Les Arts Florissants

It’s the Opera Comique for the venue of this week’s work by Jean-Paul Rameau: “Les Fetes d’Hebe” (“The Festivals of Hebe or The Lyric Talents) on the Sunday Opera (7/20 3:00 p.m.). The performance features a cast of nine lead by Wiliam Christie and the Orchestra and Chorus of Les Arts Florissants. True to most Baroque operas, the work consists of a prologue and three acts, and since this is Rameau, it’s one of his opera-ballets, filled with some of his lovely charming music.

We're heading off to the Paris Opera for Marc Antoine Charpentier's tragic revenge opera "Medee" featuring Lea Desandre in the title role. We'll follow the opera with the ballet suite "The Sea" by Nikos Skalkottas.

This week's opera is one of the finest representatives of French Baroque, Charpentier's "Medee" with a stellar cast headed by Lorraine Hunt and Mark Padmore. The recording is from 1994 & 1995.

This week's opera is a spirited performance of Rameau's first "ballet-opera" looking at love conquering various obstacles.