I

don’t know that there are any particular challenges that are different

from any other opera, except, of course, all the time I’m laughing very

hard.”

Mark Morris, director of the New York-based Mark Morris Dance Group,

originally staged the rare Rameau piece for London’s Royal Opera of

Covent Garden, which premiered the production at the Edinburgh Festival

in 1997. The current cast includes tenor Philip Salmon, baritone Bernard

Deletre, baritone Marcos Pujol, mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips and soprano

Lisa Saffer.

Assistant director Susan Hadley helped choreograph the show, which

will be staged at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“I think the wonderful thing for me, having come out of the field of

dance, is to work with singers and to coach them to move,” she said. “And

probably to move more than they have to in most operas . . . to figure

out ways for singers to animate their bodies.”

The dancing is more contemporary than the baroque style done in the

1745 version staged by Rameau -- as is the haute-couture costuming -- but

Morris’ interpretation is still true to the original vision, McGegan

said.

“There are a lot of animals in the production,” he added. “Dancers

pretending to be animals. What [Morris] has done in a case like that is

he doesn’t say this animal is a turtle. He decides it’s a turtle. The

original still has a turtle, so he hasn’t taken something and just sort

of completely changed everything.”

The same can be said of the score. Not one note has been changed,

McGegan said. Other than the fact that the orchestra won’t play the

overture twice, Rameau’s music stays intact.

McGegan is no newcomer to the piece, as he also conducted during the

Edinburgh premiere four years ago.

“I love doing this piece,” the Berkeley resident said. “And I don’t

get to sit down, but I get the best view from the house.”

FYI

WHAT: “Platee”

WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Saturday. Preview lecture with McGegan will

begin at 7 p.m. each night.

WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

COST: $34-$89

CALL: (949) 553-2422