Agonizingly slow plots aren‘t that unusual for Baroque or early Rokoko opera. (One reason why Lorenzo da Ponte was such an innovative libretto writer was that he used comedia de‘ll arte as a pattern for opera plots instead, and that means there‘s actually lots of witty banter and action going on.) However, while I‘m not familiar with the opera as such, the plot sounds incredibly mean spirited and also tactless as hell, given not who gets married to whom. It‘s not just that the Infanta according to her own entry is looked down on for her red hair, looks wise. It‘s that this marriage is supposed to reconcile the Spanish Bourbon cousins after teenage Louis XV had insulted them mightily years earlier when sending the Infanta‘s older sister, aka his first wife, the adorable moppet, Rokoko edition, back. Him marrying his son to Philippe the Frog‘s younger daughter is supposed to make up for that. So an opera where Jupiter just fakes being in love with an ugly nymph, what the hell?
However. According to wiki, the guy in charge of the wedding festivities was none other than the Cardinal de Rohan. Aka the guy who in the early 1770s as ambassador to Vienna incurred MT‘s intense dislike, since despite being a prince of the church he made no secret of his affairs, and then Marie Antoinette loathed him as well, and then later he was vain enough to get conned by Jeanne de la Motte in the infamous Diamond Necklace affair. (Reminder, de la Motte made him believe MA would be be into him if he bought the necklace for her in secret, faked some love letters from the Queen, arranged for a prostitute doppelganger to meet Rohan in the night in the park, got the necklace, and then Rohan, being very surprised MA still ignored him in public in Versailles, demanded the goods, so to speak, whereupon the whole thing exploded into the big scandal which ruined MA‘s reputation for good when she really had not been at fault.) Basically: Rohan was a jerk, and I‘m completely willing to believe he‘d order such an opera and consider it funny.
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Re: Platée
Date: 2024-04-04 03:10 pm (UTC)However. According to wiki, the guy in charge of the wedding festivities was none other than the Cardinal de Rohan. Aka the guy who in the early 1770s as ambassador to Vienna incurred MT‘s intense dislike, since despite being a prince of the church he made no secret of his affairs, and then Marie Antoinette loathed him as well, and then later he was vain enough to get conned by Jeanne de la Motte in the infamous Diamond Necklace affair. (Reminder, de la Motte made him believe MA would be be into him if he bought the necklace for her in secret, faked some love letters from the Queen, arranged for a prostitute doppelganger to meet Rohan in the night in the park, got the necklace, and then Rohan, being very surprised MA still ignored him in public in Versailles, demanded the goods, so to speak, whereupon the whole thing exploded into the big scandal which ruined MA‘s reputation for good when she really had not been at fault.) Basically: Rohan was a jerk, and I‘m completely willing to believe he‘d order such an opera and consider it funny.